1. Malcolm Gladwell is here with another book: “Outliers”. Like his former books Malcolm does not disappoint with his new work. Success has always been narrowed down to hard work and intelligence. But is that all it takes to be successful?

Outlier’s talks about how multiple things are at work simultaneously around a person making it to the top. Similarities drawn between the secret behind success of the legendary Beatles and Bill gates gives us discernment about how little we know about achieving. Malcolm insists us to ponder the surroundings of a flourished person and we might come to know that sheer hard work may not be the only key to success.

This book decodes success and makes us aware of our shortcomings. As the title suggests, it is a compilation of stories of success and that aspect the author has completely justified. What may seem like a random tale in the beginning has a wonderful ending and leaves us wondering about how unforeseeable turns course our future paths. Facts and data are very well weaved in the writing, making it more relevant to the reader. It tells you more about the realistic aspects of success than any other book. If you are looking for a quick read with a cathartic experience this is the book.

2. “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho is an inspirational story of Santiago, a youthful Spanish shepherd in the rolling hills of Andalusia. The boy has deep attachment with his flock but realizing that they are devoid of aesthetic sense and appreciation for nature which he beholds, loves and admires, the course of his life changes. His parents’ life is associated with struggle in a country which people from far away fantasize and romanticize but for them it is not a place of dream and charm.

Story starts with a dream followed by a series of adventures ultimately leads to resolution. His time is consumed in herding, reading and dreaming of travelling far-off places. He keeps getting same dream that there is treasure lying underneath the Egyptian pyramids. His encounter with a gypsy woman for consulting his dream gives story a new turn. He gets to know from her to follow omens. As the story moves the events get connected impeccably. Santiago’s quest for treasure, soon his lucky encounter with old King who strengthens his beliefs about living his destiny, coming across mishaps and encounter with Fatima, a desert girl; all this leads him to personal legend that converges the idea of ‘conspiring universe’. Personal legend is the key to living a successful and satisfying life as it is the destiny which one dreams of. He receives assistance from an alchemist who helps him understand his quest for accomplishing his dream. By time his belief grows, and satisfaction nourishes as he is on right path. He comes to know “when you want something all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”.

 Story deals with an internal conflict between his love and personal dreams but this novel ends up showing love as a supporting tool for achieving his dream. This is a beautiful idea that true love can prove to be a great stimulus when time comes. According to Coelho dreams have a price but not living your dreams has even a bigger price. The idea of seeking dreams is marvellous. Pursuing your dream and committing to it makes the whole universe conspiring to give you what you want.

One of the dangerous hindrance described in the novel is fear. The fear of failure which stops us living our destiny. Overcoming this is a great victory as Coelho quoted “tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of dreams because every second of the search is a second encounter with God and with eternity”.

When Santiago is in desert, he comes to know that he can turn base metals into gold. (Although the idea is not true in reality). It is also a bit overrated when alchemist turns lead into gold. It is not necessary that you agree each and everything which Coelho has put into the novel. Instead, your reason and rationale may oppose many things. But one has to have the ability to read between the lines. In spite of being very unreal it is a beautiful fable which has delighted millions around the world because of its thought-provoking ideas of spirituality and destiny. Santiago while travelling understands the relation between man and nature. His quest and how he overcomes the obstacles of violence, confusion and despair is an encouraging pleasure for reader. The setting of novel is real, but events are magical.

Some may find it a good piece to escape reality and some to understand reality. I highly recommend it to young readers as its conclusions directs it solves the purpose to make reader understand having faith in destiny which ultimately leads to achieving it.

A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of many others...the great instrument of moral good is the imagination (Percy Bysshe Shelley 1821, p. 13).

Reimagining alternative systems and rebuilding them requires a new set of skills. While technical competencies remain critical, effective leadership in an interdependent world requires building skills we used to consider “soft,” beginning with moral imagination.

Moral imagination, according to philosopher Mark Johnson, means envisioning the full range of possibilities in a particular situation in order to solve an ethical challenge. Johnson emphasizes that acting morally often requires more than just strength of character. For example, moral action requires empathy and the awareness to discern what is morally relevant in a given situation.

Moral imagination, as defined by Minette Drumwright and Patrick Murphy, is the ability to be simultaneously ethical and successful by envisioning new and creative alternatives. In other words, can people look beyond the dollars-and-cents impact of a decision to see how it affects others?

For example, consider Nestle Foods. The company refused to target young children with advertising for its high sugar, high fat products. Instead, to keep the company competitive in that market, it innovated and created new, healthier products to advertise to young children.

Moral imagination is composed of the four decision processes identified by Rest (1986), i.e., moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral intention, and moral behaviour. Most people are subjective toward themselves and objective toward all others – terribly objective sometimes – but the real task is in fact to be objective toward one’s self and subjective toward all others.

But why moral imagination? This is because we can no longer design systems only for those like ourselves. We must design for those who traditionally have not had a voice — the poor, the vulnerable, the environment. A new generation is demanding that companies not only pursue purpose, but to integrate values of sustainability into their operations and their treatment of employees and customers. Companies will only succeed in the long term if they show through their actions concern for employees, customers, and the earth.

To prepare our students and future generations to lead through complexity in a highly imperfect world, business schools, in particular, must do a far better job teaching and modelling these new “hard” skills, grounded in moral imagination.

These skills include holding values in tension — standing amid the chaos of disparate ideologies and assumptions and considering the values of each side — listening to voices unheard and partnering with humility and audacity.

While training future leaders in specific competencies is vital, so too is ensuring they build the character needed to radically rejuvenate our broken systems and create a new economy in which it includes all of us.

For instance, take the issue of electricity for the 1.5 billion people who lacked it in 2007, 130 years after Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb. Sam Goldman and Ned Tozun had the moral imagination and courage to try to change that. They focused their energies on bringing affordable light to the 1.5 billion who lacked electricity, starting first by understanding the needs and desires of their prospective customers.

Sam and Ned would have failed had they not developed the hard skill of listening with all of their senses to voices the market had repeatedly ignored. Thirteen years later, the company d.light has brought clean, affordable light and electricity to over 100 million low-income people, created thousands of jobs and generated long-term financial returns to investors. At every step, the hard skills of moral imagination and deep listening guided the way.

In a world of growing fragility, business leaders will be increasingly expected to play their part in solving some of the toughest problems facing our world. No single system — not markets, not government, not civil society — will solve these problems alone, and it will require new partnerships that transcend sectors. Such partnerships, with government, social enterprises, and philanthropies, even with those we might consider our adversaries, require humility to acknowledge the different strengths and weaknesses of each partner while simultaneously holding to the aspiration of shared goals and collective responsibilities.

Tomorrow’s leaders will stand apart by focusing on others, not simply by enriching themselves. There is ample opportunity to do this within the framework of business if we can make a shift from valuing power, money and fame to a leadership style that insists on putting our shared humanity and the sustainability of the earth at the centre, not simply profit alone.

Responsibility goes hand in hand with privilege. Our educational institutions are well-placed to equip our future leaders of business and government not only with the technical tools to solve the world’s toughest problems — but with hard skills grounded in moral imagination. If each of us were rewarded for giving more to the world than we take from it, everything would change.

References

Moberg, D.J., & Seabright, M.A. (2000). The Development of Moral imagination. Business Ethics Quarterly, 10(4), 845-884. DOI:https://doi.org/10.2307/3857836

Rest, J. R. (1994). Background: Theory and Research. In Moral Development in the Professions: Psychology and Applied Ethics, ed. Rest, J. R. and Narvez, D., pp. 1–26. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Though the pandemic is undoubtedly the defining event of 2020, there were many other significant developments in the world of responsible business. Here, Andy Crane looks back at the biggest stories of one of the most turbulent years in recent memory.

1. Coronavirus capitalism

No surprises here. Coronavirus dominated the news in 2020 but more specifically it dominated news about responsible (and irresponsible) business. In fact, we could have easily populated our entire top 10 with Coronavirus-related stories. But the overarching story here is the fundamental nature of coronavirus capitalism. Unusually, the pandemic has been replete with good-news stories of corporate good deeds. Probably the biggest these has been the super-charged and apparently successful development of various COVID-19 vaccines by companies – with support, expertise, or funding from governments, health institutes, and university medical researchers of course. What can beat the efforts of AstraZeneca, BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Nonavax, Sinopharm, Pfizer, and others in developing products that can save millions of lives and return a massively disrupted world to something approaching normality? There have plenty of other heart-warming stories of corporate heroes during the pandemic, whether turning their factories over to producing sanitiser and PPE, giving mortgage and other payment holidays to customers, supporting locked-down workers, or going the extra mile to help the vulnerable and needy. On the other hand, there has been no shortage of corporate villains too, from companies price-gouging on masks and food essentials, to those that have put their workers at risk, renegaded on supplier contracts, and cut their workforces even while receiving government aid. The big test then will be whether the various ‘Build back better’ campaigns will see companies actually shifting gears on responsible business, and whether coronavirus will prompt the emergence of fairer, more enlightened compact between business, government, and society in the years to come.

2. Black Lives Matter

The protests about racial injustice and police brutality that erupted in the summer of 2020 following the killing of George Floyd were not focused on business, but it did not take long for companies to start realising that that they too needed to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement. A swathe of solidarity messages from big brands followed, along with a huge upswing in attention to how organisations could address racial inequality better in the workplace and through their products and advertising. While most corporate responses were predictably limited and vague, some succeeded in making rather more impressive stands with strong statements and meaningful commitments. Either way, 2020 was a defining year for raising racial inequality high on the responsible business agenda.

3. Trump’s social media warning labels

“Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election…” So ran one of the ubiquitous Twitter warnings that were plastered over the outgoing US President, Donald Trump’s tweets during the 2020 election. It was in many ways one of the election’s most iconic images and represented a remarkable development with social media giants like Twitter and Facebook wading in to censor a sitting US President for the first time. It marked a major milestone in the ongoing debate about social media companies’ responsibility for the content on their sites. Facebook had already suffered an embarrassing, if not particularly financially damaging, boycott from advertisers during 2020 organised by civil rights groups frustrated at the company’s lack of action over hate speech and misinformation. The warning labels and restrictions imposed on Trump suggested that the tide was turning. However, social media companies continued to struggle to deal appropriately with the tidal wave of misinformation around the election from Trump’s supporters and their adversaries. Clearly the broader story here is one that will continue to occupy the headlines – and will undoubtedly feed into further debates about possible regulation of big tech under the new US administration.

4. Wirecard fraud scandal

Although it had rapidly become one of the most valuable companies in the country, the German payments company, Wirecard, was relatively unknown to most outside its home country. But all that changed in 2020 when the firm spectacularly collapsed as a result of a huge accounting fraud. Billions of euros in cash and loans were discovered to be missing from the firm’s accounts, with false accounts and shady business relationships set up to hide the huge scale of fraudulently inflated sales and profits. In reality the company had a huge hole in its balance sheet and once its frantic attempts to disguise the problem fell apart, it caved into insolvency. The CEO and other senior executives were arrested and the demise of ‘the German Paypal’ was complete.

5. Uighur forced labour

The persecution of the Uighur people by the Chinese authorities has continued apace for years, but the issue became a huge responsible business story in 2020 when it was revealed that hundreds of brands were sourcing products and raw materials made by millions of incarcerated Uighurs and other Muslim minority people in conditions of forced labour. While “virtually the entire global apparel industry” was reported to be using cotton sourced from farms and factories using forced Uighur labour in Xinjiang province, many other supply chains had also been affected, including in electronics and automotives. The US Government responded by banning imports of certain products likely to have been made with Uighur forced labour, even in the face of lobbying from big brands trying to weaken the proposed legislation.

6. Rio Tinto’s sacred site explosion

Mining companies have been no strangers to accusations of corporate irresponsibility but there have been some signs of progress in the industry’s approach to social and environmental issues in recent years. However, the industry’s reputation took a huge battering with the news about Rio Tinto’s deliberate destruction of a 46,000-year-old sacred Aboriginal site in Australia in 2020. Although the mining giant had received approval to destroy the site to expand its iron-ore mine, subsequent archaeological findings showed the site was much older than previously known and rich in artefacts including sacred objects. This made the caves one of the most culturally significant sites in the country. Rio Tinto ignored the objections of local Aboriginal groups and went ahead with the demolition – only to be met with a maelstrom of criticism from critics shocked at the cultural damage. Even Rio Tinto shareholders revolted, and within a few months had ousted the CEO and other senior executives responsible for the decision. As one report put it, “it was a rare admission that the mining industry, which has long propped up the Australian economy — often at the expense of traditional landowners — had gone too far.”

7. Luckin coffee’s false accounting scandal

China has had any number of accounting scandals over the years, most of which barely register outside of the country. However, the exploits of Luckin coffee reached a much wider audience when it was revealed that the high growth, tech-based coffee chain had been artificially inflating its revenues to fuel its exponential growth. Luckin stood out because it was listed in the US, had almost tripled its share price in six months since its IPO in 2019, and was reporting six-fold increases in quarterly sales. If it sounded too good to be true, then that it is exactly what it turned out to be, with the firm eventually admitting to some $300 million of fabricated sales. Its shares were delisted in the US and its CEO and COO fired as part of the fall-out from the scandal. Chinese regulators then fined not only Luckin but also some 43 other firms which it said had helped Luckin inflate its earnings. The question that remains, however, is whether these actions will be enough to shore up confidence again in Chinese companies listed overseas – and indeed in the growth-without-profits business model of tech start-ups worldwide of which Luckin was but the latest casualty. We are also no closer to an answer of whether there really is a lucrative coffee market in tea-loving China.

8. Purdue Pharma pleads guilty in opioids case

The ongoing opioids scandal in the US was our third top story in 2019, and so with investigations still rumbling on, it is perhaps not surprising that it features again in 2020. This year, the big story was the landmark guilty plea by the makers of Oxycontin, Purdue Pharma, which admitted to actions aimed at boosting opioid prescriptions, including conspiring to defraud officials and offering illegal kickbacks. The company’s admission of criminal conduct marked a major success in prosecutions against big Pharma for deliberately fuelling the opioid over-prescription epidemic in the US – and signalled the ignominious end of another major pharmaceutical company embroiled in the scandal.

9. Boohoo working conditions

In the UK, the big corporate responsibility of the year was centred on Leicester and the UK garment factories making clothes for online fashion retailer, Boohoo. July 2020 saw the release of a major newspaper investigation into worker conditions in the factories, revealing significant levels of exploitation, unsafe working conditions, wages less than half the minimum wage, and serious breaches of COVID-19 safety protocols. The fall-out for Boohoo was rapid, with its stock price plummeting to less than half its previous value, and evidence emerging that company bosses were aware of poor conditions long before the media expose forced them to act. In fact, Leicester sweatshops had been an open secret in the UK garment industry for years, and so Boohoo’s sourcing strategy was always going to be risky. But with the promise of new and better checks and the news cycle swiftly moving on, sales still managed to rise by 45% and the firm’s share price quickly rebounded. So, despite its critics, low cost, fast fashion looks here to stay for a good while longer.

10. Credit Suisse spying scandal

Swiss banking is known for being secretive but this year things moved to whole other level with the damning revelations of corporate espionage at Zurich-based Credit Suisse leading to the ousting of the bank’s CEO, Tidjane Thiam. The scandal had emerged in 2019 following revelations that the bank had hired private detectives to follow one of its former senior executives, Iqbal Khan who was suspected of stealing clients for a rival bank. When news of further espionage activities against another executive emerged, not to mention lurid tales of personal animosity between Thiam and Khan, Thiam’s position became untenable and he was forced to resign in February 2020. But that wasn’t the end of the scandal; the next month Thiam’s severance package was cut by £2m, even though he had been found to be not involved in the spying row, but was, the bank said, “accountable”. And then, later in the year, Swiss regulators opened enforcement proceedings against the bank, paving the way for a formal prosecution, and the prospect of the secretive Swiss bank having its dirty laundry washed in public.

Building “homes of light” – to care for life and generate new life

To speak of Christmas is to refer to the light of God in our midst. A light that shines in the darkness. In this year 2020 there has been a lot of darkness and so it is harder for us to discover this light amid all that we are living through. And yet, that light has never faltered.

Christmas is a time to look for ways to rekindle that light:

• the light that comes from the Good News of having God among us, for that Christmas is all about.
• the light that gives us hope to face the uncertainty that surrounds us.
• the light that helps us to overcome our fears and anxieties (which may have increased in this coronavirus era).
• the light that we glimpse in the generosity and dedication of so many people in their service to others.
• The light that leads us to imagine a different future, one that we want to create together under the watchful gaze of God. Like the star of Bethlehem that led the Magi from the East to go on their quest beyond their cultures and homelands.

Caring for the light that is in each of us, requires developing our inner lives and spirituality. We must look within and there perceive the light of God shining brightly, a source of hope.

We learn from Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and our mother, how to do this. We can imagine her heart, so free and full of God, and therefore transparent to God’s light. The light that came from within her was the light of God shining in and through her. We are invited to have the same experience.

We are also invited to discern the light of everyone around us, in our communities, families, fraternities, workplaces.

We are invited to discern the light of the most vulnerable, those who lack even the basics of life. We share what we have, to share our very selves. And to let their light shine on us.

To be a beacon of hope in this troubled world is an invitation for us to let our light shine, not just as individuals, but as communities and families, as a global family.

Guided by the star of Bethlehem, let us build “homes of light”, in this moment of fragility and vulnerability around the world.

May this Christmas and the coming year 2021 be full of hope for you.

COVID-19 pandemic: An Opportunity for Leadership Development

“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” ― Nelson Mandela

The continuing coronavirus crisis has once more reminded every person about the critical role that leaders and leadership play in addressing unanticipated happenings that are a threat to the life of governments, institutions and corporate world (Bundy, Pfarrer, Short, & Coombs, 2017). In view of their position of influence, leaders get a lot of attention and public scrutiny in these tough times. The reason for this is that people look forward to leaders to provide accurate information, hope and guidance. Such unexpected attention gathered with a robust need for leadership under ambiguity has been demonstrated to profit even non-exemplary leaders in the form of bipartisan support and better responsiveness of effectiveness and charm (Rast III, Gaffney, Hogg, & Crisp, 2012). However, recent happenings reveal that some leaders cannot harness the opportunity presented by the crises, such that some leaders lose support, face resistance from their followers, or cannot protect their organizations from economic distress. Considering that the only sure thing about crises is that they are likely to happen repeatedly. Thus, we maintain that more attention should be given to leadership in turbulent environments.

The speed and magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic proffers monumental challenges for leaders in today’s most important institutions. It is uncomplicated to understand why many leaders have missed the opportunity for honest communication and decisive action. But it is a misjudgement to think failures of leadership are all we can expect in these depressing times.

As the business and social impact of the COVID-19 crisis soars, leaders in every industry and organization are moving urgently to safeguard its workforce and build resilience. Governments are mobilizing to protect citizenries and manage the economic domino-effect. Urgent action is critical, but leaders must also adopt a new agenda – one focused directly at what comes next.

Leadership has always been crucial to the effective functioning of society, and organisational performance depends on the successful management of human capital. Throughout history, leadership has been vital to the fortune of companies and entire economies alike. Yet today, we face a progressively more convoluted world that demands leaders to effectively deal with what we call “wicked problems” – challenges that have extremely many variables involved which it is not possible to solve them with natural-born charisma or talent.

Cities have had to respond quickly and imaginatively to tackle the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. They have a critical role in monitoring the effects of the deadly disease and of the measures introduced on health inequalities and the health of the population. For instance, Kampala, Uganda has designed a COVID-19 vulnerability index to identify which areas of the city need most support. Also, in Freetown (sierra Leone) and in Milan (Italy) local authorities have started and developed emergency food programmes to make sure the most vulnerable in society have sufficient to eat regardless the lockdown measures.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to the critical role played by leadership in times of crises with the popularity of many global leaders rising and the others’ declining. For example, we now know that leaders are mainly important to influencing the meaning of the happenings and giving direction to stakeholders’ understanding and interpretation of the character and outcomes of the developing crises (Sobral et al., 2020). Despite this, our knowledge concerning how leaders can productively and confront the unique challenges that the current crisis has generated for governments, businesses and institutions globally remains scant. Thus, future research should target and examine many of the topics identified in this editorial to aid to better groom leaders and organizations for the next global crisis.

Assuming that crises expose leaders to contradictory pieces of information from multiple sphere of influence, high-levels decision-making, and require communication and contact with multiple stakeholders, they offer ideal conditions for leaders to learn new skills through problem-related capabilities. Similarly, living through a highly disruptive event is likely to increase a leader’s self-efficacy and confidence in managing crises and enhance their motivation to lead (Chan & Drasgow, 2001). Not every leader appears to accept this opportunity for growth and development. This is due to the fact that leading in times of crisis is an immense challenge, and it demands great social, technical, physical, and emotional skills. Some organizational leaders may not have these skills or capabilities or may never have been requested to show them, which provides an opportunity for other people to take part in leadership activities. Therefore, future research could investigate how each of the ingredients of crises promotes leadership emergence and development. Researchers and academics could also test how actual and nascent leaders can get the most out of the crisis-related leadership competences to either enhance or improve their identities as leaders.

While the above findings remain valuable and significant, the coronavirus pandemic has revealed that technological developments and increasing interconnectedness among nations have altered the organizational environment. Thus, the existing framework presents leaders with additional challenges and opportunities when acting in response to disruptive phenomena. Below we identify themes of interest that researchers and academics might want to focus on and investigate to achieve a better understanding of the attitudes and behaviors associated with leadership under crises.

Themes:

Ambidextrous leadership

Authentic leadership

Compassionate leadership

Crisis leadership

Democratic leadership

Ethical leadership

Female/Women’s leadership

Identity-based leadership

Innovation leadership

Leadership for Innovation

Leadership development

Sales leadership

Servant leadership

Transformational leadership

Transactional leadership

Urban leadership

The treasurer is one of the primary stewards of the company’s financial assets. Some treasurer’s responsibilities include:

• Firm’s financial activities, in particular, investment and risk management.
• Managing cash flows
• Arranging financing
• Making investment decisions
• Implementing policies and procedures that govern the organization’s accounting practices.

Requirements

• Demonstrated accounting skills
• Trustworthiness
• Leadership ability.

Education

• Accounting and finance major (Higher Education level)
• Statistics and economics
• Public accounting experience

Key Take Aways

• The treasurer of a company is a key financial manager that handles the firm’s investments, risk management, and accounting practices.
• The position of treasurer involves a great deal of responsibility, and ultimately, treasurers are responsible, in part, for the success and solvency of a business.
• The treasurer position is upper management level, so hiring companies will look for a stellar track record of accounting experience, leadership ability, and knowledge of tax law.

Some Questions

• How has Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 affected corporate accounting practices?
• Define mark-to-market accounting and discuss advantages and disadvantages.

Dear friends,

I hope that you all and your loved ones are safe and well during this difficult and strange time.

Here is my question for today…

I am teaching a PhD class on the psychology of entrepreneurship, and I want to share some examples of creativity in data collection with the doctoral students. For example, one terrific example I will be sharing is the new paper by Greg Fisher, Regan Stevenson, Emily Neubert, Devin Burnell, & Don Kuratko (2020, in JMS) in which they coded text from the National Public Radio (NPR) podcast entitled “How I Built This” to examine the novel construct of entrepreneurial hustle (see their Study 1). I also know friends have coded TV shows such as Shark Tank, Dragon’s Den, (e.g., Maxwell, Jeffrey, & Lévesque, 2011). Finally, what else have researchers done??

I invite colleague-researchers to share their own, or other examples, of data collection creativity. I hope to generate a list of opportunities to share with my PhD class.

My best to you all…

With many thanks, Remy Nyukorong

References

Fisher, G., Stevenson, R., Neubert, E., Burnell, D., & Kuratko, D. F. (2020). Entrepreneurial hustle: Navigating uncertainty and enrolling venture stakeholders through urgent and unorthodox action. Journal of Management Studies.

Maxwell, A.L., Jeffrey, S.A., & Lévesque, M. (2011). Business angel early stage decision making. Journal of Business Venturing, 26, 212–225.

Youth employment and Peacebuilding

 Youth employment programmes are frequently used as a strategic tool to promote peacebuilding in developing countries particularly in many post-conflict and fragile environments. However, despite the attractiveness and popularity of these programmes, evidence of impact is limited. These disappointing efforts cannot be attributed only to implementation challenges and contextual factors. Youth employment programmes have for decades been based on the assumptions of a direct relationship between employment and security. It is more and more obvious that a limited focus on employment situation is reductive, and that there are several factors at play. For instance, the quality of employment may be a more significant variable weighed against the employed/unemployed dichotomy. This article explores this assumption regarding Ghana, with the goal of ascertaining whether a stronger stress on decent work in youth employment programmes can be fairly presumed to have more impactful outcomes than it has been the case so far.

 Suggested Research Questions

• RQ1: Can a focus on decent work to improve the impact of youth employment programmes on peacebuilding?
• RQ2: How does the quality of work influence the employment/peacebuilding relationship?

Preliminary Observations

• The problem for many young people in Ghana (developing economies) is predominantly one of ‘low-wage jobs’ rather than idleness. Quality of work is therefore a critical variable to explain the link between employment and peacebuilding.
• While violent behaviour increases in places that are relatively poor, this does not explain a person’s decision to take part or not take part in hostility. Macro-level factors have narrow analytical and predictive power at the individual level. This presents a fundamental challenge for programmes that are focused on selecting beneficiaries based on individual qualities such as risk and vulnerability.
• There is an obvious difference between employment impact and peacebuilding impact. The two concepts are neither the same, nor are they necessarily mutually reinforcing. Employment for Peacebuilding programmes are a qualitatively different programme and need to navigate exchanges between employment and peacebuilding impact.
• It is crucial to differentiate between impact on programme participants and impact for society. Even if a social intervention is successful in improving the situation of its participants, this may not automatically translate into benefits for the whole of society, and non-participants may even suffer. The logical gap between ‘employment for some’ and ‘peace for all’ is perhaps the greatest puzzle facing employment for peacebuilding agendas.

An Overview

On the 15th of March, President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered the closure of all education institutions in Ghana, effecting some 9.2 million basic school students (kindergarten, primary and junior high schools) and 0.5 million tertiary education students.

The Ghana Health Service Covid-19 report published on the 21^st of September 2020, showed that there are 554 active cases, 297 deaths (mostly because of underlying illnesses) and 45, 153 have recovered. This brings the cumulative figure to 46,004. There are some regions in the country without active cases. Greater Accra, Eastern, Ashanti and Central Regions account for some eighty percent (80%) of the active cases. Thus, the alarming rate at which it was spreading from the onset has reduced. As a result, the President of the Republic declared an ease on some restrictions such as the number of people at gatherings. Until the December 14, 2020, the wearing of the nose masks among other protocols remained mandatory.

Impact on Education

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of large numbers of students, teachers, and parents around the world, with millions now teaching and learning remotely from home. The pandemic is likely to have significant long-term effects on education.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) were quick to put in place measures aimed at ensuring opportunities for continuous learning even with schools closed. Soon after school closures were announced, MoE and GES announced the COVID-19 Emergency Support Provision of Distance and Remote Learning Systems Solutions, which was followed by the launch of distance and online learning platforms and the rolling out of lessons broadcast on Ghana Learning television (GLTV) for 1 million senior high school (SHS) students. Digital content developed for 8.2 million kindergarten (KG) through junior high school (JHS) students for TV, radio, and online learning is being launched from the third term. All second-year students at the Junior High school (JSS) and Senior High School (SHS) are to resume on October 5, 2020. The other levels of the school system will keep waiting till January 2021.

The pandemic has exposed the stark inequality in the educational system, revealing the limited infrastructure and poor educational resources in some regions of the country. For example, Senior High Schools in the northern part of Ghana have been experiencing delays in feeding grants, inadequate teaching and learning infrastructure, poor eLearning support and many others.

Across the various levels of education, pupils and students from poor homes are struggling to continue their education due to expensive internet access and poor supervision of their learning. A major challenge for final year students in Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High School (SHS) is how to continue their preparation for their final exams, Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and West African Senior Secondary Certification Examination (WASSCE).

The effect of these challenges is an interruption (a hiatus) in the effective supervision and monitoring of students’ academic welfare during the pandemic. Even though some schools in the northern regions and Volta north are benefitting from the home-schooling initiatives established because of partnerships with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) such as Lead for Ghana, the initiatives are limited to a fraction of the student population.

So far, the Ministry of Education has launched a Ghana Learning TV for students at the basic and secondary levels. A radio learning platform has also been planned to complement the TV initiative. As mentioned earlier, university authorities have also switched to eLearning through online platforms such as Zoom, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram live, YouTube, and many others to facilitate learning at the tertiary level.

Critical Issues in the Education Sector

Despite the achievements of the remote and distance learning platforms, challenges remain in ensuring fair access to these education services.

1. Many students and their families do not have access to the internet. In this context, internet and TV based learning stress inequalities in access to quality education between the rich and poor and urban and rural students based on their ability to access the internet and TV platforms. Radio broadcasts become a much more fair tool for reaching learners in more deprived areas. Over thousands of students living in rural communities are missing out on the most effective alternative (virtual learning) to classroom learning because of the unavailability of electricity, poor internet connectivity, media coverage, poverty, disabilities, inability to read and many other genuine reasons. Government intervention to support education services with virtual learning alternatives is commendable however it is not accessible to many in the country.
2. Other factors affecting equity in access may include economic deprivations at household-level, lack of electricity, high illiteracy rates, lack of local language instruction, and lack of a supportive learning environment. Even where television exists, children may not have access to programmes during specified broadcast times. Crowding children around a single set may also contravene social distancing protocols. In multi-occupant households, it may be difficult to identify a specific and consistent space conducive to a child’s learning.
3. Several factors present ongoing challenges including: lack of teacher training for distance and remote teaching; lack of assessment tools and mechanisms for measuring student learning through remote and distance modalities; insufficient parental understanding and engagement in remote/distance learning practices; and a mismatch of teacher skills for classroom delivery and virtual/remote service delivery.
4. Critical to achieving quality service delivery is the teacher. But classroom teachers trained and hired to interact daily face-to-face with students are not necessarily sufficiently skilled at teaching remotely through on-line platforms that constrain direct interaction and limit visible cues that normally aid teachers in assessing learner understanding and acquisition in the classroom. Remote learning requires a unique skill set and therefore different training for a teacher. It requires teacher training and effective coordination at national and local levels besides tools for continuous assessment of both teacher and learner performance through remote and distance platforms. To bridge the skills gap, a series of purposeful and targeted capacity building programmes for teachers and teacher trainers will be necessary particularly as the 25,000 teachers that are not working because of school closures re-engage with the learning processes of students.
5. Female learners face increased vulnerability as violence, sexual violence, and teen pregnancy are positively correlated with school closures. Girls who do become pregnant during the time of school closures face multiple challenges to re-entry including stigma, childcare, marital expectations, and economic demands of parenting.
6. Finally, the closedown of schools has brought untold hardship to private schools as it resulted in the suspension of the services and salaries of all workers except the security men. Workers of the government schools still draw salaries from the public purse.

Conclusion

With UNESCO’s dream and SDG 4 seeking to capitalize on all forms of education to respond to global challenges, the existing government virtual learning interventions should be developed to promote inclusiveness and bridge the inequality gaps. A comprehensive virtual learning support will ensure that it protect the quality of all forms of education, including sports academies, vocational apprenticeship, adult education, community development and humanitarian outreach programs focused on educating people about agriculture, health, and other socioeconomic issues. It is therefore imperative that government and institutions invest and improve upon their virtual learning interventions to promote quality education and protect lives.

Today, we celebrate the birth of our dear Mother and I wish to thank God for the day she was born. That could have been a very ordinary day in Nazareth, but I am certain that, her parents, St. Joachim, and St. Anne were excited, as were their family, neighbors and friends. I can imagine the great rejoicing in heaven on that day. The conception of our dear Mother Mary opened the door to salvation for us all. By God’s grace, she was touched there and then. She was born, “full of grace.”I am thankful to our Mother Mary for her life. I thank you, dear Mother for your openness and submission and for your “fiat” (YES). I thank you for the way you raised Jesus to be so full of compassion and to be a friend of sinners, like me. I thank you for your comforting presence to the Apostles in the early days of waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Most of all, I thank you for all the inspiration and witness that you have given me and the rest of mankind in our walk towards our true home with the Father. Thank you …. Thank you for always being there for us as our Mother who intercedes for her children. Thank you for everything that our words and our hearts could hardly express.

Dear Mother Mary, I ask you to always place me with your Son and let me know Him, love Him, and serve Him more dearly and closely. Stand guard over my heart and let His gift of peace and love to remain deep within my being, today and always. Yes, my dear Mother, I believe and always “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy hear and answer me.

And our dear Mother and Mother of our God, pray for me a sinner, now and at the hour of my death, amen.

Value Statement: “My value comes from who I am, not from what I do.”

Growth Mindset Statement: “Anything that happens to me today is in my best interest and an opportunity to learn and grow.”

Statement of Faith:

Jesus Christ: The centre of our lives ( Colossians 1;15-20)

I believe that Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth and the life” (Jn. 14:6). The fullness of life is to be found when Christ is at the centre of our lives.  This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church’s Magisterium shapes all aspects of life. Christ is the one who not only shows us the truth about God but also the truth about ourselves. We are called to love as God loves. The heart and expression of Christian life is action flowing from love; love for the One who shows us the Way to Life; love for the One who teaches us the Truth about Life; and love for the One who gives us Life in its fullness – Jesus Christ. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”(Jn. 14:15). Thus, each person is called to express a love that is full, free, faithful, compassionate, not exclusive but open to all.  The beatitudes (Matt. 5: 3-12) – [faithfulness & integrity; dignity & compassion; humility & gentleness; truth & justice; forgiveness & mercy; purity & holiness; tolerance & peace; and service & sacrifice] –  illustrate the descriptions of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. The beatitudes also reveal the goal of human existence the ultimate end of human acts. Hence, I strive to witness to God, the authentic daily living of the beatitudes, as they highlight the obligation to promote social justice, peace, love for the poor, solidarity among nations and respect for the integrity of creation.

Mary is our model, teacher, and inspiration. Following Mary’s example, each religious is chosen by God to bear witness to Jesus in this world. Mary reminds us that our gift of love such as it is expressed in the vow of chastity must become fruitful by offering Christ to the world. Through the vow of obedience, we imitate Mary’s submission to the will of God. Be it done unto me according to thy word (Lk. 1:38). We learn from Mary our mother to place our total dependence on God as we share in the poverty of Jesus through the vow of poverty. The Blessed Virgin Mary was the perfect contemplative and was attentive to the needs of the others. We have seen this in her visitation to Elizabeth (Lk 1: 39-45) and at the Cana event (Jn 2:1-11). We who have chosen to follow Christ in religious life, are continually challenged, to open our eyes, to look around, and to identify those who are hidden from our eyes. We are mediators, totally given to God and to others. It demands of us to be contemplatives, to let the contemplation of Christ transform our hearts and lead us to action. Seeing us live together from the Netherlands (Europe), Indonesia and Timor Leste (Asia), Chile (South America), Malawi and Ghana (Africa), as one family is a witness in itself.

Principles and reflections amid the Global Pandemic by COVID-19

Octavio Esqueda — April 6, 2020

These are uncertain times. The global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has been transforming the lives of millions of people unimaginably for most of us just a few weeks or even days ago. The changes have been taking place so quickly that most of the world’s population have been caught off guard. We are all trying to adapt to this new reality hoping the pandemic will end soon, although it is impossible to predict how long it will last and what consequences it will have for all. In these days of crisis and home confinement I have been meditating on different principles based on my perspective as a follower of Jesus Christ that I would like to share with you:

1. Life is short and human beings are fragile.

Crises remind us we are all fragile and susceptible to getting sick and even dying suddenly. Human beings make plans for the future thinking we are in control of our lives, but a small virus, a microorganism that we cannot even see, is enough to completely alter our routines and destroy our plans. The poet king of the Nahua world, Nezahualcoyotl who lived from 1402 to 1472 and was the Tlatoani of Texcoco, masterfully described this reality in this poem:

I, Nezahualcoyotl, ask this:
Is it true one really lives on the earth?
Not forever on earth,
Only a little while here.
Though it be jade it falls apart,
though it be gold it wears away,
though they be quetzal feathers they are torn into parts,
not forever on earth,
only a little while here.

2. We are all the same.

Diseases and crises do not make a difference between people and affect everyone equally. Human beings try to distinguish economic, social or cultural differences, but COVID-19 reminds us we all can get sick and that we are all interconnected and need each other. No matter what country we live in, how old we are or what we do, we are all necessary in this world. We can only stop the spread of the virus can only with the fraternal collaboration of all.

3. Every life is important.

All human beings are created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:27). The image of God is the fundamental basis for the value and dignity of absolutely all people. The Bible teaches that God is the giver of life, so from conception to the grave we must protect and value everyone’s life. Human life is priceless and no matter the economic consequences that a catastrophe like the one we face brings; we must fight at all costs to care for the lives of all. Any call to “sacrifice” some people for the good of others is despicable and contrary to the dignity given by God to all human beings.

4. God is close and is our refuge during the storms and catastrophes that we face.

It does not matter if the problems are small or big or if the consequences seem impossible to bear, our God is the only source of true security and we can trust Him. God cares for us as mentioned in Psalm 121 and we can corroborate it throughout all of Scripture and many of us have experienced it throughout our lives. Christians suffer like everyone else, but we can do it with the peace that God gives us knowing that our Heavenly Father is watching over us. Fear has caused arms sales to explode in the United States and panic purchases of items such as toilet paper have occurred almost uncontrollably throughout the world. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control (2 Tim. 1: 7) that enables us to face circumstances with confidence and in complete peace (Isaiah 26: 3).

5. Love of neighbor is the fundamental evidence of our faith.

Jesus stated in John 13:13: “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” In times of crisis, our genuine love for others is the light to a world darkened by problems. This love is concrete and has as its maximum example the love that Jesus showed us by dying for us on the cross (John 13:34). Perhaps a practice that may seem simple, but it is essential at the moment is to keep our “healthy distance” from others unnecessary to take care of ourselves but to take care of others. Our perspective and mission must be the common good and we need to do what is necessary to protect the well-being of others. This world crisis by COVID-19 is also showing the enormous social and economic inequality in all countries, but one that is most clearly clear in developing countries. Sadly, it is the poor who will have the greatest impact of this global pandemic, and we all have a responsibility to help those most in need and fight to rebuild a world where there is more justice and equity.

6. Complete peace and final redemption are yet to come.

Christians live with the hope of a better world yet to come. This does not mean that in the present we do not worry about having a better world for all, but that we do the best that we can in the present, but we also wait for the second coming of Jesus where we will finally enjoy the fullness of life that God wants for all of us. Brian Dailey aptly defined eschatology or the doctrine about the future in this way: “Eschatology is the hope of believing people that the incompleteness of their present experience of God will be resolved, their present thirst for God fulfilled, their present need for release and salvation realized.” The three Christian virtues are faith, love and hope. Our faith in Christ sustains us, our love for God and for others defines us and our hope encourages us to move forward amid difficulties. In the circumstances we face these days, I encourage you to join in the apostle’s cry John in receiving the promise of Jesus at the end of the Scriptures: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20)

As part of the training programmes jointly designed by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and Responsible Business, Peace-building and Education (RBPE) Project to train citizens and organizations in governance, some selected youths in the Ellembelle District have received training in accountable and inclusive governance.

The training which is funded by DW Akademie seeks to equip local citizens in the governance process and equip them to seek and receive information to understand the mechanisms that allows for participation, knowing their rights and obligations.

The three-day training (6-8 March 2020) of the youth inculcated in them the ability to influence development in their communities and demand accountability from duty bearers.

The facilitators for the training, Dr. Remy Nyukorong and Mr. Emmanuel K. Dogbevi, took participants through writing skills, communication skills, facts checking and community level engagement.

They stated that the participants have received training in social media tools such as facebook, twitter and blog adding that the participants created the accounts to use as citizen journalists to follow keenly the activities that go on around them.

At the end of the training, participants were elated and thanked MFWA, RBPE and DW Akademie for the training programme which participants described as a training programme that has made them become more conscious of happenings around their communities and the District.