NGOs draw sketch of model civil society leader

A leader of civil society must be a good communicator, an excellent speaker, gifted and charismatic. These are some of the most important characteristics identified by the Moldovan non-governmental organizations’ representatives who want to become NGO leaders. They discussed the role of leadership in civil society within the thematic Club on Leadership, organized by the Center of Organizational Training and Consultancy (CICO), Info-Prim Neo reports. CICO consultant, Elena Levinta-Peciun, explained that this kind of meetings created a platform of communication, interaction and experience exchange between participating organizations. “I think that after mass media, NGOs are the fifth power in a country and the leader of an organization has a great role in initiating and promoting social changes. It matters a lot what’s the goal of the organization, what are the leader and his team’s personal and professional qualities, because without certain traits, without determination and a clear vision, you can’t bring that social change we all expect”, she said. According to the CICO consultant, the Club will allow NGO representatives to indentify and understand the role of a leader of the associative sector who can later become a leader of the whole society. The coordinator of the Training and Partner Organizations Consortium of the Academy for Education Development (AED), Angela Vacaru, mentioned that AED provided great support for the development of NGO management and civil society leadership. “This is the first thematic Club organized by CICO within our leadership program. Its goal is to create a platform of communication and experience exchange between civil society representatives. There are organizations with charismatic leaders who are supported by their teams, but there are cases when the role of person is way too important within the organization, or on the contrary, the NGO lacks a true leader”, said Angela Vacaru. One of the participants, Veaceslav Groma, expert of the Agency for Rural Development Center Orhei, admitted these meetings would help him understand the new traits that define a leader. “I’m a leader in my family, among my friends and in my organization and I want to go further. An NGO leader must have persuasion and communication skills, because that’s how NGO promote themselves – through communication and direct messages that are attractive”, he said. Another participant, Cristina Bobirca, program coordinator at the Independent Journalism Center, claimed that there were no more prominent leaders in Moldova. “An NGO leader must be charismatic, intelligent, gifted and able to lead a team. In Moldova, we have no such leaders with all the necessary qualities”, she said. Bobirca added that during the Club discussions she identified many new features of a leader. The activity of the thematic Club is financially supported the USAID within AED's Strengthening Civil Society in Moldova Program.