Founded in January of 2007, CALI Foundation is a non-profit private interest foundation based in Panama that seeks to help motivate effective and responsible leaders across Central America, who are capable of guiding their countries as they struggle to align the demands of globalization with local visions of a “good society”. The aim is to develop a new generation of value-based leaders in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. The region is home to a growing number of competent young leaders in all sectors of society. CALI is designed to capture the energy, the talent, and the resolve of these leaders, who have already achieved a certain level of success in their respective fields, to inspire them to make a lasting impact in their region.

From 2007-2011, the Initiative will identify, strengthen and motivate 120 Central America Leadership “Fellows” from six countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama) to assume a more proactive stance in addressing the foremost challenges of their region – and their times.

The Fellows, between the ages of 30-45 years and drawn from business (50%), government (25%) and civil society (25%), are organized into five successive classes of 24 Fellows each. They come together four times over a period of 18 months to:

• identify and address their personal strengths and weaknesses as leaders,
• share and refine their respective visions of the society they would like to live in, and
• lead by example by carrying out a self-designed, high impact Leadership Project.

The Leadership Fellows selected then participate in an 18-month program comprising four seminars and leadership development activities under the guidance of skilled moderators trained and certified by the Aspen Institute. The program requires a commitment by each Fellow of 17 days (four to five days each February and July) for seminar meetings plus the time allocated for individual leadership projects and periodic informal gatherings. Three of these sessions will be held in Central America and one in Aspen. The four sessions are:

• The Challenge of Leadership
• The Great Values Seminar: Defining the Good Society
• Leading in an Era of Globalization
• The Promise of Leadership

The entire orientation of the Initiative, as with the Aspen Institute’s Henry Crown Fellowship Program that inspired its creation, will be “thought leading to action.”

Through the readings that form the basis of the seminars, the Fellows will be exposed to a range of “thought leaders” and role models from around the globe and across the ages who have clearly articulated their visions for “a good society” and demonstrated their capacity for effective, enlightened leadership. As they read, the Fellows will be challenged to think about their own visions – and about how they measure up as leaders.

Through the dialogue and debate that is inspired by these readings and prompted by the moderators, the Fellows will be exposed to the values and beliefs of others from their own societies with whom they must learn to work if they are to build stronger economies and civil societies. Government and civil society leaders will learn how their counterparts in the business community think about concepts such as “efficiency” and “liberty”, how they respond to crises and critical challenges, and what their frustrations are as they try to create growth and jobs. Likewise, business leaders will learn how their counterparts in other sectors think about “community” and “equality”, and how they balance the demands of the marketplace with the needs of the less-endowed and the less-empowered.

But through their leadership projects, all of the Fellows will be compelled to put their own visions, passion and leadership styles into action.

Based on the results of the inaugural CALI class, the Henry Crown Fellowship program and the Africa Leadership Initiative, the types of actions envisioned for the Central America Fellows are:

• Greater engagement of business leaders in active policy dialogue with their governments, especially dialogue around creating the right conditions for growth and successful participation in the global economy.
• Greater engagement of business leaders – and the businesses they lead --in tackling social challenges – from HIV/AIDS to literacy, nutrition, housing, gangs, and youth unemployment.
• Greater engagement by government and civil society leaders with the business community in tackling these same social challenges.

To illustrate this point, the following is a partial list of projects that were committed to by the current CALI fellows after their last session in July 2006:

• Developing a program to eliminate malnutrition in rural El Salvador
• Starting an initiative to bring growth capital to micro-entrepreneurs in Nicaragua
• Leading a non-profit organization to encourage socially responsible businesses
• Launching an initiative to address judicial corruption in Honduras
• Developing an initiative to help street children in San Salvador
• Creating a road safety campaign in Costa Rica to reduce the amount of highway fatalities
• Working with a national youth campaign in Honduras
• Establishing a youth journalism project in Guatemala
• Developing an environmental awareness program for Panamanian school children
• Promoting economic competitiveness in Guatemala by creating a series of case studies of successful firms.
• Equipping rural schools in Panama with computers and Internet access.

Each Fellow has committed to a project to help tangibly improve their society, and it is expected that they will continue to apply the lessons learned during these sessions to help solve the pressing issues they face. It is the hope of the Founders of this program that investing in greater leadership capacity will be the key to bringing forth the great potential they see in this region – both through the leadership projects, and the leaders themselves.

The CALI Foundation is also a member of the growing Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN), a place where Fellows from all over the world keep connected.