Kagame has a vision for Rwanda to be a professionally run government in the mold of Singapore. The nation has already established a model program in fighting HIV/AIDS and has invested heavily in primary education.
The nonprofit Davidson Institute was established in 1992 by Guardian Industries founder William Davidson with the intent of researching and helping to promote growth in emerging market economies. Davidson also owns the NBA's Detroit Pistons and the Tampa Bay Lightning NHL hockey team.
While not part of the University of Michigan, it is housed in the business school and shares faculty and other resources.
Amy Gillett, who runs the institute's executive education program, said the curriculum for Rwanda has been specially crafted to meet the country's needs. Gillett coordinates as many as 20 executive education programs annually, teaching new skills to business people abroad.
"Every client has its own set of challenges and every country has a different business environment,'' she said.
The Rwanda program begins next week when organizational psychologist Robert Pasick begins teaching a group of 25 top-level bureaucrats leadership techniques.
He'll repeat the class to another group the following week and then come back later in the year to teach another 50 administrators.
"I think the biggest challenge is working with a government, which is something new for us,'' said Pasick, who normally acts as a leadership consultant to CEOs and entrepreneurs. "And this is the top ministers of the government, so the impact will be quite great on a lot of people.''
Pasick will be teaching from a short book designed for social service agencies on "how to go from being good to great.''
"This country has done a good job of going from a disaster to a pretty good government,'' he said. "I think this will be an appropriate book for them.''
Along with Pasick, professors from Texas A&M and Tufts University will be teaching the courses.
Later phases of the program may involve bringing in help from other University of Michigan schools, such as the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Gillett said Kagame is putting a lot of emphasis on the training, even requesting that the ministers be tested on what they learn.
"I think it's important that it came from the president of Rwanda,'' she said. "This was hatched by the president, not something imported on to them from the outside.''
Mike Ramsey can be reached at mramsey@annarbornews.com or 734-994-6864.