Weaving the Agenda

Key ideas and questions

The Summit is part of a much longer journey to build the flourishing communities and societies we want, where people and planet thrive. The Summit agenda was shaped by some key ideas and questions:

• Possibility in the face of crisis. In the face of mounting, multiple and inter-connected global crises – climate, democratic, economic – that pose existential threats to our planet, the recognition that new ways of deciding and doing are emerging around the world. This in the form of new practices, new institutional arrangements, new organizing models and new kinds of networked power, all which centre equity, dignity, trust and the inherent power of communities.

  What will it take to birth this emergent system, to see communities as a source of social and economic innovation, of stewardship and knowledge, and of shared prosperity, rather than as passive recipients of the expertise and resources of mainstream development? How can we harness the power of one-off “islands of innovation” as the building blocks of long-term, systemic change, and challenge our notions of what it means to scale?

  As a joined-up system of grassroots, national, regional and global actors that centre issues of power and equity at the heart of what they do, how can this emergent system both unlock the resources that exist within communities, and direct and deploy financial resources in ways that recognize and harness local assets, build local power and – of greatest importance – do no harm?

• Reform and transformation of the current international funding system. The roots of international development lie in the Bretton Woods conference of 1944 and in institutions set up so the world could be developed from the top-down. It is currently being attacked both from the inside, for example through the decolonization movement that is exposing the “white saviour” myth, and from the outside by increasingly authoritarian states in which the space for civil society is closing. The localization agenda promises more equitable and accountable ways of ensuring that resources are better directed to local actors, but what will it take for that to become a reality and result in a real transformation of power? What will it take to forge new pathways between and among people who are, in one way or another, crafting and testing new people-centered practices that are driven from the bottom-up, or who are leading experiments and authentic efforts to shift power from within the existing system?

• Equipping ourselves for the journey towards change. What new kinds of competencies, skills and approaches – cultural, material, technical and emotional – do we require to navigate and negotiate the kinds of new configurations of actors, alliances and networks needed to take us forward? What role can indigenous knowledge systems play and, at the same time, how can technology best be harnessed in service of a new operating system? What kinds of resources and energies are required? How can we respond to the urgency of the moment with the collective boldness and bravery that is needed? How, in this journey, can we hold ourselves accountable to our transformative intentions, as well as to justice and equity? And what needs to be let go?