About Nation-Building Institute (NBI)

The Nation-Building Institute International (NBII) was founded in Bangkok, Thailand by Professor Dr. Kriengsak Chareonwongsak, with a vision to establish a leading institute for the development of morally guided leadership with systematised management skills for nation-building.

NBII believes in cultivating informed future leaders and virtuous individuals to shape the communities that drive nation-building. NBII is functioned as an umbrella institution that oversees the activities of its country-specific institute including NBI Thailand (NBIT) and NBI Malaysia (NBIM). NBI institutions will implement NBII’s programs on a national level within the context of their respective country. To this end, it conducts educational programs, interdisciplinary research, and collaborative development projects through engagements with the public, private and people (or civic) sectors across the world

Mission

NBII’s mission has been to engage the nation’s leaders of the public, private and civil sectors in order to

• instil nation-building ideology, concepts and strategies needed for the sustainable development of the country toward a nation of civility, and
• to effectuate real social impact on a national level.

Programmes/activities

International Conference on Nation-Building (ICNB)

This conference is held annually to bring people from across continents, disciplines, and sectors to come together to share, exchange, and learn from different experiences and to collectively find solutions to the common current and future challenges of the world. ICNB hopes to be global platform for global leaders to mutually shape the solution of global problems towards the right direction, or executing meaningful change with concrete outcomes for the future better of humankind.

• The first ICNB in 2017 was organized around the theme of “Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Economic, Political and Social Development” held from 28th to 30th May in Bangkok, Thailand.
• The second ICNB in 2018 focused on the theme of “Innovative Solutions for Rural Development to Move towards a Developed Country” held between 6th and 8th November in Bangkok, Thailand.
• The third ICNB in 2019 had as its theme “Connecting Government, Business and Civic Society towards the Development of a High-Income Nation” held between 26th and 27th November, 2019 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• The fourth ICNB was organized in 2020 along the theme “Nation-Building in the Pandemic New Normal” from 18th to 19th November in Bangkok, Thailand.
• The fifth ICNB was arranged around the theme “Innovative Strategies for Crisis Recovery and Nation-Building” held between 8th and 9th September, 2021 in Bangkok, Thailand.
• The sixth ICNB in 2022 focused on the theme of “Post-Crisis Nation-Building Strategies in the World of Flux” held between 8th and 9th December in Bangkok, Thailand.

Senior Executive Program (SEP)

The Senior Executive Program is an in-person immersive program on Nation-Building, targeting current and former senior high-level executives and leaders from government, business and civic sectors. The program aims to equip participants to master nation-building principles and skills and learn how to think like a nation builder with public-mindedness. With more than 2,500 alumni, NBII is running three key programmes: Senior Executive programme for Nation-Building; Senior Executive programme for eastern special development zone (EEC); and Leadership and Entrepreneurship in Wellness for Nation-Building programme.

Nation-Building Institute International (NBII) Award

The Award is the world’s first prestigious award to honour individuals and corporations who have made a significant and valuable contribution to nation-building and significant progress of a nation. Awards have been given to honour individuals and corporations or organizations that have demonstrated their commitment to do good for society by developing people, systems and contexts that are effective, resulting in significant and valuable contributions to their society and their nations.

The candidates are screened by the Nomination Committee. Then, the Selection Committee, comprising a large number of highly qualified people of stature from all over the world, carefully reviews and select the most suitable recipient for each award based on the achievements of each candidate objectively and systematically according to criteria that were developed based on clear concepts for each award.

World Setter Awards

The Awards are bestowed on individuals who bring change at a global level or set the global trend on issues that have a great impact on peoples’ well-being. The Award includes three different categories: World Shaker (a person who shakes public realization on vital global issues); World Shifter (a person who shifts the solution of global outcomes towards the right direction); and World Shaper (a person who executes meaningful change with concrete outcomes).

Some of the previous award recipients (individuals and institutions) are:

• Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, Former Prime Minister of Malaysia for the Nation-Building Lifetime Achievement Award (Public Sector)
• Dr. Vinton Gray Cerf, the “Father of the Internet”, for the World Shaper Award
• Mr. Ratan N. Tata for the Nation-Building Lifetime Achievement Award (Private Sector)
• Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize Laurette, Founder of the Grameen Bank for the Nation-Building Lifetime Achievement Award (People Sector)
• Mr. David Suzuki for the Nation-Building Lifetime Achievement Award (People Sector)
• Tan Sri Dr. Anthony Francis Fernandes, founder of Air Asia, for the Nation-Building Lifetime Achievement Award (Private Sector)
• Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan for the Corporate Nation-Building Award (Public Sector)
• Thai Health Promotion Foundation for the Corporate Nation-Building Award (Public Sector)
• Save the Children for the Corporate Nation-Building Award (People Sector)
• Aurolab, India, for the Corporate Nation-Building Award (Private Sector)
• Barefoot College for the Corporate Nation-Building Award (People Sector)
• Tzu Chi Foundation for the Corporate Nation-Building Award (People Sector)
• Petronas, Malaysia for the Corporate Nation-Building Award (Private sector)
• The Thai Red Cross Society for the Corporate Nation-Building Award (People Sector)
• PTT Public Company Limited (Thailand) for the Corporate Nation-Building Award (Private sector)
• Ms. Jessica Cox, for the World Shaker Award
• Dr. Anand Srivastava, a pioneer in stem cells, for the World Shifter Award
• Dr. Nathaniel Borenstein, developer of the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions protocol, for the World Shaper Award

Cap-corner Stone Project

NBII promotes innovative development projects which have a significant impact and with the potential to scale up. CCS Projects could be area-based, such as community development projects; agenda-based such as projects on food safety, wellness or education; or people-based such as those targeted to provide help to various defined groups, such as the disadvantaged, unskilled farmer or teachers. Every CCS project provides a comprehensive report and presents thoughtful and actionable recommendations for future expansion and scaling up.

Overseas Study Visit

NBII aims to conduct study visits to provide experiential learning at various overseas destinations. The study visits will focus on excursions to special areas of best practices in specific issues, for example, countries with world-class achievements in some specific areas such as the Estonia on digital society, Lithuania on biotechnology, Finland on education, etc. Participants will jointly examine nation-building initiatives and explore actionable solutions.

NBI Youth Programme

The NBI Youth Programme aims to establish NBI Youth clubs in all schools and colleges across Thailand. The Club is a platform for youth development in schools to enhance leadership, management and morality in young people. It greatly helps to prepare them to become responsible citizens and fosters creativity, innovativeness, leadership, teamwork spirit, public mindedness and a caring attitude for their nations. Since the inception of the programme, around 4,500 NBI Youth Clubs, with more than 100,000 members, have been established in schools and colleges across Thailand. NBII also organizes the Youth-Leadership Empowerment Summer Program (NBI YES) during the university semester break for university students. This intensive leadership training programme has been conducted annually since 2019.

NBII Teacher Development Programme

The NBII Teacher Development Programme aims to improve competency levels in teachers and encourage a spirit of public mindedness and care for students. The Teacher development programme enhances leadership skills, management abilities and the morality of teachers and strengthens them in their professionalism, innovativeness, leadership, teamwork spirit, public mindedness and care for their nations. Beginning with schools and colleges that have existing NBI Youth Programme, it will soon reach out to teachers across Thailand.

Corporate Nation-Building (CNB) Program

CNB is an innovative approach to promote the nation-building spirit and practices into usual modus operandi of organizations in the public, private and people sectors. The award process will encourage participating organizations to change the way they conduct business to align with nation-building principles and comprehensive criteria. They will become the models and agents of development in their locality.

Wellness Corporate Nation-Building Award (Wellness CNB)

Wellness CNB aims to develop the practice of wellness with the nation-building spirit into the normal operations of public, private and people organizations across Thailand. The award process encourages participating organizations to change their policies and practices to nurture wellness conditions for their members in accordance with a set of compact guidelines. This is the pathway to building Thailand into the Wellness Hub of the World.

NBII: The Steps towards Internationalisation of Nation-Building Institute

NBII represents the progressive vision of the original founders of Thailand’s NBI in Bangkok: to expand its successful nation-building initiatives outside of Thailand and inspire change-makers to improve communities across the globe especially the ASEAN Plus region. To achieve this vision, NBII has developed an internationalisation agenda to foster local and regional linkages between the 3P sectors across the globe and the ASEAN Plus countries by emulating the pedagogy and protocols of NBI Thailand’s programs, i.e. the implementation of education programs, research initiatives and collaborative developmental projects for rigorously selected participants.

NBII’s Mission Statement is essentially to systematise the existing philosophy, principles and ethos of nation-building into a pragmatic framework that can not only be applied by individuals of diverse sectors to cause societal impact, but also be adopted by different nations in the pursuit of their respective developmental goals.