DCID Welcomes Leaders for Development Fellow (LDF) Program

The Leaders for Development Fellowship (LDF) Program is a 3-week residential program for civic, community, educational, and business leaders from across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) hosted by the Duke Center for International Development (DCID) at Duke University. With a focus on leadership development, the program curriculum covers three primary themes: Civic Engagement, Innovative Leadership, and Social Entrepreneurship.   

In addition, it covers an array of cross-cutting topics important to leaders such as consensus-building, conflict resolution, interpersonal communication, individual and collective problem-solving, measuring impact, and team building. The program looks at issues relevant to the MENA region such as civic participation, gender, youth, democracy and governance, education, human rights, and economic development. It employs a variety of teaching methods: lectures and presentations are combined with group discussions, analysis of case studies, role-playing exercises, and other experiential activities as well as field visits and cultural outings.  

This is the fourth year that DCID has run this program in partnership with World Learning and MEPI, a U.S. State Department initiative. The co-directors of this program are Roy Kelly and Jon Abels. The Executive Education team is Matt Bunyi, Mirna Dave, and Eleanor Feaver. Abdedaim Battioui serves as the graduate assistant for the program (MIDP ‘23) and also is an alum (LDF ‘19).