West African Projects Stewardship Leadership

Lead Organization:

Center for Creative Leadership

Partner Organizations:

The key project partners for this effort will include key staff from the Regional Team, representatives from the active CCRP/ CRFS West Africa Regional Teams/grantees including university researchers, smallholder farmers, agricultural cooperative representatives, students and National Research Institutes from the three countries, NGO's and CSOs development practitioners, farmer cooperatives and other community level representatives, Principal Investigators of the WAf CoP projects.

Community of Practice:

West Africa

Countries:

Burkina Faso

Duration:

4/2025—4/2027

Overview:

The McKnight Foundation and the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) collaborated on a 4-year initiative to develop leadership capabilities within the CRFS (former CCRP) West Africa Community of Practice (WAf CoP). This program aimed to enhance participants’ leadership and communication skills, cross-sectoral collaboration, and team effectiveness, with a special emphasis on gender equality and social identity. Recognizing the crucial role of women in agriculture, the initiative sought to increase women’s participation in leadership to leverage their unique perspectives for more sustainable decision making. CCL designed a multi country program following a discovery phase that included field visits to Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to gather insights and identify skill gaps. The leadership development approach was personalized, social, and contextualized, aiming to understand participants’ larger life stories and what truly mattered to them. Key components of the learning journey included: A 4day, face-to-face Leadership Essentials program delivered to groups of 24 participants in the three countries. A 5-day, face-to-face Leadership Essentials Train the Trainer program for the eight most motivated and qualified participants from each country. Ongoing coaching, digital learning opportunities, self-assessments, and simulations.

The main aim of the Stewardship Leadership Assessment is to identify power and equity disparities and make recommendations to drive or root them out of the COP working ecosystem. We are making the hypothesis that by driving out/ rooting out those equity and power imbalances or disparities we will drive deeper transformation of the leadership and working ecosystem and move it from being gender parity focused ecosystem to a holistic, inclusive, and equity centered working system.

Grant Aims:

The Stewardship Leadership Assessment, led by CCL, is designed to uncover and address power imbalances and equity disparities within the CRFS-funded West Africa Community of Practice (CoP). Through surveys and semi-structured interviews with Principal Investigators and project participants, the assessment will map issues of power, agency, and inclusion. The ultimate goal is to move the CoP from a parity-based inclusive leadership ecosystem to one that is equity-centered, ensuring fairer distribution of resources, recognition, and decision-making power.

Based on the findings, the project will identify gaps in leadership capability and recommend strategies for systemic change. This two-step process includes (1) data collection and analysis to highlight disparities and identify opportunities for intervention, and (2) the design and delivery of targeted steward leadership training to remedy gaps where needed. The assessment will inform a theory of change rooted in evidence, ensuring recommendations lead to lasting transformation in leadership practices across the CoP.

Outputs and Outcomes:

Project Outcomes

  • Clear identification of power and equity disparities across CRFS-funded projects in the WAf CoP.

  • Recommendations for structural, collective, and interpersonal changes to address inequities.

  • Improved leadership skills among project leaders and CoP members, with a focus on equity-centered practices.

  • Development of a theory of change linking equity-focused interventions to long-term transformation.

  • Enhanced inclusion in decision-making, compensation, participation, and recognition of contributions.

  • Increased capacity within the CoP to design and implement equitable structures, policies, and practices.