Dear friend,

The fight against climate change is already as hard as it is but it doesn't just mean fighting natural elements. Turns out, it doesn't even mean just fighting big conglomerates, trying to change government policies or trying to convince people that what we're doing to our planet is destroying it. For some people, being a climate activist means putting your own and your loved ones' lives in danger. Latin America is one of the most dangerous places for climate activists, especially women. Read this excellent piece from Open Democracy on the challenges women activists in Latin America face in their fight against climate change.

Berta Cáceres solidarity rally, Honduras 2016. Photo: Flickr/Daniel Cima/CIDH. CC BY 2.0.

If we want to stop humanity from destroying the living planet we need to start thinking beyond the current time and beyond borders. SpaceBuzz is an organisation that is aiming to do both. It's based on the idea of the 'overview effect', something that astronauts who see the earth from outer space experience, that allows them to see it as a "fragile ball of life". SpaceBuzz's mission is to give this experience to as many children so that they will grow up not taking the earth for granted. We talked with Spacebuzz's founder Hidde Hoogcarspel to see where Spacebuzz is headed (other than to infinity and beyond).

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Systems thinking; An algorithm of thought for doing good better

Solutions

Written by
Behdokht

on
12 February 2021

We, the people, the human race, owe a great deal of our success to the cumulative efforts of our ancestors, in discovering and understanding how our world works from a systems perspective. We thrived by not just understanding the details well, but also due to our innate ability in connecting the dots between those details. Every action in the working of a system has an effect and every element works together to survive.

When we choose to see the systems, we let ourselves examine problems more completely and see how they are connected to the ‘whole’. The adoption of the systems thinker mindset ensures that our actions are accurate and wholesome. Systems thinking allows us to ask better questions when defining problems, before jumping to solutions. It teaches us that our actions might not have our intended effect on the ‘whole’, even with good intentions. It helps us see better.

Within the scope of this content, we take a quick glance at some features of what it means to be a systems thinker when it comes to problems our world is facing today. Whether you are a private citizen or a nonprofit, when embracing philanthropic inclinations, it is about time to ask if good intentions are good enough for an impactful intervention?

Climate crisis, food insecurity, gender inequality, global health, education, and environmental issues are among our most urgent problems. A complex issue often has interconnected elements (Fig.1) with complex cause and effect relationships between its components (Fig.2).

A systems thinker looks into the cause of the problem, its elements, and interrelationship between the elements (Fig.3), and their cumulative impact.

In an interconnected system, there are constant feedback loops and flows between elements (Fig.4). This means that they affect each other with possible unintended consequences. In a balanced feedback loop, all the various actors, actions and interventions are in sync and their relationships are mapped. Systems mapping helps to untangle cause and effect and identify effective solutions.

As a nonprofit, using systems thinking places your beneficiaries as one of the fundamental elements. It also requires understanding and considering the influence of your intervention on different layers in a short- as well as long-term. As a nonprofit or philanthropic individual and concerned citizens, the important question is whether the gain of the defined beneficiaries would add up and contribute to the community and society they belong to.
It also means to consider unintended consequences as the result of the work.

Let’s clarify by an example:

An article published in Harvard Business School illustrates an example on protecting environments, explaining that land conservation organisations have worked over many decades to protect and restore endangered ecosystems and develop solutions to tackle climate change. Yet, many struggle to identify their key beneficiary.

“Is it the earth itself? The flora and fauna they seek to protect? The human beings who live, work and play on the planet? Or some combination? The question that must be asked is what is the value of each organisation in the overall ecosystem? Some preserve small or large tracts of land, others work on energy policy, some on legislating polluter behavior or destructive farming practices. Wouldn’t the organisations be more successful at achieving their own mission, if only they raised their sights to unite in addressing the cause of environmental protection? Each organisation, of course, will focus on their core mission but with a holistic understanding of how the pieces fit and if possible, even collaborating where cracks appear. Understanding and working in context is key” And being mindful of unintended consequences is a necessity to ensure true and lasting success.

The same article illustrates another example by highlighting the issue of parallel, non-coordinated efforts i n the U.S, youth development efforts. Around a million young individuals dropout of high school every year and another roughly one million graduate from high school don’t follow through with vocational or college education. This has caused a high population of unemployed or underemployed youth. There are organisations that provide educational services to the youth in need while others address their physical, emotional and psychological health.

Many of these problems are interconnected, and unless all the dots are connected, it will not be possible to make progress in a systematic fashion at scale. Figure.5 demonstrates such holistic approach in dissecting the interlinking of components that affect the primary focus. It shows the effect of this mindset on the way organisations can link their solutions to the macro-system. Nonprofits can then connect their purpose, the beneficiary context and goals to the organisation’s mission, strategy, operational model and performance measurement for a greater impact.

Donate to the system with Kinder appeals:

Systems thinking clarifies the otherwise opaque and abstract relationship between the components of an issue and helps organisations with the right questions that would lead to defining the right actions. It will help organisations to get to the heart of the why: check whether their vision impacts the key beneficiaries.

Kinder is ambitious to act on our world's problems in a cumulative fashion and to promote systems thinking by creating appeals; bringing together charitable organisations that share the same concern and are taking necessary actions to tackle those concerns, each in their own unique way. The summation of each of their approaches would effectively target complex problems with a promise of long-lasting impact. To ensure systems thinking is appropriately applied, Kinder keeps up the inclusive search for organisations that connect their solutions to other elements within the system. Appeals are the product of our research on such organisations. We explore charitable organisations worldwide through our vetting process to find those that change the systems for a better world. We invite all the promising organisations to join a zone of advice for charities. Our Charity Zone is where organisations can see the reflection of their work from an external perspective and sign up for further lessons and advice.

Our wish is to nurture each organisation as a systems thinker and call for our concerned citizens to develop this mindset and keep an eye on the big picture that a problem sits within. We ask philanthropists to support a holistic strategy instead of a singular approach, when making giving decisions.

Kinder Appeals not only aim to streamline the donation process but also to present charitable organisations to potential donors in an integrated way. The aim is to provide donors with a fresh perspective on all dimensions of the problems, as well as the required solutions, giving them the confidence that their contribution is supporting different approaches needed to overcome one problem.

When compiling charity appeals, Kinder carefully considers participating organisations such that there is a piece for every gap of the puzzle from systems thinking perspective (Fig.6). Appeals showcase the strength of individual organisations and educate donors with key beneficiaries and various dimensions of the issues. Systems thinking enables educated giving.

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People in poorer nations might not get a COVID-19 vaccine in 2021

Obstacles

Written by
Deniz Gulsoken

on
8 January 2021

People's Vaccine Alliance, a coalition between Amnesty International, Oxfam and Global Justice now, warned the world on Wednesday, saying if no action is taken 90 percent of people in poorer nations will not get access to a vaccine against COVID-19.

The world's richest nations have currently bought 54 percent of the potential vaccine supplies, despite housing only 14 percent of the world's population. Canada, for example, has ordered almost 5 complete doses of vaccines per person.

"No one should be blocked from getting a life-saving vaccine because of the country they live in or the amount of money in their pocket," Anna Marriott, Oxfam Health Policy Manager.

While affluent countries like the UK who has already administered the first dose of the vaccine to nearly 1.5 million people, 67 low-income countries have made no vaccine purchase yet.
According to the People's Vaccine Alliance, it's likely that these countries, along with 221 others who signed up for the programme, rely on COVAX, a global fund to provide equal access to the vaccine across the world.
High-income countries, along with the EU have pledged to provide funds for COVA, however, there is no clear timeline for the programme's rollout.
According to Duke Global Health Innovation Center, "Current models predict that there will not be enough vaccines to cover the world's population until 2023 or 2024". If there aren't dramatic changes to the vaccine rollout strategies billions of people across the world won't get access to safe and effective vaccination against COVID-19 for years. Which essentially means the pandemic also won't end for the rest of the world.
This upcoming crisis with vaccine distribution is a clear sign of the lack of equitable access to healthcare around the world. Health systems are facing major challenges due to the pricing of pharmaceuticals, research and testing of new drugs and treatments. Public health services do not always provide the care that people require. Accessible healthcare is a luxury the majority of the world's population doesn't have.
If you'd like to support people who don't have access to proper healthcare across the world, you can donate to our Accessible Healthcare for All appeal. By donating to this appeal you'll support 10 organisations chosen by our research team based on our in-house vetting. All organisations are amongst the most transparent and effective tackling healthcare acess in different corners of the world.

This story features:

Healthcare / poverty

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The fast fashion industry is pushing workers to poverty

Obstacles

Written by
Ana Sofia Mergulhão

on
30 December 2020

This question was posed in 2016 by the Dutch trend forecaster Li Edelkoort, at Voices, a gathering of fashion-industry innovators organized by The Business of Fashion.
The fast fashion industry has long been following a business model that is rooted in unfairness. Providing us with the latest fashion trends at unsustainably cheap prices at the expense of people who make the clothes. We’ve known for a long time now that fast-fashion workers receive very low wages and work in inhumane conditions.

“This is a system where the workers at the bottom are taking all the risk and paying the price when things go wrong.” Professor Genevieve LeBaron

The coronavirus pandemic created an economic pressure, plunging the fashion industry into a crisis that exposed, once again, the inequality pervading many corners of the globalized world.
The world faced factory closures, layoffs and the refusal of foreign buyers to continue to pay worker’s wages while business was suspended, threatening the livelihoods of millions of worldwide garment workers that were already on a battle against a deadly disease.

Almost 80% of garment workers, many making clothes for some of the world’s biggest fashion brands, are going hungry due to cancelled orders and while some retailers have agreed to pay for them in full, others are still refusing.
The solution shouldn’t be cancelling contracts, moving manufacturing to local factories, or replacing humans with robots, but to dedicate meaningful resources to the improvement of working conditions for the sector’s most essential workers: people who make our clothes.
Garment workers who work for fast-fashion brands already live in poverty, with the COVID-19 crisis many have lost the little income they had with no protection to fall back on. If you'd like to support garment workers and other people across the world pushed into poverty you can donate our Fighting Poverty appeal below. Your donation will be divided amongst 7 top organisations fighting to eradicate poverty across the world.

This story features:

Sustainability / Work & Poverty

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To infinity and beyond

Dear friend,

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