Arewa Center for Regional Development (ACRD)

Untapped economic potentials	Solid minerals: Gold, Lithium, etc.	Information technology (ICT)

Stronger economies together	Arewa center of excellence	Arewa strategic development

Era of collaboration & partnership	Small & medium enterprises	Arewa regional decision makers

Arewa demographic shifts	Arewa, the quest for unity	Publications


	AREWA COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP - Building trusting relationships among key players that spur the movement of ideas into action in an agile manner for the Arewa region. In collaborative leadership, it’s not the number of people you know that makes connectors significant, rather; it’s the ability to link people, ideas, and resources that would not normally bump into one another. In business, connectors are critical facilitators of collaboration. In today's era of tightening government budgets and paucity of funds, regional development organizations (RDOs) need to leverage local and external resources by thinking creatively about developing and funding initiatives that improve communities’ quality of life within the region. Collaborate at the Top First It’s not enough for leaders to spot collaborative opportunities and attract the best talent to them. They must also set the tone by being good collaborators themselves. All too often, efforts to collaborate in the middle are sabotaged by political games and turf battles higher up in the organization. Consider that Microsoft, according to a former company executive writing in the New York Times last year, developed a viable tablet computer more than a decade ago but failed to preempt Apple’s smash hit because competing Microsoft divisions conspired to kill the project. Show a Strong Hand - Once leaders start getting employees to collaborate, they face a different problem: overdoing it. Too often people will try to collaborate on everything and wind up in endless meetings, debating ideas and struggling to find consensus. They can’t reach decisions and execute quickly. Collaboration becomes not the oil greasing the wheel but the sand grinding it to a halt.			ERA OF COLLABORATION & PARTNERSHIP - AREWA Center for Regional Development (ACRD) believes that this is the era of multilateralism, an era of collaboration and partnership between public and private sectors, the civil society and other non-government organization to promote economic growth and opportunity; to invest in the well-being of people from all walks of life; and to make democracy serve every citizen more effectively and justly, a partnership based on risk-sharing and value creation to advance mutual regional goals. Engage Talent at the Periphery Research has consistently shown that diverse teams produce better results, provided they are well led. The ability to bring together people from different backgrounds, disciplines, cultures, religion and generations and leverage all they have to offer, therefore, is a must-have for leaders. Yet many public and private companies spend inordinate amounts of time, money, and energy attracting talented employees only to subject them to homogenizing processes that kill creativity. In a lot of multinational companies, for example, non-native English speakers in the US are at a disadvantage. To senior management, they don’t sound as “leader-like” as the Anglophones, and they end up getting passed over for promotions. At a time when innovations are increasingly originating in emerging markets, companies that allow this to happen lose out. "Left to their own devices, people will choose to collaborate with others they know well, which can be deadly for innovation”. Collaborative leaders ensure that teams stay fresh via periodic infusions of new players, diverse and resourcefulness, youths-focus and energetic; this is what we need in the north.

	The Essence of partnership These partnerships include to collaborate to address the regional and nation’s cyber-security, banditry and terrorism challenges as well as: Co-create solutions to shared problems that advance the core goals of each of the partners; Shared risk, investment (direct or indirect), and potential reward for all partners; and Leveraging unique partner skills and assets, producing outcomes with greater impact than could be achieved independently and sustainably, that take cognizance to: 1. Implement Programs that Build on Regional Opportunities Introducing innovative programs that complement and add value to all States within the Arewa region’s industry and occupational clusters. 2. Strengthen Arewa Regional Collaboration and Innovation Networks The mainstay of the ACRD Center of Excellence’s collaboration work centers on its Strategic Doing initiative. This program will focus on the use of States within the regional networks to accelerate innovation, partnership and collaboration. Strategic Doing quickly develops sophisticated collaborations that help advance open innovation across organizational and political boundaries within the entire region. Strategic Doing ignites the spark of regional innovation, partnership and collaboration enabling people in loosely-joined, open networks to think and act strategically. In partnership with Small Business Development Center’s across the World, this program showcases the pivotal role of second-stage firms to employment growth and prosperity and development growth strategies, with the goal of making Arewa region an investment destination. 3. Building Capacity of Local and State Governments to effectively Address Economic and Environmental issues The mainstay of the ACRD environmental considerations in the overall policy-making, planning, and development process at local and regional level are: Building capacity of local and States governments within the region to effectively address specific environmental issues, concerns, and strategic measures in areas like agriculture, transport, waste management, managed natural resources, and freshwater availability that have significant relevance and implications in the context of sustainable regional development; Responding to emerging issues of concern, such as climate change and human health impacts; and Fostering community-based natural resource/environment management to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Partner with other non-government organizations (NGOs) to compliment the efforts of the government in bringing support to the public health, flood, deforestation, bush burning, environmental sanitation and waste management including toxic waste disposal.