Scalable Solutions for
People and Our Planet

December is a good month in which to put together an editorial for the Development Alternatives Newsletter. There is a natural tendency to reflect on the ups and downs of the previous year; which is not just an interesting exercise but also immensely useful while pondering upon the most important results that need to be achieved in the new year.

Looking back, the first bunch of images one sees are those from Copenhagen. Most of us are certainly not qualified to comment on the fine print of what might have been achieved by those meant to lead humankind into the future. It does, however, seem that we have been let down.

Realistically speaking, very few people were actually expecting a binding treaty that would compel old offenders and some new ones to cap emissions over the next couple of decades. On the other hand, civil society had hoped that the Conference of Parties would be driven by vision and a new sense of shared commitment to address the life-threatening challenges posed by climate change, with each nation doing the best it could. What we got instead was chaos, which nurtured an overwhelming desire, particularly amongst the big boys, to strike a ‘deal’ in so-called ‘enlightened’ self-interest. ‘Accord’ is just a fancy word. As for the muck-raking, it is best not spoken about.

So, where does Copenhagen leave us? In a practical sense, more or less where we were a few months or maybe even a few years ago. Shouldn’t it be fairly obvious that the very people whose families are or will soon become victims of climate change are the billion strong ‘surge’ force needed to save our planet? Some of us at DA would, in fact, argue that our single-point agenda for action is exactly the same as it was two decades ago-create sustainable livelihoods in large, very large numbers; and this is why we still strive to find scalable solutions to the oft-forgotten core issues of poverty and environmental degradation.

Policy must necessarily be informed by practice. Breakthrough solutions are found when a diverse group of stakeholders - that could include a change agent - collaborate to take small but significant steps towards sustainability. What is learnt locally can be applied on a larger scale, provided frameworks to support replication and scaling-up are created by governments, financial institutions and large corporations.

This is where the year gone by provides a considerable amount of optimism for 2010. It has been particularly encouraging for the TARA Livelihood Academy and our colleagues within the DA Group to have worked on new methodologies to create Green Jobs – safe and dignified occupations that create income and social security, reduce carbon dependency, regenerate the natural resource base and contribute to sustainable growth of national economies.
Our effort to bring life into an environmentally malignant dairy cluster, in apparent decline, through a Value Chain Development exercise, generously supported by the International Labour Organisation, underlines the significance of three working principles – participation, networking and facilitation – without which any attempt to reach scale will remain a pipedream. In a matter of months, the latent capacities of an entire spectrum of stakeholders have been unleashed to launch win-win initiatives that will create enhanced value for local businesses, help mitigate the effects of climate change in a small way and deliver decent work opportunities to thousands of workers.

This issue also highlights the range and depth of capacity building services needed on a mammoth scale, much greater than can be provided by TARA, if we are to reach out to a billion people and turn society into a large movement of climate warriors. Our task is so large and the pace at which we must act so demanding, that we must collectively invoke a fourth principle – partnership; something that we have found to be an instinctive course of action when survival is at stake. Perhaps, the message is being lost within the confines of board rooms and cabinet meetings. True leaders, we hope, can read what’s written on the wall.

Shrashtant Patara
spatara@devalt.org
 

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