Developing a Pathway to Sustainable Cities and Communities Through a Leadership Education Programme

This paper explores the design and delivery of a leadership training programme through the lens of the SDGs with a focus on cities, communities, and partnerships for sustainable living (SDGs 11 and 17). The programme was co-designed for an English city’s Regional Combined Authority (a devolved authority) addressing the four pillars of leading self, others, organisation, and place. Examining delivery, we identified several diverse and creative approaches to leadership that may or may not contribute to the development of strong, sustainable, and inclusive places. However, we also found that how this leads to enhanced communities with a strong identity and socio-economic base that enriches the wellbeing of its citizens needs further exploration. Given the richness of different geographies, cultures, and heritages the cross-boundary and cross-sector nature of place, leadership in this context is complex. This work is located at the interface of political, public sector, community, and education to explore the function and outcomes of for sustainable place leadership across the city region. In other words, ‘place leadership’ from a devolved authority perspective needs further investigation to enable leaders to make significant impacts in these settings.