Albert Luthuli Leadership Institute (ALLI)

ALLI hosts international MDP forum on street homelessness

25 June 2021

Out of 37 universities around the globe, the University of Pretoria is one of only four African universities to host the global Master’s in Development Practice (MDP) programme. The Albert Luthuli Leadership Institute (ALLI, housed in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences) recently invited MDP students, alumni, and lecturers globally to join an interactive discussion on street homelessness.
 
Prof Stephan de Beer, an urban theologian, expert in spatial justice and Director of the Centre for Faith and Community in UP’s Faculty of Theology and Religion, introduced the reality of street homelessness in South Africa in light of the urgent need for policy development in this area. Prof de Beer was joined by Katleho Ncaphe, Head of the vulnerable persons programme at PEN, a faith-based NGO, who suggested how we might relearn leadership to address complex challenges such as street homelessness. He also highlighted organisational and personal challenges in creating forms of collaborative leadership to this end.
 
Prof Jannie Hugo, Director of UP’s Community Oriented Primary Care [COPC] Research Unit, addressed the complexity of leadership and management in relation to homelessness mitigation. Coordination, communication and innovation were cornerstones of the discussion. Lorenzo Davids, CEO of Community Chest South Africa, described homelessness as a violation of human rights and a betrayal of justice, suggesting how we might craft new paradigms for finding solutions.
 
Finally, Carlos Mesquita, co-founder of the Homeless Action Committee, provided a first-hand account of how society fails homeless communities, and suggested ways for creating pathways to better, more inclusive futures. Along with the five experts on street homelessness in South Africa, three short documentary videos painted a stark picture of the reality of the challenge, but also created hope by showing what significant progress has been made in the brief period during the COVID-19 challenge.
 
The issues of social infrastructure and vulnerable communities are salient elements of both sustainability and policy reform. Throughout the webinar, the ALLI aimed to expose students to perspectives of how leadership functions in inter-sectoral collaboration to address the SDGs in relation to policy development. The webinar was interactive in nature, and the global MDP community was encouraged to engage with the speakers in order to generate conversation in an international sphere and contribute to a comprehensive outlook on homelessness and policy making in relation thereto.
 
 
 
- Author Albert Luthuli Leadership Institute