ELIZA SMITH
Program Manager at Kyeema Foundation
Awarded a McKinsey Academy Scholarship for the Young Leaders Forum Scholarship, 2018
What sort of work does your organisation do?
The Kyeema Foundation (KYEEMA) supports local solutions to empower lives. We do this primarily through improving village poultry production. We respect local knowledge and implement solutions together with communities we serve. Our activities support sustainable food sources and poverty alleviation. Our vision is for empowerment of vulnerable communities. We achieve this vision with a mission to support local partnerships and use of local resources to improve living standards. Describe a typical day's work.
Developing projects and proposals, managing projects; carrying out due diligence and procedures for projects based on our policies; development of organizational strategy including planning, risk management, communication strategy, monitoring and evaluation standardization across projects; compliance with ACFID and DFAT; communications management and implementing fundraising and advocacy events and campaigns. What were some of the key learnings from the course?
1. Qualities of leadership are deeply reaching and require great effort in personal development (for most people).
2. Building effective communication and trust within teams is critical – the focus on inclusion and diversity and fostering psychologically safe environments where learning and vulnerability is fostered with great vigour gave me confidence to make changes in my organization and in other organization’s I may be with in the future – because the research on outcomes supports it!
3. More tools and knowledge for strategic thinking in the age of great disruption.
4. A better perspective on the corporate world (for me never having worked in it) and how I can approach it with more understanding for the benefit of social business outcomes working in the community and development sector. How has it impacted / changed / benefited your role and your organisation as a whole?
I think it has made me be more self-reflective and open to making significant changes in the way that I approach my role and working with our very small team of mostly volunteers. It has made me thirsty to grow my skills in different areas – particularly in business and economics, but also on more personal skills like communication and negotiation skills as well as more strategic thinking. It has also given me a better sense of what I need to do to become a good leader – tools, training and ways of thinking and doing (including better self-care, especially as a female leader of the future). How did you come to be working in the not-for-profit sector?
Since entering veterinary school I knew that I wanted to work in international development – working with livestock for improved livelihoods and food security through community development, education, public health practice and a systems health/ecohealth approach. I did my first stint working with the international development sector in 2013 on an Australian Volunteer for International Development (AVID) assignment based in Kenya and Uganda with the International Livestock Research Institute. Kyeema Foundaiton was the Australian Partner Organisation for the assignment and I haven’t looked back since then. What do you feel is most needed to sustain and build the impact of the not-for-profit sector?
New innovative funding models and more efficient and meaningful systems for measuring and achieving impact. In terms of international development sector, I think we need to get better at communicating the facts and importance of foreign aid to our future way of life. Making real connections across borders and fostering qualities of critical thinking, growth mindsets and community responsibility in future generations will be key. What is something interesting / unique / unusual about you?
I have a strongly bipolar arts/science brain and I like to connect with people that are very different to me and learn about how I can do things differently, based on their learnings – as I only have one life time to experience mine! I really adore films and have been involved in developing film festivals in Australia this past year – as part of (and outside) working as a program manager for Kyeema Foundation.
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