Interview: Dr Muhammad Musa

Spending my 20s in Bangladesh: Journal of a young Aussie
April 3, 2019
Development update
April 16, 2019

Interview: Dr Muhammad Musa

What motivated you to join BRAC?

Dr Muhammad Musa: BRAC’s mission fits very well with the ethos of Bangladesh’s glorious war of liberation. Our freedom fighters fought against exploitation to uphold our dignity. From day one, BRAC has served as the most prominent social movement to instil the same ethos in our society. And this has been a great motivation for me. Equally motivating has been the prospect of becoming a part of BRAC’s founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed’s vision of a world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination where everyone can realise their potential. I joined BRAC to be able to contribute to the fulfilment of the vision. I have worked in the development sector for more than 30 years (including 20 years abroad) – but BRAC is not just a job for me. It is more than that.

What qualities do you think are required in a successful leader?

Dr Muhammad Musa: A leader needs to have the skills to facilitate the development of a shared vision, promote team cohesion so that the members are excited to contribute to the attainment of the shared vision and ensure that each of the team member’s concerns, suggestions, aspiration, are taken care of.

Additionally, a good leader should have a high degree of emotional intelligence, political and entrepreneurial acumen. Emotional intelligence enables a leader to know of, control, and express his/her emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and with empathy. Political acumen enables the leader to remain abreast of various groups and institutional issues that have an influence on the rest of the team. Finally, in a market-based economy, where the demand and supply are in a constant state of flux, a leader needs to have entrepreneurial acumen to accurately understand and quickly respond to changes.

What advice would you give to someone who took up a leadership position and for someone who is already in a leadership position?

Dr Muhammad Musa: Leaders need to believe in the team’s success, only then a team can be successful. Hence, for a new leader, my first advice is to remain positive. S/he should be careful about his/her gestures, postures, choice of words – all of which profoundly impact a team’s behaviour. Secondly, no leader is an expert at everything. So, s/he needs to identify the expert in the team and make the best use of that expertise. Each of the team members needs to have space and respect to be able to contribute to the best of their ability and attain a sense of accomplishment.

To improve and grow as a leader, one needs to have learning agility and openness. Leaders need to learn every day from the most junior to the most senior colleagues, and from the tea room to the board room. Every now and then s/ he also needs to reflect his/her learnings to extract the wisdom from them and apply that in different situations.

Where would you like to see BRAC in 20 years?

Dr Muhammad Musa: I would like to see BRAC as a global leader from the South in the ever-changing humanitarian and development sector. The future BRAC would meet the challenges that societies, families, individuals throughout the world face with innovative solutions. I would like to see BRAC foresee issues and produce innovative and cutting-edge solutions to emerging socioeconomic and associated challenges.

BRAC also needs to be recognised for its technology-enabled operational excellence as well as for its knowledge leadership so that we remain the partner of choice for governments, NGOs, private sectors, etc.

What are the key indicators by which BRAC measures its impact?

Dr Muhammad Musa: Our programmes are aligned with many of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the respective indicators constitute much of our results framework. We are specifically interested to see that every human being – irrespective of their race, gender, economic condition – is empowered to take full control of their lives.

We are interested to see that the people have the agency – ie skills, access to the market and finance – to shape their lives. We work to ensure that the power relationship inside and outside their households support communities and individuals unleash their potential. Finally, we work with social, administrative and political institutes to promote an atmosphere that sustains and advances an individual’s dignity and choice.

What transformations, outside or within the organisation, have you led that you believe have created an impact on people’s lives?

Dr Muhammad Musa: Transformations in BRAC are happening at several levels. At the programmatic level, we are revisiting our intervention basket, upgrading the way these programmes are delivered, and reconfiguring the financial strategy.

In the recent past, several programmes underwent strategic review and redesign. For example, we have thoroughly redesigned our ultra-poor graduation programme after running the programme for more than 10 years. Similarly, we have revised the service list of our health programme to include health services for adolescents. Our gender programme, likewise, now supports system-level changes in addition to offering to individual level support.

Technology has been a key driver to bring changes in the programme delivery processes. Several of the programmes are using advanced technology to deliver services such as health diagnostic services. The skills development programme, for example, is using state-of-the-art data acquisition to closely monitor the progress of our learners. Managers are also adopting data-driven decision making while the decision-making functions are being pushed down to the lower echelons of the organisation.

We are also exploring ways to change the traditional foreign assistance dependent programme into diversified and more self-reliant financing models by adopting other approaches such as cost recovery and social enterprises.

Some of the transformations are taking place at the organisational management level as well. We have already started implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to improve efficiency. We are heading towards transforming BRAC into a knowledge organisation. Simultaneously, we have started repositioning our organisation at the global level through advocacy and external communications. One of the big-ticket items in our transformation list involves positioning BRAC in the humanitarian sector. I am happy to say that we have made some noteworthy progress towards this goal already.

These transformations agenda needed cultural change and participation of all staff – from the field level to the head office. It also needed effective internal communication to bring everyone on the same platform. I would like to recognise the support of the communications unit for facilitating this process.

It should be noted that any transformation needs a collective leadership. I am pleased to see BRAC leaders leading this transformation individually in their own programmes and departments as well as collectively for the whole organisation. My job has been to create an atmosphere for the required organisational change, bring the team together, infuse energy into the team about the potential, and develop a common platform for progress.

What was BRAC’s biggest challenge in the last 12 months? How has your leadership helped the organisation overcome it?

Dr Muhammad Musa: The sudden influx of about a million forcibly displaced Rohingya from neighbouring Myanmar was one of the organisation’s biggest challenges. It is BRAC’s raison d’etre to serve people who are disenfranchised and exploited, and so we had to respond fast. The challenge was speed: to address the fast-deteriorating situation, we had to quickly mobilise staff from our ongoing programmes. That decision had a potential fallout as it slowed down the work of programmes from where the staff were moved.

I, as a leader, relied on BRAC’s core strength, which is enshrined in this organisation’s DNA. BRAC is an organisation built around the ethos of a ‘can do’ attitude. My role was to remind and inspire colleagues of this ethos and frankly, everyone got on board immediately. I had to keep an eye on our ongoing programmes, their annual operating plans, deliveries, etc so that at the end our work did got affected.

Let me give you an example. Due to the vacancy of the director for humanitarian programme position, I requested the director who was at the time leading our malaria, tuberculosis and water sanitation portfolio, to step up and manage the Rohingya response too. To ensure that the large portfolio that he was managing was not affected, we worked together to empower the second line leaders of his programme. As a result, our ongoing programme throughout the country went smoothly and we could deliver large-scale humanitarian support for the Rohingyas.

This was also an opportunity for second line leaders to learn new skills and demonstrate their abilities. It was truly a win-win outcome at the end.

I think this is the beauty of BRAC. If you trust your colleagues and give them the responsibility and authority, they can accomplish seemingly impossible things.

In the global context, what are the key elements shaping the future of the social good sector?

Dr Muhammad Musa: There are many but let me mention some of the most pronounced ones. First, the political economy of poverty and deprivation is evolving and will continue to evolve. The emergence of this neo-nationalism has deep-rooted impact on our sector globally as the resourcing of the humanitarian and development sector is still largely dependent on foreign aid.

The second driver is the changing needs and aspirations of the people we work for. The services which were highly valued in the past do not remain relevant in changing societies.

The third driver is technology. It is important that we, as a development agency, embrace technology and stay ahead of the curve.

The fourth driver is the changing demography. The role of young people matters – how they behave, and the kind of leadership they take are important determinants. Another element of demographic change is urbanisation, and the associated challenges such as new forms of poverty, social injustice, etc that our sector must address.

The next issue is the changing climate (which is no longer an issue for the distant future). It is here, and the impact is palpable. Furthermore, the impact is going to shape the development sector for many years to come.

The final driver will be the financing architecture of the humanitarian and development sector. It will no longer be a unidirectional flow of development aid from the North to the South. Rather, the flow will be diversified. The good thing is that new actors like the private sector, social investors, etc are making their way.

What do you, personally, spend most of your time outside the office?

Dr Muhammad Musa: I am a friend-and-family person. I love to spend my leisure with family – cooking, watching movies, spending time together. I love to stay connected with friends. When alone, I spend my time reading. One of my favourite publications is the Harvard Business Review. I also try to make time to exercise for an hour at least five days a week. Finally, as a believer, I pray.

 

Dr Muhammad Musa is the executive director of BRAC. He has an extensive background in leading humanitarian, social development, and public health organisations in international, cross-cultural settings. A medical doctor and public health specialist, he has specialised training in maternal and child nutrition, and disaster management.

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