Leadership and Change in Asia-Pacific: Where Does Political Will Come From?

Abstract

We introduce this thematic issue by exploring the role of leadership in social and political change. In current times, the importance of leadership and choice has proved as important as ever. Leadership is often the critical variable separating success or failure, legitimacy and sustainability or collapse. This thematic issue explores a range of in-depth case studies across the Asia-Pacific region that help illustrate the critical elements of leadership. Collectively they demonstrate that leadership is best understood as a collective process involving motivated agents overcoming barriers to cooperation to form coalitions that have enough power, legitimacy and influence to transform institutions. Five themes emerge from the thematic issue as a whole: leadership is political; the centrality of gender relations; the need for a more critical localism; scalar politics; and the importance of understanding informal processes of leadership and social change.

Locally Led Opportunities for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Climate Change and Gender Equality Partnerships in the Blue Pacific

“…Critical localism can be summarised as a form of locally led development which has a focus on inclusion and addresses power dynamics within society to avoid elite capture and/or perpetuating inequalities for people and communities. [7,32] Critical localism in the Pacific is an alternative to colonial development models. Localism has developed in response to top-down and Northern-led development priorities, processes and modalities and requires a change in policy and practice.…”

“…Localism is underpinned by bottom-up local leadership and involves a broad set of stakeholders. With reference to leadership and change in the Asia-Pacific region, Hudson et al [32] (p. 131) emphasise the collective nature of change-making: "Leadership is best understood as a collective process involving motivated agents overcoming barriers to cooperation to form coalitions that have enough power, legitimacy and influence to transform institutions". With respect to forms of collective action, Nazneen [1] summarises how the literature differentiates three key types: coalitions (diverse set of groups or networks with aligned interests), collective action (undertaken by one or more coalitions) and social movements (interactive processes of collective action).…”

“…Studies have been conducted on women's coalitions and partnerships in the Blue Pacific [36,37], youth leadership and coalitions [38,39], WASH and GEDSI partnerships [6][7][8] and climate change NGO coalitions and partnerships [40,41]. Further relevant studies have been conducted on cross-sector partnerships [42], WASH and RHO partnerships [6,9] and leadership in the Blue Pacific [32]. Yet, no study, until now, has looked across these sectoral partnership approaches to inform localised WASH programs in the Blue Pacific.…”

Politics, Accountability, and Learning: Insights from the RISE Programme’s Political Economy Case Studies

“…But, just as politics can prevent wellintentioned reforms from taking root, no well-intentioned reforms ever take root except through political processes. Thus, we are motivated by Hudson et al (2018) in seeking to contribute to a "body of case evidence to better understand how and why politically-informed change happens (or doesn't)." We also recognize that education is contested terrain -just as much at the heart of nation-building and socialization as it is the bedrock of learning and human capital formation.…”