2025 Message from the MD: Happy New Year!

If 2024 was a day out of the office, it would have been to a theme park. We took many rides (a couple too many) on the roller coaster with tender proposals and travel, and not enough time at the picnic tables to exchange and connect. The unpredictability and sometime rapid pace of work in our field is what we have come to know. Very fortunately at LEI, we have a strong team who embrace the demands that allow us to pivot quickly and progress effectively.  We aim to find a steady pace for impactful work in 2025 as we see our projects move into implementation, wrap up and roll-over phases.

With the fast rides, and ups and downs, we step into 2025, but importantly reflecting on the year that was. We are asking ourselves if there is anything we did in 2024 that will likely change the way we work and collaborate?

• Reflecting on our time and skills in-house showed that we needed to expand our team. With an exceptional response to our advertisement, we had a large choice of applicants to select a new Research and Communications Officer. Since the end of November we have been getting to know Naia Webb, who was selected for the role. She brings a youthful, and valued set of skills and experience to our team. Take a look in Our Team
• In more welcoming news, we’d like to introduce two new associates to our network, Pak Frans Siahaan and Jan van Bennekom-Minnema. As a boutique consulting team, expanding our network of Associates helps to increase our breadth of skills and representation across multiple regions. Our associates are selected for their quality of work, shared professional interests and opportunities and alignment with LEI’s values. We look forward to Frans and Jan’s contributions.
• Looking forward, maintaining collegiate associations and continued professional development for all our staff is a priority. This includes engagement with the Leaders for Impact Hub which provides lateral thinking, leadership and management tools and peer support, among various technical working groups, webinars and conferences that LEI participate in.
• Dedication to our project team and partners remains incredibly important. Throughout the new year, we will continue to learn how best to value the complementary advantage of partnerships and expand our team’s expertise.

Our projects in the Mekong Region, Vanuatu, Lesotho, globally on the Land Facility, and starting this month in Nepal, all have various exciting updates to be shared. The details are vast, the results are being collated and the teams are re-booting for 2025 with huge operating plans ahead. We look forward to sharing details further in this newsletter and articles coming up over the next couple of months.