Fiona first came across Leaders’ Quest when she was programme director for Save the Children (SC) in South Africa (2003-2006), she then remained in South Africa for 2 years as Associate Director working with the Chief Executive on special projects and representing SC to policy makers and donors. She was also on the Board of the AIDS Foundation of South Africa. Fiona is proud of the programme she established which assisted more than 50,000 vulnerable children in Free State and Limpopo provinces.

Prior to this, Fiona was Policy Adviser in SC’s policy unit in London working on child labour and corporate social responsibility issues. She was a founder member of the Publish What You Pay coalition, calling for extractive industry to publish all payments made to government which led to the UK government establishment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). She also helped to establish the Ethical Trading Initiative, a multistakeholder body of trades unions, NGOs and business working together to improve working conditions in the agricultural and textile supply chains to the UK markets.

In the 1990’s Fiona played a leading role in the UK Ban Landmines Campaign, following her Masters in Community Health fieldwork on landmine injury in Cambodia. In 1998, Fiona was seconded to the UK Finance Minister’s office on the Millenium Gift Aid Campaign. She is a graduate of Cambridge University.

Her previous role was that of the first COO of the EdelGive Foundation. As well as managing overall operations and contributing to EdelGive’s strategic development, she oversaw the grant-making process to innovative and entrepreneurial non-profits. This was preceded by a period of consulting on Corporate Social Responsibility with the German Technical Cooperation in Delhi. Prior to this, in her role as Officer on Special Duty to the Chief Minister of Rajasthan (2005-2008), she focused on shaping public policy on development as well as building effective public-private partnerships to deliver state-wide development outcomes, especially those impacting women and children. Much of Aditi’s understanding of the sector comes from her early work experience with SPARC (Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres). She has been influenced deeply by their approach which is to act as a bridge between informal people’s movements and the formal world of policy and finance – this has also given her a strong grasp of the role of the professional in the development process.

Aditi holds degrees in English Literature from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai and Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford. While at Oxford, she was a founding member of the multi-cultural poetry collective, Slice Mango. Aditi is also a member of the India Advisory Group of the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network and a core group member of the India Philanthropy Network. She continues to pursue her passion for writing in her spare time, and is an active member of poetry circles and book clubs.

Since our Quest Fellowship programme started back in 2008, we have supported 796 grassroots leaders like Ganesh and Nadira. Over the next three years, we aim to support 1000 more. Help us by giving generously today.

When Ganesh was selected for a Quest Fellowship in 2008, he decided to focus his attention on supporting these women. To reduce their reliance on high-interest private loans (or on government loans), he created 12 self-help groups (SHGs), each comprising 10-15 women. SHGs are micro-finance institutions which offer small loans at low interest rates and educate women on how to save money efficiently and create other sources of income, which also helps to tackle issues such as domestic violence and healthcare.

During his fellowship year, Ganesh was able to help around 750 people in his local community, and since then, his network has expanded to 50 groups, benefiting around 3,000 villagers. Ganesh’s vision is to create ‘federation of self-help groups’, and he is now working with a network of around 200 SHGs.

From an early age, Ganesh was involved in initiatives to help the poor and disadvantaged. Like many in his community, he grew up in a family that struggled to make ends meet. His mother was a rag picker, and his father a labourer.

Even during his childhood, Ganesh was involved in helping others and, as an adult, he worked with CORO (Committee of Resource Organisations), an Indian NGO and a key Leaders’ Quest partner. Through his work at CORO, (which included running mobile libraries and conducting evening study groups), he became aware of the difficulties community women were facing in trying to earn a living.

According to his mentor, Ganesh is “a very resourceful and active leader and is available 24 hours for the community”.

Anne believes the world’s biggest problems can only be solved with, not without, global business. So she sees the integration of values and best practices between for-profit and non-profit organisations as fundamental to addressing the issues that concern us all. Anne sits on the Advisory Committee for Impetus, the UK ’s largest venture philanthropy organization, and is on the board of GuideStar UK. She is a member of the Acumen Fund’s partner community, and previously served as a consultative reader and financial analysis trainer for New Philanthropy Capital. Amongst other concerns Anne’s early work focused extensively on domestic violence, and she remains committed to the development of opportunities for women and girls globally.

Anne has a BA from Harvard University in Government and an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics. Anne lives in London with her husband Gil, and twins Sarah and Jack, and spends as much time in Maine as possible.

Driving change in business and finance

Contrasting sharply with this, we met Nicky Newton-King, CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), who began by saying that education and leadership were South Africa’s biggest challenges (a consistent theme in a number of visits). Nicky is a remarkable leader who has transformed the traditional male-dominated JSE into one that values diversity and has a real commitment to corporate social responsibility.

We also met Wendy Lucas-Bull, Business Woman of the year in 1995, who sits on the board of Eskom and was one of Andersons’ first female partners. When she became pregnant for the first time, Andersons’ policy was that it was fine providing there was no decline in her billable hours and she didn’t have a second child! In spite of this, she went on to have three children whilst working there. Wendy led a fascinating discussion on gender in the workplace that chimed with a number of themes we discussed in our recent diversity workshop.

Lastly we had the great privilege to visit Gill Marcus, Governor of South Africa’s Reserve Bank. The meeting was co-led by Gareth Ramsey from the Bank of England. Gill was a senior ANC activist and politician and outlined her view of leadership in the context of the recent financial crisis. A personal highlight for me was the fact that I sat next to her at dinner and she regaled me with tales of “Mandiba” who is apparently “bigger than the legend” – an immense thought!

None of the above really does justice to what was a unique, highly memorable and personally impactful week for me and my fellow questors. We learnt from each other, bonded as a group and experienced a depth of thought and insight that I don’t think could be replicated in any other environment. The experience will impact on me as a leader, but more fundamentally and importantly, it will impact on me as a person.

NGO India 2012 will be held from 16-18 March at Epicentre, Gurgaon, Delhi.

If you’re in either London or Delhi, do drop by our stall or come and hear Aditi/Lindsay speak!

Richard has a BA in History from Durham University and an MSt in US History from the University of Oxford. Before joining Leaders’ Quest he worked as an editorial intern at two London-based monthly magazines, Diplomat and Total Politics.

In his spare time, Richard enjoys singing with various choirs and ensembles and is an avid cricket fan.

…living on only £1 per day for food and drink for one working week
…donating the money you save on food and drink to Leaders’ Quest Fellows
…raising money by asking your friends, family and colleagues to sponsor you
…or sponsoring someone else to do the hard work instead!

1.4 billion people have no choice but to Live Below The Line – on less than £1 a day – every day. This global campaign is a unique way to experience a tiny slice of the challenge that living in extreme poverty presents, and to raise money to help grassroots leaders tackle this problem. Sign up to Live Below the Line

Where the money goes
All the money you donate and raise will help grassroots leaders like Ganesh and Nadira tackle problems related to poverty in their own communities through the Quest Fellowship Programme. This year-long period of training, mentoring and support enables promising leaders to create projects which generate livelihoods, reduce corruption and violence, and increase access to education and health services. Leaders’ Quest Fellows commit up to 25 hours per week and reach up to 2,000 people through their work.

How you can make it work for you
Thousands of people around the world took part in last year’s Live Below the Line campaign. Here are some fun and simple tips they discovered to make the challenge easier to meet with their friends, families and colleagues…

…joining in as a team to pool funds and keep motivation high
…spending the full £5 at the start of the week in one well-planned shopping trip
…choosing filling and nutritious items such as pasta, lentils, rice, bread, potatoes, oats and fruit. Learn more

About Live Below the Line
Live Below the Line is a worldwide campaign created and run by the Global Poverty Project, a charity dedicated to wiping out extreme poverty. Leaders’ Quest Foundation is a Live Below the Line charity partner. For any questions or support in getting signed up to Live Below the Line, please email Rose or call +44 20 8948 5216.