Our Vision at the IIHFD
Giving a Gift of Honest and Compassionate Leadership to the Developing Countries
During the late 1950s and early 1960s most developing countries began to experience political freedom. The post colonial era ushered in a period of growing hopes and aspirations for political emancipation, economic growth, and the attainment of the civil liberties. Having achieved self-government and realizing later that political freedom was meaningless without economic success, leaders in these countries began setting up programs to facilitate improvements in laborforce productivity and enhancement in social, economic, political, and educational life. During this era educational and developmental planning became the major policy tools. For decades leaders and their successors searched for ways to improve living conditions and the quality of life through science and technology education and improved agricultural practices.
Despite these efforts, the conditions across the developing countries continue to grow from bad to worse. Though most of these countries have an abundance of natural resources, the amount of financial resources, energy, effort, and time poured into education in these countries has failed to produce honest leaders and the quality of citizens required to develop a viable civil society and prosperous nation states. The failure in these countries to improve conditions has raised certain key questions:
1. Why are people in the developing countries finding it too difficult to achieve advancement and sustained human-centered development?
2. What must these people and their international helpers do to reverse the vicious cycle of economic underdevelopment and poverty?
To answer these questions it is important to perceive that no social policies or economic development programs can achieve their intended objectives if the environment is devoid of people who possess positive human factor qualities and are equipped to commit to achieving constructive changes. Human factor qualities include the personality characteristics of human performance that enable social, economic and political institutions to function and remain functional over time. Specifically, these qualities include honesty, trustworthiness, integrity, self motivation, compassion, a sense of justice and equality for all.
To achieve the objective of nation building, developing country leaders and their international helpers must develop citizens who are properly equipped to build a civil society This caliber of people must be steeped in resilience, committed to principle-centered living, and possess a pioneering spirit. They must be a courageous people who learn and grow in attitudes to effect positive change in the developing country society.
Effecting development-propelling changes in these countries in the future depends on what we do collectively today. Actions taken today will impact the future of these nations.. These actions, when concentrated solely on the youth, will bring about lasting changes in the developing countries tomorrow. Education programs aimed at improving the future of the developing country society must assist the youth to hone their skills, enhance their talents, and develop positive human factor qualities..
The developing country’s problems can be conquered and the desired objectives can be achieved if a program of human factor-based development education is established aimed at the cultivation of citizenship, nation building, and the establishment of civil society. When these objectives have been successfully accomplished, leaders will be better positioned to bring sustained improvements in the quality of life. These issues form the basis for the IIHFD’s Human Factor Leadership Development Academy. Please join us at the IIHFD to work together to give a gift of honest and compassionate leadership to the people in the developing countries.