Over the past few months regular readers will have realised that there are certain themes to these posts. I talk a lot about participation. I talk about concepts that sit within systems thinking and complexity; and I’ve now added access to the list. These four ideas form the core of Read more…
In the past few months I’ve talked a lot about ‘Access’ and why it is becoming so important. But how do you use the concept of Access in designing your services and interventions? Most of our work is driven by wanting to solve a problem for a particular group: creating Read more…
It isn’t an overstatement to say that we are living through times of significant change. There are times when it can feel overwhelming when you think about everything that is going on in the world today: Covid-19, economic recessions, climate change, rise of populism and nationalism, eroding civil liberties, shrinking Read more…
A few weeks ago I wrote that the UK and its devolved governments tried to fix a problem with student grades that wasn’t there. What I meant by that was that rather than tackle the issue of a final assessment of performance, which had been interrupted because of the pandemic, Read more…
In this period of uncertainty, many of us are working longer hours, ramping up our productivity, trying to reinvent our lives in the face of redundancy and blurring the line between work and home more and more. Work-life balance – what’s that, I hear you cry! Well I’m not really Read more…
“We become like that on which our hearts are fixed. …We are gods in the chrysalis.” Elbert Hubbard Two weeks ago I wrote about understanding your vision for social impact very well to avoid unintended negative impacts as much as possible. The definition of Social Impact that I tend to Read more…
I’ve been working on a social return on investment analysis for a carbon storage programme in Indonesia, when I came across a relatively new concept in valuing social impact. The project currently uses the Climate Community Biodiversity (CCB) Standards and has structured its outcomes accordingly, which has been very useful for identifying Read more…
In July I wrote about how important a rights-based approach to access is becoming and about how equity is sometimes more important than equality. Last month, the UK government and devolved administrations demonstrated spectacularly why these issues are so important when they tried to apply an algorithm to already standardised Read more…
My last blog ended on a rather controversial note. Telling organisations not to keep donors happy did raise the odd eyebrow. It is worth a little bit more detail. You see, many organisations are actively encouraged to develop a database of donors, learn their funding cycles, understand what they will Read more…
If you read even half of what I write on this blog you’ll know that participation is a regular topic. A theme almost. Many years ago I realised that the best kind of social impact is designed by the people who will benefit from that social impact. I’ve also seen Read more…