Leadership in Crisis: Markers of sustained influence for societal mobilisation in response to COVID-19

Authors

  • 'Funmi Olonisakin African Leadership Centre, King's College London
  • Barney Walsh African Leadership Centre, King's College London

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47697/lds.38380009

Keywords:

COVID-19, Societal Mobilisation, Leadership Infrastructure, Leadership Software & Hardware

Abstract

COVID-19 posed an intense and prolonged threat to many aspects of societal life. Its global reach and impact was truly remarkable. This situation demanded a response that went beyond that of social mobilisation in normal times: it required the rapid deployment of the aggregation of an entire population and its resources to fight against this threat to their common existence. Societal mobilisation in this sense, was thus critical to an effective response to COVID-19 at any level of society local, national, regional and global. This work argues that societal mobilisation presupposes an existing leadership infrastructure that places a given society at a vantage point to respond effectively during crisis with all its resources human, social and economic. Ultimately, leadership was the striking difference between societies that responded effectively to the outbreak of COVID-19 and those that were less effective. In this paper, Leadership infrastructure refers to a combination of the formal institutional elements of governing across realms (the hardware of leadership infrastructure); and the foundational relationships, shared values and expectations that underpin and reinforce these institutions across society (the software of leadership infrastructure). The paper discusses the role and implications of this infrastructure in shaping government and society responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, in relation, also, to the alternative leadership infrastructure that might support societal mobilisation outside of government frameworks; and the collective memory of previous pandemics. The paper argues that COVID-19 laid bare the strengths and weaknesses of societies and leaders. New leaders and alternative repositories of trust emerged; and there was no hiding place for those who failed to live up to the challenges of the moment. This paper provides a conceptual framework for subsequent research to take place.

Author Biographies

'Funmi Olonisakin, African Leadership Centre, King's College London

Professor Funmi Olonisakin is Vice President, International, Engagement and Service (IES) at Kings College London. She is also Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at the African Leadership Centre in the School of Global Affairs at Kings. In her role as Vice President IES, Professor Olonisakin seeks to facilitate the deployment of Kings assets (including knowledge, scholarship and talent in service of society) locally, nationally and internationally, to enable transformative and lasting impact. She is committed to building inter-disciplinary and intersectoral collaboration, and sustaining equitable partnerships to realise positive and lasting impact within and beyond Kings.

Producing knowledge that influences change beyond the academy has been at the heart of Professor Olonisakins research work and life as an academic. She has positioned her work to serve as a bridge between academia and the worlds of policy and practice. Her research has been shaped by her interest in deepening understanding of why civil wars relapse, and the drivers of youth vulnerability and exclusion in the developing world. More recently, she has sought to explore the interface between leadership, peace, and security as a basis to unpack and understand the big transnational problems that confront the world today. She has led a number of major research projects including most recently on future peace, society and the state in Africa, supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Professor Olonisakin founded the African Leadership Centre (ALC) both at Kings and in Kenya, as a collaboration between Kings and the University of Nairobi in 2010. The ALC aims to develop a new community of leaders generating cutting edge-knowledge for peace, security and development in Africa. Professor Olonisakin has focused on inclusive postgraduate research training at the ALC, combining field-building with community-building while working with inter-generational research teams to translate knowledge generated into multiple forms of collaborative engagement regionally in Africa, and globally.

Previously, Professor Olonisakin worked in the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in New York, between 1999 and 2003. From 2003 until 2013, she was Director of the Conflict Security and Development Group at Kings College London.

In January 2015, United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, appointed Professor Olonisakin as one of seven members of the Advisory Group of Experts (AGE) on the Review of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture; and in 2016, as a member of the Advisory Group of Experts for the United Nations Progress Study on Youth, Peace, and Security. In 2018, she was appointed to the Council of the United Nations University, on which she currently serves as Chair. She was awarded the Fellowship of Kings College in 2020.

University of Pretoria (UP), where she was appointed as an Extra-Ordinary Professor in 2016, conferred the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (honoris causa) on Professor Olonisakin in May 2022 in recognition of her significant contributions to the promotion of peace, security, justice, and international solidarity in Africa, with special reference to women and youth.

Professor Olonisakin was educated at the University of Ife, Nigeria (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and Kings College London, graduating with a BSc. Honours in Political Science (Ife, 1984) and MSc and PhD in War Studies (Kings 1996) respectively. She was a post-doctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Sciences in UP in 1998, and was awarded a McArthur Foundation post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of War Studies from 1998-1999.

Barney Walsh, African Leadership Centre, King's College London

Dr Barney Walsh is a Senior Lecturer in Security, Leadership and Development Education at the African Leadership Centre (ALC). He is programme convenor of the blended learning MSc Global Leadership and Peacebuilding and Managing Editor of the ALC Journal of Leadership and Developing Societies. He is also a mentor on the various ALC Fellowship programmes.

Barney holds a BA degree in History and Sociology (international) from Leeds University and MA in International Relations from King's. In 2016 he was the first ever graduate of the PhD Leadership Studies with reference to Security and Development programme at ALC-Kings, where he has worked as Faculty since.

Barney has published several peer-reviewed articles in accredited journals, on topics such as Regional Security Complex Theory in Africa, Human Security in East Africa, African Agency and Security issues within China-Africa relations. He has also organised and overseen numerous academic conferences and symposiums. Barney has lived, travelled and worked across Africa, and undertaken field work research in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa.

Research

  • Leadership Studies
  • Ugandan Political Economy
  • China-Africa Relations
  • East African Security

Barney has published several peer-reviewed articles in accredited journals, on topics such as Regional Security Complex Theory in Africa, Human Security in East Africa, African Agency and Security issues within China-Africa relations. He has also organised and overseen numerous academic conferences and symposiums. Barney has lived, traveled and worked across Africa, and undertaken field work research in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa.

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Published

2025-03-28

How to Cite

Olonisakin, ’Funmi, & Walsh, B. (2025). Leadership in Crisis: Markers of sustained influence for societal mobilisation in response to COVID-19. Leadership and Developing Societies, 9(1), 4–17. https://doi.org/10.47697/lds.38380009

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2024)

Section

RESEARCH ARTICLES

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