We congratulate participants from DT Global’s inaugural Emerging Leaders in International Development (ELID) program, who graduated from a 12-month comprehensive leadership program on 6 September 2023.
To acknowledge this important milestone, the 15 Emerging Leaders — 11 women and four men from eight countries across the Asia Pacific region — joined an online graduation ceremony attended by a special guest, the Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific, The Hon. Pat Conroy MP.
DT Global’s APAC Managing Director, Colin Adams, opened the event by welcoming The Minister and our Emerging Leaders, along with many attending dignitaries from the Asia Pacific region including Ambassadors, High Commissioners, DFAT colleagues, and DT Global’s Leadership Team.
Colin explained that DT Global started the Emerging Leaders in International Development program, or the ELID program as it is known, last year as a pilot project.
We saw this as an important investment in our high potential local staff who are all already leaders in their own right but also have the potential to really take their leadership to the next level.
- Colin Adams, Managing Director
“The first year of ELID has completely exceeded our expectations, and this is largely due to the contribution of our amazing participants and all those who supported them over their 12-month leadership journey,” he said.
- Colin Adams, Managing Director
A video from one of our program training partners, ETMP — a 100% Indigenous-owned and run
company specialising in leadership training, coaching, and facilitation — was shared at the event.
ETMP’s Managing Director, Duane Vickery, highlighted the comprehensive training the ELIDs had received over the last 12 months in adaptive management practice, transformational leadership, and servant leadership.
As part of the graduation ceremony, three of the Emerging Leaders presented their recommendations on locally led development, the future of the ELID program and the remuneration framework for local staff in the international development sector, to the Minister for consideration.
Echoing DT Global’s commitment to locally led development, Minister Conroy spoke about Australia’s new international development policy and Australia's role in supporting locally
led development initiatives in the Asia Pacific region.
What you're doing is inspiring and really consistent with where the Australian Government wants to go with our new international development policy. Our policy is all about locally led development. Your expertise, your experience, and your insight are critical to the success of our development partnerships
- Minister Conroy
The Minister congratulated all the Emerging Leaders on their achievements and
wished them well in their future leadership journeys.
At the conclusion of the online event, individual teams gathered in various Country
Offices, High Commissions or Embassies around the Asia Pacific region, to receive their graduation certificates and celebrate their achievements.
DT Global is now looking forward to welcoming the second cohort of Emerging Leaders from the Asia Pacific Region who will soon start a new leadership journey in October.
Congratulations to all our graduating Emerging Leaders!
