ELEVATING THE AFRICAN PUBLIC SECTOR - THE AIG-IMOUKHUEDE FOUNDATION WAY
And it was a wrap!
The 20th of March 2024 was the day we had all been awaiting with bated breath. It was the day that we, the Courageous Cohort 3 (CC3) of the AIG Public Leaders Programme (PLP), were graduating after six (6) months of extensive learning engagement with the programme faculty from the Blavatnik School of Government (BSG), University of Oxford.
Indeed, it was a long journey, which started when we all applied to be on the programme in March 2023. The application process was rigorous, to say the least. It had several stages: an aptitude test (can you imagine this for middle-aged men and women?), an essay (even worse), and a video interview. The entire process lasted several months, and it was no mean feat emerging therefrom as a member of the 3rd cohort of the AIG PLP in August 2023.
All the participants were onboarded on the BSG learning management platform, Insendi, and the first set of learning sessions commenced virtually on Monday, 9 October 2023. We had a full week of online learning with the BSG faculty, covering topical areas such as Integrity in Public Life, Governing in Times of Challenge and Change, Harnessing Digital Technologies, and Strengthening Public Institutions. We had numerous scenarios and cases which were actual real-life scenarios but with changes to the characters and places so as not to indict real people. These were eye-opening but not at all strange, going by what we have seen in the course of public service.
After the one-week virtual session, then came a full one-month period in which we had lessons and assignments on the learning platform. Each week had tasks which needed to be completed within a certain time period. It was quite exciting undertaking the tasks and assignments and collaborating with members of my group (by this time, we had been shared out into groups with a teaching assistant (TA) from the faculty to work with us). All these activities led to the one-week residential programme in Abuja from 13 – 17 November 2023. The residential programme brought together the entire
Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation and BSG teams and the 68 programme participants from all over Africa (yes, we had a participant from as far out as Kenya!) into one space, and the time spent together was most exhilarating. We had conversations with public sector figures, including serving Permanent Secretaries, a past DG of BPSR and the immediate past chair of the ICPC, which shed even more light on the urgency of the topics under consideration.
AIG PLP Courageous Cohort 3 with the Chairman, Executive Vice-Chair, Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation & BSG teams.
By the end of the residential programme, each participant was to undertake a capstone project which would be focused on solving a problem or bringing about an improvement in his/her organisation. The project should be able to take learnings from the programme, especially around the topical areas, to bring about transformation in our workplaces. The rest of the programme, i.e. November 2023 to March 2024, was for each participant to develop the capstone to the point where it could then be presented to the larger group at the final graduation ceremony in March 2024. Coming up with and developing the capstone project was quite a task for many of the participants, but with the guidance of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation and BSG teams, we pulled it through! At the end of the day, when the project summaries were read, I was impressed by the depth and breadth of intent displayed by each participant in the capstone projects.
And so, the entire 6-month learning experience was rounded up with yet another residential 3-day programme between 18 -20 March 2024. This time again, the
Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation pulled out all the stops to make it a memorable affair. The residential portion for all the BSG faculty and programme participants was excellence-par excellence! Great programme planning and execution to the last detail by the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation team.
On our part as participants, we seized the opportunity to honour and appreciate the Chairman and Executive Vice-Chair of the Foundation, the Foundation staff and the entire BSG team for their unwavering and dedicated commitment to public service reform in Nigeria and Africa. This was done at a dinner on the evening of 19 March, and I was so proud that we pulled it off as a cohort!
Honoring the Chairman and the Executive Vice-Chair of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation.
The final review of the top six (6) capstone projects on 20 March resembled a Dragon’s Den episode, but this time for public sector projects. The overall winning project got me to appreciate the hydra-headed nature of some of the problems that can only be solved by the Government in order to create safe learning spaces for our children. And the solution prescribed was scalable across, not only schools but also hospitals and public facilities in the states and at the Federal level. I can’t wait to see this project scale and make tremendous impact. The closing ceremony was a grand affair with the attendance of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Minister of State for Health, the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, who was also the keynote speaker, and past and present Permanent Secretaries. Also on the roll call were Directors of various departments across the Federal Civil Service.
By the end of the programme, it was clear that our journey through the hands of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation was only just beginning. We were handed over to the alumni coordinator, who made it clear that our work of transforming the public service was cut out for us. The alumni team would be on hand to provide every support required for our impact to be made and felt across our organisations and areas of service in the public sector. Our numbers swelled the ranks of the existing alumni, many of whom were present to welcome us and pledge their support to the mission of public sector transformation.
Without a doubt, the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation Way of Inspiring, Connecting and Transforming is bound to go a long way in transforming the Nigerian and African public service.
Written by Ayodele-Bamisaye Akintayo
Stakeholder Manager (Business Enterprise), Galaxy Backbone(AIG Public Leaders Programme Cohort 3 Alumni)