JUSTSYSTEMS KEY TAKE AWAYS
JustSystems is about helping millions of people live better, more dignified lives. 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 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 outside the system.
Public systems are run by governments, and therefore government performance is
central to achieving the wellbeing of people at the scale of the need and sustaining
change over time. But how do governments become more just, i.e., more effective (at
delivering outcomes), more inclusive (in who benefits and who decides), and more
dignity affirming (of how people experience government)? What does it take to
strengthen state capability and legitimacy, and foster system wide change. How can
government-led systems become better at what they do?
To get answers to these questions, we undertook two connected exercises. First, we
sought to map and learn from the contributions of 53 initiatives focused on
strengthening state capability and/or fostering systems change. We reviewed their
approaches, scope of work and success metrics, and effects on systems- and people-
level outcomes. Second, we spoke with about 130 leaders, primarily from the Global
South, in government, civil society, academia, think tanks and philanthropy. Most
conversations were open-ended and unhurried of between 90 and 120 minutes, and
sought to gain their insights on how public systems work and what it takes to
effectively engage with government.
This draft note shares key takeaways from our research and consultations, in two
parts. First, we distilled seven key gaps that hamper the ability of governments to
make public systems work better for people. Second, we sketch seven key
mindsets and muscles that need to be strengthened if we are to address these key
gaps. For brevity, our observations are articulated as high-level summaries.
Because we spoke with people from many countries, not all observations apply
equally to all countries. Our proposal of what should be done in response is
articulated in a separate note.
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