Leadership can break or make a nation. Prosperous nations have a history of good leadership that spearheaded change. Governments have failed in their mandate because of poor leadership by individuals who are mandated to lead and change the lives of people. There are fundamental actions that governments have been unable to take to improve the living standards of individuals. Governments have failed to champion for good governance where resources are used for the right projects. The same governments have failed to account for taxes paid by the citizens by directing them to wrong projects or embezzling them for their gain. Governance can be achieved with the presence of strong institutions that can support strive for change. These institutions ensure that there is the right use of resources and misappropriation is punished through the right structures (Theisohn & Lopes, 2013).
Leadership has failed to tackle corruption, something that is rampant in most governments. The same individuals occupying leadership positions are getting involved in fraud, which makes it even harder to fight corruption. All the efforts by the government are curtailed with corrupt practices which either leads to underutilization of allocated resources. Upon completion, government projects are approved without meeting the quality standards. The cycle of corruption has forced the taxpayers to be poorer while individuals with political connections are left controlling significant wealth (Elegbe, 2016).
Lack of political goodwill to address governance issues and corruption is to blame for the continuous rise in poverty. Leaders are not committed to fighting the menace of institutional corruption, which sees a more significant part of national income being allocated to projects that can be easily embezzled. Until the leadership present in a given government commits to fight corruption and putting necessary policies in order, governments will continue to fail in uplifting the living standards of citizens (Mendenhall et al., 2017).
References
Elegbe, J. A. (2016). Talent management in the developing world: Adopting a global perspective. Routledge.
Mendenhall, M. E., Osland, J., Bird, A., Oddou, G. R., Stevens, M. J., Maznevski, M. L., & Stahl, G. K. (Eds.). (2017). Global leadership: Research, practice, and development. Routledge.
Theisohn, T., & Lopes, C. (2013). Ownership leadership and transformation: Can we do better for capacity development. Routledge.
