Collective action for systems change and innovation has emerged as a prominent theme in recent philanthropy sector conversations and media. The Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) cover story, “The Future of Innovation is Collective,” co-authored by Cynthia Rayner, (alongside Sophia Otoo and Francois Bonnici), emphasised that “global challenges – such as climate change, economic inequality, escalating conflict, and the privacy and security of new technologies – are collective action problems…they depend on our ability to come together, not on silver-bullet solutions designed by individual heroes.” IPASA’s Executive Director, Louise Driver, had the opportunity to discuss this article with Cynthia during a recent meet-up in Cape Town.
By Louise Driver, IPASA Executive Director, and Fia van Rensburg, IPASA Knowledge Manager
Innovation needs collective support
Social innovators focus their attention on complex, interrelated problems, and Cynthia makes it clear that “no one person has all the answers – we need to get more people in the room to come up with creative solutions.” In addition to getting more people involved in innovative solutions, collective effort is often needed to support the work of social innovators, to optimise what they can achieve. In other words, we need to be innovative not just about solutions, but also about collaboration itself. Cynthia points out that “…social innovators or social innovation organisations have the powerful potential to develop models that can help solve major societal problems – but often they cannot take the models to population-level scale–ultimately reach a point where they need collaboration in order to go all the way that is needed. When they get to this point, they need others to come on board to help co-create the solutions that are going to go all the way.”
Overcoming challenges and scaling innovation
Social innovators often seek to collaborate when they encounter unforeseen obstacles that they cannot overcome on their own. According to Cynthia, social innovators may “learn that the root causes are different from what they originally thought and that resolution of a complex challenge cannot be reached by one single model.” She says that more often than expected, social innovators reach a point of no return, where they realise that they need to get other actors involved. When they do get others on board, they have more and better options to move ahead: “they can either work with others to scale their own model or, even more impactfully, they can build a movement that brings together many actors across sectors and solutions, creating an entire ecosystem to address a complex issue.”
One illustration is serial entrepreneur Jeroo Billimoria’s organisation Aflatoun International, which experienced unforeseen challenges in their work developing financial education for children and youth. They realised that children could not put their learnings into practice in the real world because financial institutions did not have bank accounts designed for young people. Their efforts to solve the problem initially ran into resistance from banks and regulators. Ultimately, it was collective action from policymakers, educators, central banks, and academics that made it possible to overcome this problem and scale the initiative wider. To achieve this collective approach, Jeroo formed a new organisation called Child and Youth Finance International “which pulled together people from central banks from the policy side, and private sector international banks to change policy to create new financial products for youth. And she engaged with Ministries of Education around the world advocating for the integration of finance into the school curriculum.” Ultimately, Aflatoun, as well as many other organisations devoted to financial education for youth, benefited from these collective efforts and were able to scale their programmes, reaching millions of children worldwide.
Funding innovation organisations
Social innovators working collectively often find it difficult to get their work funded, despite its ability create real systems change. On of the main issues is that funders are used to grantees claiming clear attribution for their work. But collective approaches often have many organisations’ contributing, so attribution of impact is less clear-cut. As Cynthia notes, “The problem is who funds this type of work? Traditional funders are risk averse and want to see clear attribution for the work. They often also don’t see themselves as innovators. Collective social innovation organisations are not your classic funded organisations, despite the powerful leverage they offer…their collaborative approaches may take longer to achieve results, but they offer far greater potential for large-scale change“, says Cynthia. She continues: “These organisations also don’t look like traditional NGOs. They are often lean organisations with small budgets, but they have the ability to connect with a huge range of key actors to make their work happen.”
These extraordinary organisations take many different forms, and they may be called different names: backbone organisations, system orchestrators, field catalysts, ecosystem builders, and collective social innovators. According to Cynthia, their common denominator is that they “bring together all the key actors to grow the field, grow the narrative, grow the funding, and grow the policy.” Closer to home, she points to Ilifa Labantwana as a South African exemplar of collective social innovation. “Ilifa Labantwana has shown what a systems change organisation can achieve in a relatively short period of time when bringing together an entire system of actors to address a complex social issue such as early childhood development.”
Innovation models and innovative ways of working
There are many social innovators in South Africa – acknowledging the need for social innovation and recognising its power is not new. However, Cynthia alerts us that “a lot of the social impact space has been focused on the what, i.e., model innovation – better programmes and projects, which are evidence based and really move the needle on what are wanting to achieve. What is needed now, is to look at innovating the how – the ways we work collaboratively. How do we work together as players in the system? How do we use innovation to drive policy and drive action?”
Awareness in the social innovation space that social innovators cannot do it alone is encouraging, and so is the realisation that a range of different actors need to be involved. “Government has an important role to play, funders have an important role to play, social entrepreneurs have an important role to play. Now, the question is, how do we innovate and work together? How do we influence policy? How do we put policy into action? How do we use funding to drive policy to drive action?”
Circling back to the example of Jeroo Billimoria’s Child and Youth Finance International organisation, Cynthia reminds us of the role that government actors can play in recognising social innovation bringing innovators into the government space: “Can the government be a key actor in driving innovation rather than just a vehicle to allow for scale? All of this is pointing to a new paradigm where we all work together more productively.”
Figuring it out while moving along
Being clear on the need for involving other actors in social innovation does not mean that it is all figured out – a lot of deep thinking, experimentation and learning will be required to get it right. Cynthia highlights the dilemma as follows: “Social innovators started out as the renegades, but now they are bringing in more traditional actors out of necessity and recognition that they are critical. But there is concern that they may stifle the innovation spirit of these social innovators. How do we bring the traditional actors and ensure that they trust the social innovators to work the way they work – which is often very emergently, not always knowing what is happening several years in advance. Innovation does not always happen according to fixed outcomes and timelines.”
Another hurdle to overcome in promoting social innovation is that often, funders do not understand social innovation organisations, and as a result they overlook them. This problem is compounded by the inability of social innovation organisations to properly articulate their models and work to funders. Cynthia says “there is also the concern that if we bring traditional funders to work with social innovators, they may stifle their innovation. It is important that both sides understand each other.“ These concerns shows that a better understanding of social innovators’ operational and funding models is needed.
Evidence-based learning
Research conducted by Cynthia and Francois Bonnici, through the Schwab Foundation, produced The Future is Collective: Advancing Collective Social Innovation to Address Society’s Biggest Challenges, which explores how social innovation can unite diverse stakeholders for large-scale social change. The values, strategies and organising models that enable multistakeholder collaborations to thrive are highlighted in this report, and the companion report The Future is Collective: Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation, takes a deep dive into how social innovators are shaping new governance models, resource allocation, and the development of datasets that support decision-making and informs policy-making.
Regardless of the potential challenges that collective social innovation initiatives can encounter, an article co-authored by Cynthia demonstrates that this approach has the power to achieve far-reaching outcomes, which overshadows concerns and potential difficulties:
- Diverse groups that have not worked together before, can develop shared narratives which “enable cooperation, role alignment and sustained work over time.“
- Relationship-building amongst diverse stakeholders encourages collaboration that reduce fragmentation and facilitates tapping into “a wealth of ideas and resources for solving complex problems.” It can also encourage pooled funding for collective action.
- Emphasis on proximate leadership is emphasised which enables the inclusion of grassroot actors in the change process. Valuing the lived experience of communities supports the innovation and strengthens community agency, which effectively shifts power dynamics for lasting change.
What collective action can achieve
Collective action for social innovation can achieve ambitious goals such as enhancing collaboration, facilitating the alignment of funding strategies, and amplifying grassroots leadership. By supporting collective action for social innovation funders can accelerate progress towards a more just, inclusive and sustainable world.
Social innovation has been an integral part of the South African development landscape, but it needs to be amplified. South African philanthropy can significantly enhance its impact by supporting and promoting collective social innovation.
FURTHER READING
The future of innovation is collective but only if we reimagine how we work together
Unleashing the power of collective social innovation to tackle complex issues around the world
How to successfully orchestrate collective action
Uniting for change: The imperative of collective action in a fragmented world
Unified advocacy: The untapped elixir for advancing social change
Philanthropy’s role in Unlocking Social Innovation: a Strategic Partner for Governments
Social Innovation in South Africa: A Bridge to a Sustainable Future