CONCEPT NOTE, AUGUST 2024
Note January 2025: Some elements of our thinking continue to evolve but this note retains critical core elements of our approach. The insights and experiences which gave shape to our framing of the three strands of JustSystems work came from our partners and other consultees. However, we now see more clearly how each partner brings their own specific approaches, entry points and pace. So we will work with each partner starting with their priorities, framing, and energy, and having each partner determine what feels useful and additive for them. As we work with each partner, we will share what is happening and promote learning across partners and countries, thus allowing for the platform to develop in a more organic way.
Purpose
To strengthen the supportive infrastructure for leaders in government and civil society to make public systems more effective (at delivering outcomes), inclusive (in who benefits and decides) and dignity affirming (how people experience government), at scale.
Rationale
At core, JustSystems is about people. Significant progress has been made over recent decades in improving the human condition, with millions of people moving out of poverty and able to live longer, healthier and more productive lives. Still, this progress is insufficient because too many government activities do not translate into meaningful outcomes (e.g., kids go to school but do not learn) and systems are rife with exclusion and discrimination (e.g., girls and women are harassed at school, work and on public transport). Moreover, the relationship between government and citizens is often tense, fraught with suspicion and disdain, which both harms people’s experience of public systems and undermines their confidence in and commitment to the democratic compact.
To care about people requires us to care about systems. Public systems largely determine how well people do by regulating access and opportunity in health, education, security, livelihoods, and community voice and freedoms that enable people to thrive. We also focus on public systems because they have the legal mandate, staff, physical infrastructure, funds and reach that are vastly larger and likely to last much longer than what NGOs and funders can ever provide. By strengthening public systems, limited external resources can leverage a more powerful impact than if these funds were used in parallel projects.
Systems are made and run by people. We believe that people – those responsible for public wellbeing as well as those who are representative of constituencies – can make public systems work better. But systems change is extremely difficult, and people responsible for them inside government lack the support they need to do a good job. The rules and culture of bureaucracies often stifle motivation, initiative and common sense; multiple demands and activities create noise that favors transactionalism over prioritization and deep work; and it can be difficult to sort through the sea of ideas, evidence, and tools while navigating the political economy of cultivating allies to advance reform.
On the other hand many civil society organizations, having come to appreciate the limits of conventional accountability/watchdog work or running their own projects in terms of attaining sustainable impact at the scale of the need, are struggling to shift their approaches to systems change. They too face similar challenges to government leaders, and need support to develop the mindsets, muscles and relationships (especially with people inside government and others who exercise influence) that are critical to effective systems change.
For some, working with governments that appear uncaring or may havecaused harm can be especially hard, including subjecting them to criticism from their own peers. In seeking to do a better job, both government and civil society leaders have a real opportunity to reinvigorate public governance and accountability – such as community meetings, budget making and feedback mechanisms – so that ordinary people can feel invited, heard and a sense of agency in relation to their government, and people in government get their sense of fulfillment from the extent to which they help make life better for people.
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