The need for radical collaboration
Humanity is entering a period of great transition. This transition will increasingly be driven by the physical impacts of ecological disruption, especially the crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and the effects on our food systems. But it will also be driven by humanity’s response to these challenges, including our capacity for preemptive action.
The international community has underreacted so far to the knowledge of climate change and biodiversity loss. Where it has reacted, it has favoured top-down approaches which often have diminishing social licence among frontline communities. Yet there have always been leaders among us, at the local and global levels, who have pushed proactively to catalyse greater action through community empowerment – and momentum is building rapidly for more.
What is increasingly clear, however, is that the growing will to act is not translating into frontline action, at least not at the scale and urgency required. Even where knowledge, technology, funding and demand for change is available, it is not aligning in ways that drive sufficient action. Community-led action is struggling to scale up and sustain itself.
This speaks to the need for innovation in collaboration – that is, new ways of bringing together our collective capabilities and resources to address common risks and opportunities. It is not enough to have the will, or even the means, to act. We also need the infrastructure to facilitate radical collaboration across sectors, scales and supply chains, to sustain and enhance the trust that underpins this, and thereby to convert will into action.
