Solidariti

Nic Frances mentions Grameen Bank as one of the best known social enterprises in the world, so the next book I read was "Creating a World Without Poverty" by founder of Grameen - and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize - Muhammad Yunus.

Muhammad Yunus is truely inspiring. As I was reading the book I lost count of the number of social enterprises he has started up that share the Grameen name. The example of a successful Grameen social business that remains in my mind is Grameen's partnership with Danone. This partnership not only produced and delivered yoghurt to people in Bangladesh but also became a major employer in many rural areas where employment might otherwise have been scarce.

Muhammad Yunus's take on the benefits of social business goes like this:

[The voices of NGOs, charities, foundations, etc] are hard to hear. Short on money, the groups that provide these voices lack the giant platform and the powerful media megaphone that mainstream businesses enjoy. No wonder they reach only a tiny audience and are generally drowned out by pro-consumption hype....If this voice comes from mainstream business as a buisness message in a business campaign format it will reach a much bigger audience.

Muhammad Yunus makes a few suggestions for local change. One of them is "IT Solutions to End Poverty" - a network of IT companies that would focus on the world's poor. Another is local "social action forums" that address small local problems, but link in to an online community of other social action forums so people can support one another. Both ideas sound fantastic. Boy would I love to have a chat with him one day, he must have so many wonderful ideas in his head :)

This idea of local social action leads me to my third read, "The Social Entrepreneur" by Andrew Mawson, who writes about his experience in Bromley-by-Bow in the East End of London. He gives an account of his very practical, grass-roots approach to social entrepreneurship.

Andrew Mawson found that

"genuine community and a sense of trust can only be created, and social capital developed, when people stop thinking in terms of the lowest common denominator. Only then do people become clear about the true nature of the world and the opportunities available to them within it. Social capital can only be created when we ... grow a strong and honest sense of belonging and community, focused around a shared practical task."

Andrew's advice for entrepreneurs is to be clear about what you want to achieve, to be bold in your approach, vocal on behalf of your cause, and persistent in your refusal to take no for an answer. He has plenty more advice in his book for budding social entrepreneurs :)

So these stories have given me a lot to think about around the possibilities of social change. What do you think ... do you have any experience in starting, working at, or dealing with a social business? If the topic is new to you (and even if it isn't), I recommend all three of these books as each of them gives a different perspective on this topic.

· blogging against racism ·

Last week was International Blog Against Racism week, started by handful of people on Livejournal a couple of years ago.

I did write a post about my thoughts on racism last week, but I decided against publishing that post because I realised I needed to reflect more on what I actually think. You see, at a Sydney Leadership event about 10 days ago, I realised that I'm not wholly comfortable about being white. So while I consider myself as a non-racist, I am also ashamed about the behaviour of my own people. This is a fairly confronting thing for me to deal with.

The excersise we were asked to do was to talk for three minutes with a partner about what we hate about [being white ... or whatever other group we belong to ... it could be related to sexuality, race, age, class, or anything else]. Then we were asked to talk for three minutes about what we love about [being white]. The one rule was that we couldn't talk about our group in relation to other groups (so in my example, I couldn't talk about being white in relation to being black/brown/anyone else).

It turned out that for the first minute or two I focussed on stereotypes. When the stereotypes were out the way, the truth started to emerge. I found that during the second "what I love about being white" session, it was difficult to speak because I had nothing positive to say. When you find yourself in that situation, and particularly as an anti-racism campaigner, it's pretty confronting.

When I reflect on this, all I can think of is how white people invaded Australia, how the English invaded India, how the Americans invaded Iraq, how the global north (which includes Australia) lives in comparable wealth to the global south and still fails to address the balance of power in that relationship. There's plenty of wonderful things white people have done, but I think about the negative things first. Obviously I've still more reflection to do, because to work effectively across difference I need to be able to embrace my own people too.

Anyway, blogging against racism is important. You never know who might stumble across your post and realise something about their own prejudices. It doesn't matter if you've missed International Blog Against Racism week ... blog now, blog often. One person who reads your post may change their assumptions.

· Are you a democratic revolutionary? ·

This week, the Personal Democracy Forum (PdF) was held in the US. There is plenty of news online about what was discussed so I'm not going to cover old ground ... except to point this out: An Open Letter to PdF Participants by Matt Leighninger, on techPresident. I'm just publishing what I think are the most salient points (apologies Matt):

...local officials and other kinds of leaders (including online organizers and activists) are attempting many different civic experiments ... to help their communities function more democratically and more effectively.

The best examples of these efforts employ four successful principles:

1. They recruit people by reaching out through the various groups and organizations to which they belong, in order to assemble a large and diverse "critical mass" of citizens.
2. They involve those citizens in a combination of small- and large-group discussions: structured, facilitated small groups (either online or face-to-face or both) for informed, deliberative dialogue; and large forums for amplifying shared conclusions and moving from talk to action.
3. They give the people who participate the opportunity to compare values and experiences, and to consider a range of views and policy options.
4. They effect change in a number of ways: by applying citizen input to policy and planning decisions; by encouraging change within organizations and institutions; by creating teams to work on particular action ideas; by inspiring and connecting individual volunteers; or all of the above.

...simply making more information available online, and providing more arenas for people to comment on it, is unlikely to produce changes ...

Online commentators could simply become another chattering class, another set of voices trying to pressure public officials and dig out damning details. Without attending to the other elements of successful democratic governance – recruitment, deliberation, facilitation, action planning, etc. – the democratic impact of the new technology may be positive but limited.

Making politics more "open" is a terrific priority – but if that’s all you do, then you’ll just be making a space for yourselves at the political table and not welcoming in the people with less time, less education, less confidence, less faith in government and community, and/or a lower level of technological skills.

Your response to this may be: "So what! We’re opening things up – if people don’t care enough to participate, we’ll govern without them!" If so, it would be helpful to say this now; it would clarify that online commentators and activists constitute a powerful new interest group in politics.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think that’s what you want. The alternative – clarifying the role you want to play as democratic revolutionaries – will require more attention to what is happening on the ground in local politics, not just what is happening in the ether of the presidential campaign.

I've heard a lot of winging about politicians not engaging the public online. I even do it myself occasionally. But recently I've realised that we practitioners need to take a leadership role and get politicians thinking about how they might engage the public in the way that suits all: politicians and their staffers, government departments and citizens. Otherwise it may be a very long time until we see a participatory democracy in this country. So ... are you going to be a democratic revolutionary and join me on this journey?

· Course: Leadership with a difference ·

The folks at the Benevolent Society who run the Sydney Leadership program will be running a four-day leadership program in August.

Leadership with a difference: An introduction to adaptive leadership is a taster for the Sydney Leadership program, should you be considering applying to do it next year.

The four-day program is designed for people from the business, community and government sectors who are interested in exercising leadership and want to gain a fresh perspective on leadership and explore what it means to make a difference in the world.

If you're interested, contact Kyrstie: kyrstied [at] bensoc.org.au

· Developing strength through diversity ·

The Change Agency has started a monthly "liberation book club", which is a "monthly discussion of anti-oppression ideas and practices". This month the topic is Developing Strength Through Diversity.

You can download the June book club reading (a chapter from the book Grassroots and Nonprofit Leadership) from The Change Agency's website and discuss it with your colleagues. Or there are other ways you can take part, including on the forum (email Holly if you want access to the forum - her email is at the bottom of the page).

The book club began with a discussion about anti-oppression work. Holly asks: "What would it take to have activist groups and social change organisations which genuinely reflect the diversity in the broader community? To be actively inclusive of difference?"

Great question. This is one of the many questions we've been asking ourselves all year on the Sydney Leadership program. If only there were more answers!

See you on the forum :)

· George Oates on Community (in ALA) ·

George Oates, of flickr, has written a wonderful article for A List Apart about online communities. Her experience and advice from flickr could easily be applied to offline communities, which makes her article particularly interesting.

Any community—online or off—must start slowly, and be nurtured. You cannot "just add community." It simply must happen gradually. It must be cared for, and hosted; it takes time and people with great communication skills to set the tone and tend the conversation.

I have been a fan of flickr for a long time. Ok, I've had moments when I was wondering whether there could be a better place for my photos to live (the flickr = censor moment in particular) but on the whole, I heart flickr. I think the reason for this, apart from the obvious benefits of being a part of a community, is that all photos, photographers and cameras are treated as equals. In my experience of flickr land, diversity is embraced, which is a rare thing.

The article: Community: From Little Things, Big Things Grow. Nice nod to Australia there in the heading, too :)

· citizen journalism and capacity building ·

From the online journalism blog:

The cartograms below show the world through the eyes of editors-in-chief, in 2007. Countries swell [and get redder] as they receive more media attention; others shrink [and get yellower] as we forget them.

More maps...

For some reason (it may be a combination of where I'm at with my work at ANTaR, my involvement in the Sydney Leadership program, and the change of government) I'm finding that my interest is slowly drifting towards capacity-building. So I find these charts above fascinating, because I would love to see more African, Eastern European and other rarely-heard voices take up blogging and tell us what's really happening in their communities. We will never hear their voices by reading local newspapers or, for that matter it seems, The Guardian Weekly.

Strangely, I also came across W.TEC today:

W.TEC is a Nigerian non-governmental organisation working to encourage Nigerian girls and women to learn how to use technology as a a means of empowering themselves socially and economically. This is done through projects which build technology skills among women, as well as other technology literacy workshops.

Now *this* is the kind of thing I'd like to see happen in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, should it be something they want to do.

Hat tip: Anthony Loewenstein (online journalism) and Cambodia for Kids flickr stream (capacity building)

· strong leaders ·

I've just finished reading the current Quarterly Essay - "Exit Right - The Unravelling of John Howard" by Judith Brett. A friend suggested I might enjoy it (hi Jeremy!).

Judith makes some interesting comments about leadership in her essay:

We might choose our leaders through hard-fought verbal conflict, but the capacity to defeat an opponent is not all we want from a leader. We also want good policy, solutions to urgent problems, and the foresight to prevent future ones. And we want compassion, and the capacity to resolve conflicts rather than escalate them. The personal qualities for such tasks are very different from those required to win an election and sometimes the desire to win can overwhelm the other things a leader might do.

Judith also notes in her essay that John Howard's style of leadership was the "Strong Leader" (as opposed to the "Group Leader" or the "Inspiring Leader"). This leadership style meant that it was difficult for John Howard to adapt to situations, and that made it difficult for him to work towards solving some of our most pressing issues:

The issue of global warming calls, above all, for co-operation, an open inquiring mind and new ideas. It does not lend itself to Strong Leadership's politics of conviction and control ... Strong Leaders limit the policy options and prevent solutions.

Ian McAuley has written an excellent review of the essay for the Centre for Policy Development. He notes that the essay uses John Howard as a case study for how a "Strong Leader" might lead, and that this style is not ideal for social issues such as climate change, reconciliation and health care. He says:

... a process which engages with the community, which explains the difficult tradeoffs facing the people, and which acknowledges the possibility of pain, is more likely to result in enduring change.

So ... it seems using a conciliatory, dialogue-based approach rather than a radical, closed-minded one is more effective if you really want to change the world. This is the same approach that the Sydney Leadership program teaches ... it's going to be a very interesting year :)

· on consultation ·

One thing that I've come to realise through both my work at ANTaR and participation in the Sydney Leadership program (which hasn't officially started yet, but I've been doing a lot of reading in preparation) is the need for full consultation before launching into projects that supposedly help other people.

We saw it (and criticised it) last year with our then-government's intervention in NT Aboriginal communities. Our then-Prime Minister John Howard seemed to sincerely feel he was doing the right thing, however his approach and his "solution" was flawed and attracted a lot of criticism. Much of the criticism centered around the fact that his "solution" was being carried out without consultation with Aboriginal communities.

Today I read a very interesting email from Martin Lucas that was posted to the Institute of Distributed Creativity mailing list. Martin has observed how the One Laptop Per Child project has been adopted in Malawi, a country

"whose 13 million people have an average life expectancy of 37 years, 14% of population with HIV/AIDS, and a GDP of about $600 per person - usually rates near the bottom on any scale of development."

Martin's email, which has kindly been reposted on a fellow IDC member's blog, made me wonder whether the OLPC project leaders fully consulted with the communities that they were trying to help (perhaps they did / perhaps they didn't - but the email is a must-read if you are interested in this project). Martin makes some interesting observations about the use of technology in Malawi - and the use of laptops for learning.

However I'm far from pointing the finger solely at John Howard and the OLPC project. I've deployed "solutions" that have been inappropriate ... it's so easy to do, particularly when you find a bit of (online) technology that you think will be "perfect for the job". Martin concludes his email with:

"[Many] groups and forces influence the development of a communications and IT ecology in this marginal but very fertile landscape, suggesting the difficulty of defining a problem, and any possible solutions, when talking about the specific implementation of any IT-based project."

So much of what we do (on the web and elsewhere) does not involve consulting with our audience/beneficiaries. Why are we so arrogant / pushed for time / can't be bothered with internal politics / find it too difficult to define the problem, at the risk of possible project failure?

P.S. I'm still raising money to fund my participation in the Sydney Leadership program ... please help me out and donate using the ChipIn widget on the right :) If you don't, expect an email from me within the next couple of weeks !!

· Leadership ·

2008 will be a very interesting year. I have been awarded a place on the Sydney Leadership program and am quite excited, dumbfounded and nervous about it. It will be a chance for me to find out more about how the real world works rather than taking a theoretical view of life from my computer :)

Here's a blurb about the program that inspired me to apply:

Sydney Leadership will open your eyes to the complex social problems facing our society. Through a combination of experiential learning, community visits, readings, personal reflection. practical engagement and professional coaching over a 9 month period you will learn what it means to exercise real leadership. It isn’t a traditional, curriculum-based course like an MBA but it does involve intensive learning. It will help you to develop practical skills you can use at work, in the community and in your personal life.

Participants examine topics such as Indigenous issues, crime and justice, corporate social responsibility, education, employment, environment, health, homelessness, media and communications, transport and youth. The program includes guest speakers, visits to sites and communities within Sydney, Canberra and in rural New South Wales.

The program is organised by the Benevolent Society. The Benevolent Society is Australia's oldest charity. They "are an independent, secular, not-for-profit organisation with a long history of working with communities to create positive change."

One of the challenges I face in taking part in the program is that I need to raise $15,400 in fees, in addition to my personal contribution. I'm planning to apply for a couple of grants to fund much of it, however that won't be enough. So now I'm asking you, my faithful readers, to make a generous donation to get me the rest of the way. I need to raise a minimum of AU$1,000 by the end of February to help cover my fees. If you prefer, consider your donation as funding for the Benevolent Society which is a not-for-profit organisation.

Rest assured you'll be reading about my progress on the program on this blog so you'll have some idea of the worthiness of the program and how your money is being spent. Who knows, if you live in Sydney I might even inspire you to apply next year, in which case I can return the favour :)

How to donate: click on the ChipIn widget in the side bar to donate via PayPal. Or, if you're in Australia and you don't like PayPal, contact me and I'll give you my BSB and Account Number for a direct transfer.