From Gillian Martin Mehers – Director, Learning, LEAD International:

Strategic partnerships are central to the LEAD 2.0 process – we are therefore please to announce that we will be now be working with Ashridge, a world-leading business school and centre of excellence for learning and research for sustainability. This partnership is aimed specifically at redesigning and virtualizing aspects of the LEAD Africa Fellowship Programme, learning from the approach and taking that learning into other programmes.

LEAD Africa Member Programme Directors and Coordinator, Kaday Mansaray Sibanda, together with Gillian Martin Mehers and the Learning Systems project team Martin Mehers, are working with Ashridge to develop a programme design and robust virtual platform to meet the needs of current and future Associates. As with the wider LEAD Africa Programme, this initiative is supported by the Shell Foundation, both financially and in terms of valuable project insight and guidance. Nicolas Ceasar and Alexandra Stubbings, specialists in leadership and sustainability at Ashridge are working with us, along with their Virtual Learning technical team.

Progress is being made on the LEAD online learning system which will be implemented using Moodle – an open source solution that hosted the online module of the 2011 International Session. We are also moving forward with plans to create a technology platform to support the Fellows' Network and we will be sending out tenders before we break for Christmas.

A progress update from the work streams can be found below. For more information about the LEAD 2.0 process please contact Katie Singer ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ). 

Work stream updates – December 2011

1) Market Research (managed by Graham Ward)

• Additional elements of competitor analysis have been reviewed in early December to inform the business case for potential income streams.

2) Transition Communications (managed by Katie Singer)

• Information about the 2.0 process is now available on the LEAD website - www.lead.org/lead-20
• LEAD International will be sending a 'holiday greetings' message to all our partners next week. The message will introduce the 2.0 process and map out our transformation plans for 2012.

3) Learning Systems and Network Platform (managed by Gillian Martin Mehers)

• After a number of months of research, we have decided to use Moodle - an open source solution – as our choice of learning management system.
• To support the new development of learning modules in Moodle, LEAD plans to host a "Moodle Camp" in early February 2012 . The aim is to build LEAD's capacity to create Moodle online learning courses, engage with external Moodle experts and develop a set of courses for LEAD 2.0. These will be based on the new LEAD competency set which is being developed with Ashridge Business School.
• More information will be available about the Moodle camp in the next months but in the meantime, we would be very grateful to hear from any Moodle experts – please contact Sam via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• We are currently scoping out potential providers for our technology platform to support the Network and will be sending out tender requests to a number of companies next week. As part of our research we have been in touch with Mario Gouvea, a former LEADnet Director.

4) Commercial Modelling and Financing (managed by Mike Ellingham)

• Elements of the future commercial model are being tested with external financial experts to determine their viability.

5) Results Framework (managed by Janet Southern)

• The structure of the ISEAL code of practice for Assessing the Impact of Social and Environmental Standards Systems is being reviewed to determine if this may provide a roadmap for assessing how we monitor and evaluate our impact on a consistent basis in the future.

6) Partnerships and Marketing (managed by Caroline Spencer and Graham Ward)

• The project team has been focussing on the compilation and mapping of past and present partners to ensure that we use existing relationships to the maximum effect during the development of LEAD 2.0.

7) Global Project Support Facility (managed by Amit Arulananatham)

• Work is ongoing, no further updates this week

8) Network Governance (managed by Mike Ellingham)

• This work stream will commence in early 2012

9) Organisational Development (managed by Graham Ward)

• A workshop will be held at the end of this week to review organisational development actions that are specific to the delivery of LEAD 2.0.
• Wider aspects of organisational development relating to the transition of LEAD International to a self-sustaining social enterprise will be implemented in the first half of 2012 but, for the moment, all development actions will be focused on delivering LEAD 2.0.