Defence transformation in South Africa : sharing the experience with the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo : essay
“There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order”—Machiavelli This essay was written after a team of the Institute for Security Studies visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to share their experiences of the challenges of defence transformation with Congolese officials and members of civil society. It discusses the South African defence transformation process and experience in detail and highlights the imperative for visionary leadership, commitment and communication as prerequisites for successful transformation. The DRC faces a unique opportunity to design and create an optimal national defence force for itself, which will reflect its new and evolving national policy on defence, and therefore the needs of the nation. This poses an exciting challenge and true...
Leadership development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Leadership development has emerged as an important theoretical and practical stream of management. As an area of higher learning, leadership draws from numerous academic fields and real life sources and therefore requires integration of knowledge with experience. There is an implicit assumption that leadership is important, that leaders make a difference, and that positive group and organisational effects are produced by leaders and the leadership process. To most people the importance of leadership is self-evident no matter the setting. In organisations, effective leadership facilitates higher-quality production with more efficient services; it provides a sense of cohesiveness, personal development, and higher levels of satisfaction among those conducting the work; and it provides an overarching sense of direction and vision, an alignment with the environment, a healthy mechanism for innovation and creativity, and a resource for invigorating the organisational culture. This is no small order, especially in contemporary times. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a vast country endowed with huge natural and mineral resources. But for decades the DRC has been through coups d’état, civil wars, rebellions, political turmoil and instability, and it also faced aggression from its neighbouring countries in recent years. All these events have impacted negatively on the state and have provoked the decay of public institutions, making the country one of the notorious failed states of the world (Tshiyoyo 2011:104). Given the state’s failure in the DRC, creating a strong nation should be a priority. The government in the DRC should strengthen the organs of the state in order to tackle the socio-economic crisis that has Leadership development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
REFORMA DO ESTADO E AS POLÍTICAS PARA A EDUCAÇÃO SUPERIOR NO BRASIL NOS ANOS 90
This article aims at discussing the federal policies for higher education implemented in Brazil in the 1990s. It assumes that such policies are based on socio-political choices and interests linked to the changes occurring in the contemporary Brazilian scene, changes that have deep historical roots, which emerge in the process of reformation of the Brazilian State. This situation implies alterations in the field of public policies, and more particularly in that of social policies, since the on-going official proposals and projects are characterized by a decrease of the role of State. The borders between public and private affairs have become increasingly blurred in a process detrimental to the former. The contradictions in the federal policies for higher education are analyzed here, as well as their results as for the following fields: institutional diversification and differentiation; assessment criteria, broadening and privatization of this level of education.