Introduction
Please forgive this standard introduction to people who are coming new to my blog for the first time. My weekly blog updates contain the contributions in full I received from the 140 people who gave me text for the book on their views on the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act. In this section, ‘Voices of Hope, Wales’ I asked people about their views on the delivery of the Act in Wales as well as their hopes for the future. I hope this website will be a repository for information linked to #futuregen: lessons from a small country, and thus a resource for campaigners and activists as well as policy professionals and parliamentarians.
Last week, we heard from 3 people who have been involved closely with the development of the agenda in Wales, through their day job: Mari Arthur and Rhodri Thomas, both from Cynnal Cymru/Sustain Wales, and Michael Palmer, who led on the work in the Wales Audit Office and who also spent time seconded to the Future Generations’ Commissioner’s office. They are champions who have clear ideas about next steps. We also heard from three other contributors - from those who have not been part of the development but who have great hopes of the Act as a common values framework for a ‘renewed narrative’ to guide action in their sectors: on sustainable food systems - Sue Pritchard, CEO of the UK Food, Farming and Countryside Commission; on ‘innovative approaches to holistic government, collaborative policy development and co-operation in delivery at local, regional and national levels’, Nick Miller from Miller Research and finally, with a cry forged from years of effort , Glen Peters, CEO of Ty Solar, rightly calls out the short-term economic thinking which ‘fails to put a value on sustainable long-term designs and materials’.
This week, we hear some wide-ranging views from Jake Elster Jones, a sustainability focused researcher who sees the opportunity for the Act as providing ‘more appropriate tools, approaches and ways of thinking – and sets a new purpose – for the systems we work in.’ Eifion Williams, CEO of Circular Economy Wales, sees the Act as an opportunity to build resilience, as ‘resilient communities are not only in control of their resources, but also their food and energy systems and of course the wealth that all this activity generates.’ Simon Hoffman, from the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, Swansea University sees the opportunity for ‘human rights outcomes as the ultimate expression of progress on well-being in Wales would not only strengthen the WFGA, it would also bring additional coherence to public policy. Catriona Williams, CEO of Children in Wales, while supporting the act in principle, also sees ‘ one major challenge and that is how not to lose the child-rights approach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child within the ‘all age’ structure of the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act’. This theme of rights is continued further with the contribution from Helen Dale, Coordinator, Lleisiau Bach, Little Voices which works with young people of primary school age who calls for a ‘national representation of younger children’s views to contribute as citizens in Wales on issues that affect them.’
THE CONTRIBUTIONS
Jake Elster Jones, Researcher and Consultant
One observation I would like to suggest is that the Act and its key components (especially the ways of working, goals and principles) represent systemic interventions that generate progress in the real, messy, world.
As well as positive case studies, there are countless examples where we are struggling to do things differently against the constraints and inherited structures of an unsustainable world. Transition at the scale we think is necessary isn’t straightforward, neat or predictable. Theory tells us that command and control, linear cause and effect and ‘right answers’ are illusory in complex systems. Instead we know that we need to proceed by trial and error, drawing on multiple perspectives and ways of knowing, via negotiation and compromise, and being ready for unexpected emergent outcomes.
The Act appropriately does not provide fixed answers. It does provide more appropriate tools, approaches and ways of thinking – and sets a new purpose – for the systems we work in. As a result, although the world remains messy and progress is frustrating or elusive, we are now approaching this mess differently. People and organisations (within and beyond government) are trying new things and starting to develop, explore and apply approaches that are (as far as we can know) more likely to work in complex systems and more likely to take us in a generative, sustainable direction.
Eifion Williams, CEO, Circular Economy Wales
I was born in what was, for a short time at least, Wales’ highest village! December 2015 brought the news that Bwlchgwyn in North Wales, had been surpassed by Trefil in Blaenau Gwent; a council error as opposed to Hugh Grant climbing a hill with buckets of soil.
One of Jane Davidson’s legacies, the Future Generations Act, was passed in the same year that my village fell from the record books. The Act made me focus on less trivial losses in my village. I made a rough count of the shops, chapels and other community spaces that had existed when I was a child compared to now. It was a staggering drop from 28 to 3. Something was missing, not only from my community, but everybody’s. What was needed obviously was a creative and radical re-think.
During Jane Davidson’s tenure in Welsh Government, I was working on the Zero Waste goals she had set for Wales. Inspired, I set out to create new business models utilising ‘waste’. For my village, perhaps its rejuvenation lay in a ‘new take’ on the Circular Economy. Within industry, circular economic thinking is gaining traction fast, but a community-based approach, involving many players, could be devised if we want to reduce commuting, food miles and wealth leakage from the places where we live.
The ‘Circular Economy Plus+’ model, being pioneered by Circular Economy Wales, seeks to mould and channel the outputs of local business towards people’s needs, community by community. Resilient communities are not only in control of their resources, but also their food and energy systems and of course the wealth that all this activity generates.
Within this community-driven agenda, my organisation is bringing global exemplars to Wales such as ‘Community Fridge’ to share surplus in-date food and also the Netherlands’ ‘Precious Plastic’ model, where communities are given the tools to turn their plastic problem into micro-processed goods, designed, created and kept by them. Future readers may note that while these individual jigsaw pieces might have their time, the need to create economic resilience for our community players is paramount and eternal.
In the year this book goes to press, Wales will launch a Mutual Credit system, piloted by Circular Economy Wales. This brings circular economic thinking into play, at a community level, around generated finance itself. Local enterprises within the membership provide each other the goods and services they need to operate, while the system’s Community Brokers record and oversee the continual process of balancing deficit and credit. Not having to deplete cash reserves for business-to-business transactions will liberate Wales’ SME sector, providing the economic cushion that currently only businesses in Switzerland, Sardinia and mainland Italy enjoy. In practical terms, Wales’ Celyn Mutual Credit provides the resilience and interdependence that my village could have done with in recent decades, to keep the doors open and help to maintain jobs and services in the face of economic storms.
Simon Hoffman, Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, Swansea University
The seven well-being goals in the WFGA establish a coherent set of high-level policy ambitions for government at all levels in Wales. They are not, however, sufficiently detailed as to provide targets against which progress on improving the nation’s well-being might be measured, or objectives to be incorporated in services planning and delivery. Closer alignment between the well-being goals and human rights would add substance to the ambition of the WFGA and would be a logical enhancement of legislation which is built around the principle of sustainable development.
The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development envisages ‘a world of universal respect for human rights and human dignity’, grounded in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and international human rights. The links between sustainable development, well-being and human rights were highlighted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its statement on the international pledge to ‘leave no one behind’, which noted that human rights should be the bedrock of progress toward meeting sustainable development goals.
There is already a strong emphasis on human rights in public policy in Wales, including legislation that has integrated the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People and the Principles on Older Persons into the functions of Welsh Government and local authorities. Establishing human rights outcomes as the ultimate expression of progress on well-being in Wales would not only strengthen the WFGA, it would also bring additional coherence to public policy
Catriona Williams OBE, CEO, Children in Wales
The making of successful legislation and policy often depends on timing as well as public and professional opinion. It is no coincidence that the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 was supported not only in relation to environmental but also to social considerations. In a country where at least one in three children were living in poverty, there was already a focus on both combating poverty and on children’s rights. Within the UK, Wales was at the forefront of promoting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) where, following a campaign lead by Children in Wales, the first Children’s Commissioner in the UK was appointed to monitor implementation of the UNCRC. Subsequent Welsh legislation reinforced this commitment and provided a rights-based value system regarding children and young people in public policy. A particularly important aspect of the UNCRC was to ascertain the views of children and young people on matters that affect them. This provided a foundation upon which the development of the WFGA could be built and it has not been coincidental that children and young people are very interested in its implementation. There is however one major challenge and that is how not to lose the child-rights approach of the UNCRC within the ‘all age’ structure of the WFGA. For instance, ‘well-being’ and ‘rights’, though similar in intent are not the same. The well-being plans of local authorities have not yet addressed this issue and narratives on child poverty, for instance, has been largely absent. Going forward, a better understanding of how the two legislative approaches can support each other is needed. This is particularly important for the children and young people who are watching closely and who are the future generation.
Helen Dale, Coordinator, Lleisiau Bach, Little Voices
The very youngest children can, as well as should, be empowered as agents of change in decision-making referable to themselves and to the environment in which they too are citizens. The Children as Researchers methodology deployed in the Lleisiau Bach Little Voices projects 2012–2020 has been effective in enabling younger children to achieve real changes in their own localities as well as influencing wider society.
Benefitting from the dynamic of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in a relatively progressive environment on children’s rights in Wales, protected in law, there ought to be a national representation of younger children’s views to contribute as citizens in Wales on issues that affect them. Implementation of this requires mechanisms that do not fit into current democratic structures of engagement. This includes the practices of research in its function as organized exploration of issues, with outcomes that can inform evidence-based policy and practice decisions.
Such practice requires the crucial role of adults in the normalisation of a unified approach for age-inclusive co-production in communities as well as at other local and national governance.
I will notify the specific contributors individually when their contribution is published on my website, and feed back to them directly if I receive any comments linked to their contributions.
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#futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/futuregenerations-lessons-from-a-small-country/
Jane Davidson
12th July 2020