This year’s Systems Innovation Learning Festival offers a stage to the faces of systems change. SILP’s Experimentation Fund allowed us to learn together for a year, as a Cohort of eight experimental projects around the globe. We practiced how development funding could be done differently, through exploring what happens when you focus on putting learning at the centre, rather than results.
The Learning Festival is a chance for us to share what we have learned, along every step of this long and exciting journey. Aligned with the values that guided us in our work, we promise to share honestly the good, the confusing, and the unresolved. You will hear about the behind the scenes, the often invisible, and the How of the work:
- How do you design a fund, if you wish for people to act from a sense of courage and innovation, encouraging people to bring their best?
- How do you determine the criteria for selecting grantees to ensure that projects are locally relevant, experimental, and systemic?
- How do you bring vastly diverse projects together and what can they learn from each other?
- How do you facilitate conversations and actions that unite different parts of the system, bridging the old with the new for a shared purpose?
- How do you learn together to address power dynamics in the room, and understand their impact on the work?
So often the systemic approach is intimidating, seems too big a change to implement, and it is frankly daunting deciding on where to even begin. We are coming to you with day-to-day stories, micro-movements, trials and beginnings, and a look into how they have allowed for systems to connect differently, to reflect on themselves differently, and to act together.
Then, there is more. Building on a year-long learning journey with the Cohort, we decided to design and deliver the Festival in a decentralised way. This means each day is created & facilitated by a team of SILP Fund Experimenters, together with Climate-KIC. This allows us to truly shift the conversation from “talking about” those doing the work to one where those doing the work on the ground speak in their own name.
The Learning Festival by the Systems Innovation Learning Partnership is an annual opportunity to explore the cutting edge of systems innovation and learning, bringing together diverse organisations’ in a participatory space to discuss and challenge each other on these issues. We call this event a Festival, as we see it as an opportunity to celebrate the journey of learning together, of weaving what systems change means in different contexts and coming together with fellow systemic thinkers & doers.
Taking place across the 17, 18 and 19 of September, each three-hour session will tackle a different question:
- Tuesday, September 17: Transformative funding for systemic learning, from 14-17 CET
How can we monitor and evaluate changes activated by funding for learning?
What happens when you fund for learning, rather than results? Last year has allowed us to test this approach, together with an Experimentation Fund Cohort of eight experiments from Uganda, India, Zambia, Serbia, Colombia, Thailand / South Asia & the EU.
You can definitely not transform a system in a year, this much is true. But what you can do is observe micro-movements of change; you can begin hearing different questions being asked by your stakeholders; you can observe mindsets shifting; you can discover how those on the ground are connected, beyond the challenge at hand and how this can impact the sustainability of our work; you can listen to the true stories of what happened (rather than reading a reporting on what has been planned). And what has truly happened moves along way more interesting lines than the best plans we might have created. We are glad to share with you the lived stories behind these and more ways on how activate and pay attention to systems changing, Our story addresses the full funding life-cycle: from a funder to the last mile recipients. With all of them in the room, to offer their voice.
- Wednesday, September 18: Ecosystem response to systemic challenges, from 14-17 CET
How do we leverage and catalyse learning and experimentation for connected action?
Ecosystem responses to systemic challenges demand a shift from top-down solutions to community-driven, co-created solutions. Systemic solutions require innovation that is social in purpose, systemic in nature, and inclusive by design.
On this second day of the Learning Festival, we will delve into the dynamic responses of ecosystems to systemic challenges, guided by the deep insights and experiences of the SILP Cohort I. In a word where often relationships between actors are either non-existent, incidental or purely transactional, we must aim to move away from a linear, action-based approach to one where systemic solutions are co-created among communities and key stakeholders. Through the lens of diverse global experiments, we will explore how interconnected systems evolve when innovation is driven by collective action and deep listening. The day will reveal how communities, organizations, and stakeholders co-create solutions that not only address immediate challenges but also weave the fabric of long-term, sustainable change. Together, we will reflect on the subtle shifts, emergent patterns, and collaborative strategies that have surfaced over the past year, highlighting how ecosystems can respond and adapt to the complex, often unpredictable nature of systemic transformation.
- Thursday, September 19: Shifting power dynamics together, from 10 – 13 CET
How do climate change and social justice belong together in deep collaboration?
The final day of the Learning Festival 2024 offers a reflective and challenging exploration into the complexities of power and its impact on creating a more just and equitable world. We will examine the intricate relationship between climate justice and social justice, critically engaging with the realities of power dynamics—both visible and hidden—that shape our systems. Stories from the ground will highlight experiments and initiatives that question the status quo, exploring the challenges and possibilities of shifting power dynamics. By bringing diverse voices and perspectives together, we aim to create a space for deep collaboration, enabling us to co-create new pathways, as we collectively reflect on how to transform and reshape the systems that govern our world.
Some sessions might include participatory break-out conversations.
Large group sessions will be recorded.
This event is open to the public & free of charge. We appreciate you supporting us by inviting all who should be part of this conversation.
If you are interested in joining us for the Learning Festival, register here:
https://climate-kic-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYsdeiorDItGtEMmQ84iMY0zx6e_9KbnvhR
Reach out on silp@climate-kic.org if you would like to explore and co-create with us beyond our offer.