Beyond GDP Growth: Using Values to enable and measure Societal Development?
Sara Wolcott gave a remarkable summary of the conference. She asked why we are doing what we are doing, building partnerships around values? We are here because the visible world is falling apart, as many recent commentators (Held, Speth, Stiglitz, Jackson) have noted. Growth is like technology, not necessarily good. There is beyond GDP, prosperity without growth, and alternative one world indicators from Latin America. How do we bridge the different perspectives? We are as we relate; relationships are formed and form values. This conference has not yet found a shared vocabulary, but has identified a family of thought about values. It has brought us together for the first time. In these extraordinary times, we need to come together. We need a vocabulary, and action research, as we are working with peoples' souls. Society does not know what is important, and has no words for it. The great transition can be described as a double helix, with the interpersonal and personal intertwining. Universal values are expressed differently in different contexts, but WeValue helps us step out of context. It shows lived values, not aspirational values. The trajectory of human society is value development at ever-larger scales (family, tribe, clan, city, country, globe). As Martin Luther King said, none of us is free until all of us are free. We are drawn forward by justice as we progress towards higher values. We now have the skills and technologies to measure this, to make the invisible visible. It only works if it is real. It will not be easy. Entropy is strong, and our security needs are now massively threatened. But change is essential; we can change and will change.
Brighton and Hove’s response to the changing UK policy context: Intelligent Commissioning, co-production and developing new measures of success
Dr Paula Black, Head of Analysis and Performance at Brighton and Hove City Council, provided a local focus and one city's response. How do you keep hold of your values when faced with a massive (£30m) budget cut? What is important? Can social resources be generated to fill the financial gap? The broad policy context for delivering public services in the UK has changed significantly in the past two years. Some of the key issues are:
- The new Coalition Government
- The economic downturn
- Planned cuts to public spending
- Increased partnership working across the public, private and third sectors
- Abolition of Primary Care Trusts and the introduction of GP commissioning
- The localism agenda
- Moves to broaden democratic engagement and participation
Brighton and Hove has responded to these issues in part by moving towards an Intelligent Commissioning method of public service delivery, splitting delivery and mission roles and judging performance by outcomes rather than outputs. How do you incorporate and measure values? She outlined what Intelligent Commissioning is and what it means for the city. She then looked at the potential this creates for co-design and co-production within the commissioning cycle. Finally, she outlined how new measures are being created to understand progress towards achieving priority outcomes across Brighton and Hove.
'Effective' versus 'Successful' CSO Projects
Marilyn Mehlmann of Global Action Plan International noted that a successful project is easy to identify, not only in civil society but in any sphere: it meets its objectives. This assumes that there are indeed clear, measurable objectives, but let us take that as read. However this is not to say that even a successful project is necessarily effective. There are many possible reasons why the objectives may not lead us to be effective. She addressed four of them, all related to values:
- The objectives may be too narrow, or too difficult to measure;
- the solution may be in need of a problem;
- dishonesty "just for the boys";
- "civilizing" through CSOs, the new colonialism.
Other problems include tailoring objectives to the funder's requirements, and funders that oversimplify the complexity of sustainability. If you have a big investment in problems, no problems, no work. Transformation is a place you did not expect. Representative democracy cannot transform, it must be combined with participation. Empowerment can lead to the opposite result; is it important?
People long for a more sustainable life, with more time, quality time, and more honest dialogue. We need self reflection and on-going dialogue, consonant with values and beyond best intentions, and new ways to measure success. See powerpoint presentation (475kb).
Education and Lifestyles: Policy Processes, Values and Indicators
David Chittenden asked what is policy? Who has a mandate to make decisions? Governmental policy has an important role to play in a transition to a more sustainable world, but governments do not involve enough people and consult them too late. International policy processes are also important for establishing global norms which can then be implemented in national and local settings. But there are "wicked" problems with no consensus, no criteria, no evaluation of responses or outcomes, uncertainty, sparse information and big social choices. There are diverse currencies of action, not only money. Distribution always matters. There is no discussion of values in government. David Chittenden discussed the relationship between values and making policy, as well as how policy is often made and measured, with reference to education and lifestyles. He also showed some of the international policy processes that PERL is involved in (such as the Marrakech Process on Sustainable Consumption and Production, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and ISO 26000 on Social Responsibility) and highlighted some of the values involved.
The Future of the Global Economy
Professor Augusto Lopez-Claros set the broader context by reviewing the global economic outlook. He asked what are some of the longer-term challenges posed by the latest global financial crisis and what are some of the difficult choices which governments, businesses and civil society will confront in coming years in our search for a more equitable and sustainable economy? The world economy contracted by -0.6% in 2009, but with great variability between countries suggesting possible decoupling. The causes of the financial crisis included the behaviour of financial agents and deficiencies in the system, but not enough has been done to correct these. The energetic and widespread government reaction prevented a bigger calamity, but at a high cost in public indebtedness that has inverted vulnerability. In the US, public debt will soon be 100% of GDP, and OECD countries could reach 140% of GDP. Can we grow ourselves out of debt, as we did after the last world wars? At over 100%, debt servicing becomes onerous, distorts economic policy and services, and prevents responding to crises. The dilemma for governments is to balance fiscal stimulus to offset recession with maintaining the confidence of the market. The next crisis coming is in governments' abilities to roll over debt. The US needs to borrow $4.6 trillion in 2010, and Japan $3.2 trillion. Such countries are living beyond their means and are hostage to the market. The aging populations will be another pressure on public finance, as will climate change and other environmental problems. Rising GDP does not correlate with welfare beyond a certain level. The divergence in income levels between rich and poor is getting worse. The most egalitarian (Nordic) countries use their budget for distribution: education, public health, and infrastructure, and save in good times to even out the bad. How can we work together to address these challenges? Perhaps we need a G8 of religions to consult on this. See powerpoint presentation (848kb).
FINAL DISCUSSION
In the final DISCUSSION, one theme was about action at the local level. Local authorities could be a driving force, but they are limited in powers and citizen support, and often dependent on financial support from national government. Devolution can just be a way to pass on the responsibility for hard decisions. Too much focus at the local level could lead to ghettoism. There are experiments with local economy, but keeping money in the local community can impact on the national economy. Creative communities and social innovation succeed in a small organic way, but when they scale up they lose trust and increase bureaucracy. Sometimes encouraging community public service is opposed by the trade unions who see jobs being replaced by volunteers.
Another theme was the global crisis and possible responses. Smaller countries have been least affected, especially those not so integrated into the global economy. Chile created a copper fund when prices were high to save for bad times. The many intertwined problems will continue and a crisis is coming. Adaptive capacity is needed, such as savings and resources. Demilitarization could help. The Irish experience was cited, with a false rise in GDP with the influx of finance by multinationals, while literacy, social support and the health system declined. Financial institutions show a total lack of responsibility, with profits to the banks and losses to the governments, and politicians buy into this. We still believe that bankers are smart, and it is strategically hard to bring values in. The recent financial crisis was only a small blip; a more fundamental transformation is needed towards a moral economy. As Buckminster Fuller said, we should overturn the system by making it irrelevant. There are alternative measures of worth, and a lively recent debate on alternative economics.
Where do we go from here with WeValue? Some organizations and individuals are continuing the partnership, and others are welcome to join. We need multiple dialogues at all scales, across disciplines and CSOs, with more practical examples of values in action. The Brighton team will consider organizing another event to facilitate further action. It will also offer training in WeValue methods, and there are further funding calls to respond to. Earth Charter International will keep going and wants to exchange experience. EBBF will launch its programme to bring WeValue into businesses and organizations on 1 February. The IFRC (Red Cross) offers its experience with Youth as Agents of Behaviour Change. As we build relationships, we shall build a shared language and send out humble champions.
With snow shutting down transportation across England, the conference ended early, but with a sense of satisfaction that a constructive process had been set in motion.