The Council will set a visionary course for investing in human capital
Contact: Eve Allen
Program Coordinator, AMP Health
The Aspen Institute
+1-434-987-9227
Eve.allen@aspeninstitute.org
Washington, D.C., October 1, 2019 – The Aspen Management Partnership for Health (AMP Health) has convened a High-Level Council on Leadership & Management for Development. The Council will catalyze the global conversation around the role of leadership and management in driving robust and durable progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals as set by the United Nations General Assembly. The Council brings together prominent and visionary individuals from diverse geographies across public and private sectors, with an emphasis on agriculture, education, finance, and health. It held its first meeting on Sunday, September 22, 2019 in advance of the UNGA in New York City.
“Leadership turns people around,” said George Alleyne, former Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and a member of the Council. “It is people – human capital – that really are at the essence of the efforts to make the world a better place.”
George Alleyne joins a group of prestigious change-makers – including Barbara Bush, Helen Clark, Jamie Cooper, Julio Frenk, Dan Glickman, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Wendy Kopp, Muhammad Ali Pate, Joy Phumaphi, Jaime Saavedra, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Ernesto Zedillo – brought together by Robert Newman, Director of AMP Health, and Peggy Clark, Executive Director of the Aspen Global Innovators Group. The inaugural Council meeting signals the growing cross-sectoral commitment to strengthening public sector leadership and management capabilities around the world.
The last 15 years have witnessed tremendous progress in human development, demonstrated through measured gains across many sectors, including agriculture, education, and health. This progress has been driven by new technologies and tools, including seeds, equipment, computers, digital platforms, diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines. Yet there are concerning signs that this progress is slowing, due in part to the fact that investments in commodities have not been matched by sufficient investments in the leadership and management capabilities of the individuals and teams responsible for delivering them. “Fortunately, this situation is readily reversible,” observed Robert Newman, “with visionary leadership and meticulous management, we can change the world.”
In order to change the global conversation, the High-Level Council on Leadership & Management for Development will regularly convene over the next two years, during which time it will explore the landscape of global and country-level investments in leadership and management for development, and set a visionary course for future investment in human capital. Its discussions will culminate in a report in late 2020, and a call-to-action at the time of the United Nations General Assembly in 2021.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia, shared with other Council members her personal experience of the leadership and management required to establish the first primary care delivery system in Liberia. “What was essential,” she explained, “was to identify the local level where leadership is, and what could be done to incentivize it, to encourage it, to dignify it, and to give it a central role.”
Learn more about the Council and its work at www.LeadManageDevelop.org or by following us on Twitter: @LeadManage4Dev. Learn more about AMP Health and its work at www.amphealth.org or by following us on Twitter: @AMPforHealth
The Aspen Institute is a nonpartisan forum for values-based leadership and the exchange of ideas. Based in Washington DC, the Institute also has campuses in Aspen, CO, and on the Wye River in eastern Maryland, and maintains offices in New York and several other cities. For more information, visit
AspenInstitute.org.