Reflections by Ofovwe: On Leadership, Institutions, and the Work of Lasting Change
The debate about public sector reform in Africa tends to converge around a familiar question: what does it take to make a state capable of delivering for its citizens?
People tend to answer that question in one of two ways. Some argue it is fundamentally a leadership problem, find the right people, develop their talent and commitment, and better governance will follow. Others argue it is an institutional problem; fix the systems, the processes, the structures, and results will take care of themselves.
Through our work at the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, where we partner with governments and public institutions across Africa to strengthen public sector performance, we have come to believe that both perspectives are incomplete.
Capable institutions are built by capable leaders, but capable leaders can only achieve lasting impact when the institutions around them create the conditions for success.
Every day, talented public servants enter government with ideas, energy, and genuine commitment to improving the lives of citizens. And yet, good ideas do not automatically become results. What determines whether they do is institutional culture: whether initiative is encouraged or discouraged, whether collaboration is rewarded or resisted, whether people are trusted to solve problems or simply expected to follow processes, and whether the institution itself is capable of learning, adapting and improving over time.
This is why building state capability is ultimately both a leadership challenge and an institutional challenge, at the same time, not in sequence.
Developing great public leaders matters enormously, but if we train exceptional people and send them back into institutions that will not allow them to thrive, we have solved only half the problem. The other half is building organisations that can absorb, sustain and scale change long after individual leaders have moved on.
Institutional change is rarely fast. What drives it is the accumulation of small decisions, consistent actions and persistent leadership over time. It is the junior officer who pushes back, constructively, on a process that no longer makes sense. The team lead who creates space for her people to experiment and learn. The permanent secretary who models the transparency she is asking her ministry to adopt. Individually, none of these moments looks like transformation. Collectively, they are how governments change.
At the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, this is where we focus our energy, supporting public servants to make those incremental moves, because we know that over time, they add up to something real.
As we think about the future of development cooperation and public sector reform in Africa, I hope we hold both imperatives in view simultaneously. Invest in people, yes, but invest equally in the institutions within which those people work. Sustainable development requires leaders who are capable of driving change, and institutions that are capable of sustaining it.
One without the other is not enough.
Authors: Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede
