Strategic Environmental and Economic Leadership: Hierarchies and Dimensions of Leadership.

Leadership drives sustainable economic development and sound environmental management. Leadership challenges create most sustainable development and environmental management problems while no serious sustainable development and environmental management challenges can be addressed outside of leadership. Yet, sadly, attention to leadership is often low to non-existent. This is caused by a misconception that leadership is a subject for politics and the business and corporate worlds. Leadership is wanted everywhere.

Now, leadership determines big decisions. Making sound sustainable environmental management and economic development decisions requires a certain kind of leadership. You can have the necessary technical environmental and economic expertise, it will amount to nothing in the absence of real and effective leadership. This is very typical of Africa, where hundreds of thousands of people are trained and educated in universities and polytechnics but they graduate onto the streets. In addition, many experienced and capable experts are either unemployed or underemployed in countries whose problems need that expertise.

Environmental problems abound and worsen not because of a lack of technical experts or technical and financial solutions, but because of a lack in environmental leadership.

Make no mistake. The problem I am tackling here is not about people in positions of leadership; it is about the brand of leadership. Call it the leadership model if you wish or the metaleadership or the theory of leadership or even, at best, the leadership paradigm.

First, it is important to understand that present day models of organisations and society were conceived at a time when people did not need to be much concerned about the environment and sustainable development. Even in the wake of a drastically changed world that demands that we put the environment at the centre of human and economic development, organisations and society still lag behind in terms of the sustainable development theory and practice. Training and education in sustainable development and environmental management is still restricted to a few people who become "environment and development experts". Most of the people in positions of leadership, as well as the common people and the grassroots understand very little about the global and local environmental management and sustainable economic development issues.

Yet, sustainable development cannot happen when those who get into formal positions of business, environmental and economic leadership have little to scant knowledge and appreciation of sustainable development issues and why they must shift to putting the environment and its science, technology, engineering, leadership and management at the centre of their key result areas.

Yet sustainable development is a pipe dream when the populace, the grassroots who are supposed to get involved in, and benefit from, sustainable development remain spectators in both the theory and practice of sustainable development, environmental management and sustainable natural resources utilisation.

At this moment, we face a serious global sustainable development and environtal leadership challenge. While we pontificate about sustainable development goals and sustainability, big leadership decisions around the world are militating against the virtually all the goals including sending many innocent people into abject poverty, pain and suffering.

Wars are killing, maiming, and displacing millions around the world.

Wars are destroying wealth.

Wars are seriously polluting the environment

Wars are threatening a global nuclear crisis.

Wars come from leadership decisions.

The performance of economics and success in sustainable environmental management are hinged on leadership decisions.

Leadership decisions dictate the use and application of resources and expertise in sustainable development and economic development.

That is why strategic environmental and economic leadership is critical to making sustainable development a reality.

+263-77-444-74-38

?Simon Bere, 2024