Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI)/West Africa
Abuja, Nigeria, November 29 - December 2, 2006
 
The inaugural class of the Africa Leadership Initiative/West Africa, comprising 24 Nigerian and Ghanaian Fellows, met for the second time, this time in Abuja, the political capital of Nigeria. Building upon their first meeting in Ghana in May where they explored the concept of effective leadership, the Fellows this time participated in the Great Values Seminar.

Moderated by Aspen Senior Moderators Keith Berwick and Peter Reiling, the Great Values Seminar, the second of four to be held over 18 months, prompts the ALI Fellows to  consider those societal values they deem most important, and the trade-offs they are willing to make in seeking a good and just society. Fellows read and engage in animated dialogue on the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, William Graham Sumner, Freidrich Hayek, Ibn Khaldun, Milton Friedman, Thomas Jefferson, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Simon Bolivar, Harriet Taylor Mill, and Karl Marx, among others. They also perform Antigone, the classic tale of leadership and hubris by Sophocles.

Inspired by the Henry Crown Fellowship Program of the Aspen Institute, ALI/West Africa is designed to build linkages between -- and to promote open dialogue among -- leaders from Ghana and Nigeria on the makings of a "good society" in West Africa. The program provides the tools and perspectives necessary for effective, enlightened leadership in business, government, and the non-for-profit sector – that is, in society-at-large. It also seeks to spur Fellows  to move "from thought to action" by asking them to carry out high-impact leadership projects of their own design. 

The Africa Leadership Initiative/West Africa is a joint venture between the Aspen Institute, Databank Foundation (Ghana), Leap Africa (Nigeria) and TechnoServe made possible with support from the Ford Foundation (Nigeria), an anonymous U.S. donor, the UniCredit Foundation (Italy), Databank Foundation (Ghana) and TechnoServe/Ghana. It is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network which seeks to develop the next generation of values-based leaders around the world.