Three main purposes: Stabilization, Reform, Ethics & Integrity

Since 2001, three main World Bank units have focused on piloting leadership activities with the goals of: (1) stabilizing fragile states, (2) accelerating reforms, (3) exploring the role of ethics and integrity in development. These approaches have been successfully used, both independently and jointly in peer-to-peer support, mentoring, coaching, sharing international best practices, leadership and management process tools, conflict resolution, and coalition and consensus building. Examples of these approaches include:

1. Stabilizing fragile states: in 2002, the World Bank Post-Conflict Fund invested in the Burundi Leadership Training Program aimed at providing various leaders with leadership skills for country reconstruction. (Read a Summary Note written by the Fragile States Unit, or the article Burundi’s Transition, Training Leaders for Peace by Howard Wolpe and Steve McDonald, published in Journal of Democracy, January 2006.) (Read also the external evaluation conducted by Peter Uvin, the Burundi Leadership Training Program: a Prospective Assessment.)
   
2. Accelerating reforms: from 2003 to 2006, the World Bank has supported Madagascar leadership, focusing on the presidency and ministries. The WBI Capacity Development Leadership Program, and the Public Sector Reform & Capacity Building Unit of the Bank's Africa Region have provided capacity building support ranging from cabinet retreats to coaching through the  “Rapid Results Initiative”. A assessment of these experiences to raise leadership capital in Madagascar titled: A Leadership Approach to Achieving Change in the Public Sector, the Case of Madagascar by Guenter Heidenhof, Stefanie Teggemann and Cia Sjetnan, January 2007.
   
3. Supporting ethics and integrity in public service: in 2006, the World Bank Public Sector Governance Unit co-organized the World Ethics Forum held in Oxford with over 250 participants from over 70 countries in attendance. Listen to the Interview with Sanjay Pradhan (mp3 file- - 2.28 MB), describing leadership and integrity as the “missing link in governance work.”