Acumen Bootcamp - 8th Week Reflection

Parts 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the Acumen virtual bootcamp series can be found here. This is the last part of the Acumen Bootcamp series.

I had completed all sessions of the bootcamp. And the interaction with people helped me to define what leadership is. Leadership is an influence. Leadership is born when competence meets character, practical skills meet moral imagination, and urgency meets action. I would recommend the article: Crucibles of Leadership.

The last session was a reflection exercise by the participants and moderators on the whole 8-week journey. I was introduced to a rich network of social-sector leaders from across the world, a.k.a Community of Social Innovators. The decline of what sociologists call ‘secondary associations’, where people come together to search and inquire, is one of the processes of atomization that leads to people being isolated and facing this mass of information alone. I hope a new association can help me navigate my complex and gradually painstaking journey of social change. There is also Acumen Academy, a school dedicated to social change. The goal is to learn and escape from becoming a prisoner of my own rhetoric, which makes it even more difficult to adapt to new realities.

Feedback: The internal reflection as a leader and a person was the fulcrum of the course. Yet, more time could have been devoted to adaptive leadership, in my opinion. The crucible experience was a trial and a test, a point of deep self-reflection that forced participants to question who we are and what matters to us. Four hours per week is a minuscule time in comparison to the time that is wasted throughout the week. That may be called a lack of rigor in the whole 8-week sessions. Investment of at least 8-10 Hours per week would have better returns for fellows and moderators. Thanks to my peers for the profound discussions, and especially Abbas for moderating the interactive session

Asia Landscape - Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural value chains

VCB-N has launched a series of Webinars on the COVID crises to offer a platform for learning and exchange about the current situation. This is the summary of the webinar on impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural value chains by VCB Network.
Speakers:

1. Mr. Barua Kaushik, Country Director IFAD Cambodia & Mr. Fabrizio Bresciani, Regional Economist IFAD Rome - IFAD perspectives
2. Anirban Bhowmik, Country Director, Swisscontact, Bangladesh – the smallholder farmers and the informal sector perspectives in Bangladesh
3. Mr. Andrew Wilson, Regional Coordinator Market Systems, HELVETAS – The market perspective
4. Prof. Liu Yonggong, China Agricultural University (CAU)- The market perspective from China

Summary:

1. The COVID crisis does negatively impact households in three inter-connected areas i) food security ii) income and iii) investment ability. In rural areas, the down-fall of prices has diminished the investment ability thus working capital of smallholder farmers which will again affect the production thus income and broader food security in the mid-term. The decreased ability to invest in next season’s crops is further deteriorated by the insecurity about next season’s markets. Farmers are falling back on local food systems and traditional production and solidarity mechanisms to deal with the crisis.

2. IFAD is using Rural Poor Stimulus Facility having 4 main pillar: i) safeguarding access to inputs and basic access for production purposes ii) facilitating access to markets incl. support to logistics, storage etc. iii) targeted funds to assure access to services mainly through existing programmes and iv) funds to develop / disseminate digital services / tools to farmers. This will help actors to overcome both Income shocks and Asset shocks.

3. Upstream actors like traders and retailers saw their income flow diminishing with falling business volumes and are short of liquidity which hampers their ability to pre-finance inputs for smallholders. Ability to extend credit line to farmers will be reduced for next season as traders are getting hit.

4. Food production chain especially fish will face big trouble in Bangladesh. April and May are the peak season of stocking of fish and many smallholders are not going to stock due to poor transport, price and availability of inputs. Hatcheries are only able to supply at least 50% of their total production and struggling to keep these all fish fry in their limited area.

5. International value chains for non-perishables like the trade in food ingredients are less affected by the logistical complications. As their exists a 6 weeks lag between shipment and retail at destination markets the real impact on trade volumes is still unclear.

6. “Stress reveals the cracks” : Structural weakness of agriculture value chain related to access to finance along the chain (production and forward market linkages) has been exposed in the current food systems.

7. Policy Narrative- Fiscal and Non fiscal: Non fiscal interventions must focus on production support with timely supply of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Fiscal support must be given to the farmers to manage their debt and allow them to invest in future production cycles.

8. Technology based entrepreneurs are not enough and form minuscule part of supply chain. Investments should be balanced along the VC (farm-level, storage, processing, logistics, and market access) to avoid bottlenecks which can be a "time bomb" for commodity prices, and farmers' income in the end.

9. Responses at company level should typically include software (adapted procedures, regulations) as well as hard-ware (protective gear etc.).

10. Responses as applied in China might be difficult to duplicate in other countries that lack the mechanisms for direct support to producers or financial reserves to apply similar support measures.

Acumen Bootcamp - 7th Week Reflection

Parts 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 of the Acumen virtual bootcamp series can be found here.

The topic of the 7th session was on Adaptive Leadership. All organizations want individuals to be invested in the rat race. This always shows a better return on investment in salary.  And we are also engaged in the dance of email, instant messages, and meetings. But reflecting in the midst of action is an age-old wisdom, and it is really difficult to achieve.  The crux of the session was on reflection amid action and vice versa

The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, a book written by Alexander Grashow, Marty Linsky, and Ronald Heifetz, was referred for detailed reading.  The best part in the summarized reading was our Illusion of the Broken System: There is a myth that drives many change initiatives into the ground: that the organization needs to change because it is broken. The reality is that any social system (including an organization) is the way it because people in that system (at least those individuals in that system (at least those individuals and factions with the most leverage) want and factions with the most leverage) want it that way. In the sense, on the whole, it is that way. In the sense, on the whole, the system is working fine, even though it may appear to be “dysfunctional” in some respects to members, and outside observers, and even though it faces danger just over the horizon.

Adaptive leadership requires helping people to gain a clear perspective in the midst of action and uncertainty; making sense of complex, often conflicting, signs and data; and sifting through what is most important, what is at stake, who will support, and who will resist change.

This transformation is based on “mapping the system” of stakeholders surrounding the challenge, mobilizing key stakeholders. A leader has to mobilize resources and goals and transform the organization. Our focus is less about the “problem” and more about other people’s relationship to the problem, and how to engage them in narrowing the gap. This profound shift is done by leveraging leadership capital for excellence into pragmatic steps for the stakeholders.

The stakeholders are spread in the factions like yourself, authority, allies, opposition, casualties, and troublemakers, with each having their respective Values, Loyalties, and Losses. The opinion inside an organization is different, and conflicts have to be replaced with a confluence of interests.

As an adaptive leader, I had not practiced much of the courageous belief in how things should be in the face of a persistent problem. I can articulate ‘the gap’ that is a leadership challenge in the development sector. It's about the decay of grant-based work and the move towards building a service-based model. I will use the tool to analyze the problem and the relationship of stakeholders in my organization. Hoping the process will be a fascinating reflection on the ways individuals perceive their own experiences, but how men and women in particular might forecast the scenario. In the end, I will develop some capability of adjusting to the requirements of different perspectives and the transformation agenda.

Acumen Bootcamp - 6th Week Reflection

Parts 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the Acumen virtual bootcamp series can be found here.

I approached our readings, 14 pages from ‘On Identity by Amin Malouf, with great eagerness. Amin Maalouf, born in Beirut, is a prolific writer of fiction, non-fiction, and operatic librettos. In 2010, he received the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. The discussion was focusing on the issue of identity on a very basic level.

The most marketable skill in leaders is the ability to abandon one's own identity and slip into someone else's. Most people have the privilege to associate with identities that can give them access to new opportunities through a network. This was the aspect that was visible in the group. Whatever people understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes theirs, wherever they might have their origin. This is true in most cases.

I stepped up and shared the experience that is related to imposed identities connected with stereotypes. Stereotyping and malign propaganda always led to the labeling of the person under an identity. An individual trapped in a limited identity will be exploited by the authoritative state or community politics. Such imposed identities put constraints on the individual's open interaction with another individual belonging to a different belief system. The dilemma of choosing between integration and emigration from mainstream identity & picking either freedom or security is one of the toughest decisions for an individual. There is a huge relation between identity, tolerance, and violence. Due to a shortage of time and a lack of depth in the panel, the relation wasn't explored in the meeting. There is a huge topic of identity politics and social justice movements that can be discussed in a class of sociology or political science. I will recommend readers to go through the Identity and Violence work by Amartya Sen for a deep dive.

Assignment: An assignment was given that was quite similar to a privilege walk.  We have to design a flower with petals, each petal representing a factor of influence in society. It is a good incubation exercise for individuals who have never wandered into the areas of the humanities and social sciences.