Inclusion is as big a goal as transformation in Multifunctional Landscapes

A Reflection by Sarah Freed , Co-lead of the Area of Work on Gender, Youth and Social Inclusion at the Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program

Sarah Freed, a transdisciplinary action researcher at the Alliance Bioversity – CIAT and co-lead of the Area of Work on Gender, Youth and Social Inclusion at the Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program )MFL SP)  presented  CGIAR’s systems transformation work from the Agroecology Initiative and MFL SP at the Transformations Community convening at University of York (TCX York) during a sunny June week. Freed is sharing her insights on the conference and some recurrent discussion points she observed:

I presented the Agroecological Living Landscapes toolkit as part of a session on “Tools to understand complexity”. I received some very thoughtful and intriguing questions afterward. One that stuck with me was about a common problem: What to do if people in a multistakeholder group have very divergent visions of change, so much so that it creates divisions among the group? My quick response was that the tools could be adapted to different stages of ‘coming together’ for a multistakeholder group, but I kept thinking about this challenge and it seemed to pop up in other sessions I attended. For example, a creative approach to deliberative democracy also faced this issue. I thought about some of what my colleagues say about this, to “run with the willing”, in other words – to take action on a vision along with those who agree with it, which does seem to be the most pragmatic way to go on short project timelines. But how much change can take place, especially the sustainable and equitable change we strive for in agri-food systems, if many are left out of the process?

As we continue to work on this challenge, a simple yet powerful tool that emerged in the conversations and we can start with is… listening!

We can invite people to share their experiences, especially in a topic like food where everyone is an expert. This is what Nessa Richman, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Food Policy Council, shared with us. To be truly inviting and inclusive, we may need to change our usual means of engagement, as the Council did.

When people have the opportunity to share their experience and perspective with others who are genuinely receptive, everyone involved can come away with some internal change. Our last tool in the Agroecological Living Landscapes toolkit, “Learning from past experiences in bringing about change”, was designed to provide this kind of opportunity, to broaden participants’ awareness of how change is experienced by others in their community. In this video, see what participants in Zimbabwe came away with from this opportunity.

We must make a concerted effort to listen with care and reverence to each other, especially when people have experienced trauma and its effects on families, communities, and systems. Louise McCulloch, PhD candidate at Trinity College, Dublin, gave a moving description of spaces co-created with mothers in addiction recovery to foster trust and dialogue in Ireland. They recently invited social service providers into their space to grow empathy and understanding with the lived and living experiences of mothers in addiction recovery, many of whom express experiences of trauma and stigma. Together they co-created a space that felt safe enough for the mothers to speak directly to social service providers about their experiences as part of a “report” and living story they wrote together. A space for dialogue has emerged with the possibility to foster empathy, understanding, healing, and change.

We might learn from therapeutic thinking and practice to give space to different voices and to understand what is happening when one voice dominates, as noted by Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology at University of Roehampton He also encouraged us to dive into unexplored connections and disconnects between individual and large-scale change.

Listening is also essential to transformation-focused evaluation, as noted by University of York PhD researcher Sam Buckton and international evaluation and transformation specialist Zenda Ofir . If done well, this kind of evaluation can be an agency-expanding opportunity. We must pay attention to power relations and the inherently values-driven and political nature of evaluations, in addition to the layers of complexity to address in transformation-focused ones.

Perhaps what my week with the Transformations Community at TCX York most taught me is that inclusion and ensuring each voice is heard is an aim that requires persistent, compassionate, and receptive listening. It also requires creativity, humility, and especially an openness to being changed by hearing what we may have missed before. As we move forward in the CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes program, our area of work on Fairness, gender equity and social inclusion will embrace these qualities as we continue efforts to foster inclusive dialogue, intergenerational and multi-stakeholder exchange, and to amplify voices of young men, young women, fisherfolk, and other underrepresented groups in agri-food systems. I am committed to supporting these listening efforts.

Acknowledgments: Arwen Bailey, Anne Rietveld, Simone Staiger, Agroecology initiative and Multifunctional Landscapes science program colleagues, TCX York hosts Ioan Fazey and Rebecca Newman, session organizers and speakers, facilitator Christopher Yap and participants in the “Tools to understand complexity” session.