Abstract:

This presentation will discuss the assessment of the rural leaders training program conducted for 40 years by the Asian Rural Institute in northeastern Japan. This rural leaders development program is made up of nine-month training course and has to date trained more than 1000 persons from 56 nations. As the organization approached its 40th anniversary in 2013, a priority was made to do an assessment of both the organization and the program benefits, challenges and impacts.

This presentation and article will target these key areas:
1) A brief introduction to the development of the training over its 40 years of existence, as well as the contents of the training that contributed to the key purpose of the training.
2) Introduction to the training values and principles which include developing a deeper understanding of the environment, food, rural life, dignity of work, learning by doing and servant leadership principles, which are all based on respect and love.
3) The key factors reviewed include an organizational review of the curriculum and which learnings were used most by graduates
4) An assessment of the systems used for the recruitment selection and mentoring, and then how the program transformed participants’ ways of thinking and acting and how such graduates were later able to make changes in their communities and organizations.
5) The findings section will overview common and unique responses most relevant to the organization and program development
6) How this process is impacting the development of the training program and the organization so that it may be more effective to meet 21c challenges

The presentation will conclude with what can be learned from the study for replication in other trainings.

Data sources and Research methods: From spring 2013 through spring 2014 more than 200 people from 37 nations were interviewed, surveyed and visited.

Keywords:

Training, leadership, international, development, community building, servant leadership.