Leader’s crisis in Thailand led the foremost 10 health organizations talk at Bellagio Center, Italy during 30 March – 3 April 2009. In a complex of the changing world and a crisis of leader in Thailand, the need to have new leaders with new paradigms and new competencies in response to the current situation are addressed. Although many training courses for young leaders operate in both public and private organizations, the conventional methods applying in the training courses cannot help learners understand the self and the interconnected world. The true capacity of the learners cannot be brought out for change. Furthermore, the previous training courses emphasize an individual leadership, whereas a collective leadership – which embraces the diversity of people and perspectives – become a promising approach. The result of the conventional training courses needs to be improved.
The leading 10 Health Organizations – Ministry of Public Health, National Health Commission Office, National Health Security Office, Health System Research Institute, Thai Health Promotion Foundation, Institute of Hospital Improvement and Accreditation, National Health Foundation, Institute of Community based Health Care Research and Development, Society and Health Institute, International Health Policy Program, – therefore develop a program on “Leadership Network for the New Health Movement”, aiming to drive a social movement for the country reform. The program applies the framework of individual, node and network (INN) developed by Prof. Dr. Prawase Wasi, Thai senior citizen, in combination with United Nations Development Programme’s Framework on Sustainable Capacity Development as a guiding principle.
This innovative program aligns with the Rockefeller Foundation’s mission to strengthen individual, institutional and community capacity to build and maintain better lives and futures. In this connection, the Rockefeller Foundation supported the 10 Health Organizations to convene a workshop on capacity building of the leadership network for the new health movement at Bellagio Conference Center, Italy from 30th March – 3rd April 2009. The group of Thai senior health policy makers, researchers and practitioners including young generation had an in-dept review and discussion on the conceptual framework of capacity building and the management of the program, which is designed to have 3 components – capacity building activities, research and development and development of supporting system – running parallel and complementing one another. 
Under the capacity building component, 4 main activities are devised namely 1) the 2 – year core modules, 2) elective modules which leaders can choose to work with from not only the 10 organization partners but also others as required, 3) special activities which is additional and on a voluntary basis, if the leaders are interested, and 4) mentorship. The participants all agreed that mentoring is one of the best way to transfer tacit knowledge, skill and moral support to mentees. And this technique may change one’s life, forever. Hence, mentorship with clear challenging project is a selling point of the program.
Dr. Katherine Bond, Associate Director of the Rockefeller Foundation in Nairobi, shared her view that the capacity building for the nodes – the 10 health organization partners – was as important as for the individual leaders who join the program. The program should be designed in such a way to build up the capacity of the staff of each node too. Moreover, Dr. Bond challenged the capacity building model on how to generalize and disseminate to other countries which have different socio-political context from Thailand. Ms. Pilar Palacia, Managing Director of the Bellagio Conference Center, gave an overview presentation on the Center which comprises the residence and the conference program. The Rockefeller Foundation established the center since 1960 aiming as a place to be a refuge for scholars, artists, writers, composers, scientists, policy makers and other professionals around the world to pursue their idea and work, and importantly to have an interaction with and understanding of other in different fields. It is also be a place for a small group of leaders in various fields to meet to discuss innovative ideas.
The program on “Leadership Network for the New Health Movement” will not be limited only to the health sector, but eventually a cross sector base. The program will be started on 24 September 2009 which is Mahidol day. This is to commemorate the death of HRH Prince Mahidol, the father of Thai modern medicine and public health, on 24 September 1929. The capacity-building model resulted from the program will be a lesson worth sharing to other organizations and other countries.