Invest in a Leader

Family and Sustainable Leadership Structures: Lessons from Field Research with FID

by | Oct 3, 2025 | Governance and Leadership

Contemporary leadership and governance structures are often conceptualised through well-articulated frameworks—rules, regulations, metrics, and accountability channels—designed to ensure transparency, responsibility, and legitimacy. Such arrangements are central to the normative architecture of modern democracy and the nation-state. Yet, despite these sophisticated designs, many postcolonial states, particularly in the Global South, remain plagued by weak institutions, unstable leadership, civil wars, and recurrent governance crises.

Gender Considerations in Traditional Endogenous Leadership among the Mankon, Bamendakwe, Ngambe, and Bakweri

by | Sep 24, 2025 | Gender, Governance and Leadership

Drawing on research funded by FID (Foundation de l’innovation pour la démocratie), we examined endogenous leadership across the Northwest, Southwest, and Littoral regions of Cameroon, focusing specifically on the Mankon and Bamendakwe kingdoms in the Northwest, the Bakweri in the Southwest, and Ngambe in the Littoral. What emerges from this study is a nuanced portrait of gendered leadership roles that are both distinct and interdependent.