There is no “quick fix” on the path to meaningful systemic change
A global health crisis killing over one million in the U.S. alone; racially motivated massacres in the US; authoritarian regimes threatening democracy across the globe — these are but a sampling of human made disasters giving us more than enough reason to fear that the world is a complete mess.
For decades, I investigated, reported, and advocated on behalf of some of the most marginalized people on earth: refugees from Ethiopia, internally displaced persons from Sudan, Bosnian war victims, people with disabilities, trafficking victims, and Afghans whose entire country is littered with mass graves. Yet today, mass graves are still being dug, war crimes are still being committed, and civilians are still being cast from their homes.
Seemingly little changes. Names of cities, countries and disasters — natural and human — may change, but violence, injustice and inequality persist. Repeatedly, we witness untold misery repeat itself. The victims may be different, but the interventions aimed at relieving the suffering stay the same.
I can’t open a newspaper or go online without seeing issues that I worked on for most of my life resurfacing. I have seen robust and heroic responses seeking to mitigate agonizing human hardships that are well-intended and carried out by committed, thoughtful humanitarians. Yet, looking back after more than three decades, sadly, these responses rarely tackled the root causes in a comprehensive way through structural, long-term, sustained and systemic change. I can’t help but think that part of the problem is that much of this work has focused solely on providing a quick fix rather than a sustainable solution.
How do you create sustainable solutions? The answer remains in our hands — all of us.
A paradigm shift among the donor community, individuals, foundations, governments and international institutions is urgently needed. Yes, there has been a significant amount of dialogue and messaging in the philanthropic world in recent years about the need for systemic change. But are we, in fact, practicing what we’re preaching? Certainly, there are examples of a systemic approach to seemingly intractable problems beginning to emerge; however, that is more the exception than the rule.
We are surfacing from two years of deadly illness, isolation, economic pain, distrust in science and polarization. Whoever thought we’d see people in this nation rejecting life-saving vaccines — or that the US would have more pandemic deaths than any other nation? So, how confident are you, after two years, that the US now has a systemic approach for the next global pandemic? Are we seeing philanthropic organizations collaborating on a comprehensive, systemic strategy to better prepare our nation for “the next big one?”
We all can see the devastating impacts of global climate change on our planet. We are told daily about the dire consequences it will have on us well before the end of this century — and indeed we’re already experiencing those consequences. Myriad tactics to address climate change are being employed or discussed by an array of committed NGOs and philanthropic entities — reducing the use of fossil fuels, moving to electric-powered vehicles, eating a plant-based diet, ramping up solar and wind energy, reducing the use of plastic. And we go off to Paris and Glasgow to discuss the challenges and approaches and sign agreements. But aren’t we missing a comprehensive, coordinated and systemic global strategy that can maximize and measure outcomes, as well as adapt strategy to address changing circumstances over an extended timeframe? Does anyone seriously believe we’re meeting climate action goals now? In 1989, Robert Redford and Mikhail Gorbachev (ironic, to be sure) convened the Greenhouse Glasnost Summit on Climate Change at Sundance. And how have we progressed in the 33 years since that gathering? Backwards, by all accounts and measurements.
And so, we must develop strategies that don’t simply reward short-term solutions, even if they provide momentary victories. Instead, the philanthropic community must adopt an approach that gives credence to the theory that lasting and positive change must include a systemic approach — one that employs good, old fashioned grassroots outreach to both listen directly to constituencies impacted by multi-faceted, intractable challenges, and then secures buy-in every step along the way (digital/social media campaigns can be an effective communications tool, but it isn’t a stand-alone strategy); insistently and persistently addresses the root causes of problems (tons of money can be generously applied to situations without really addressing root causes); and honestly measures results and impacts over an extended period of time, adjusting both strategy and tactics when and where necessary.
Thirty-five years ago, I met someone who changed my life, Fred Ross Sr. The legendary, yet widely unknown organizer mentored generations of organizers (including Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta) on the idea that winning systemic change requires developing grassroots leaders and strategies that will build enough power to prevail. He brought Mexican-Americans and African Americans together to battle segregation in schools by building their voting power, and holding elected officials accountable. In Orange County, CA, he organized with parents to fight rampant segregation in the local schools, and successfully integrated local school boards across the Citrus Belt through voter registration drives and civic engagement.
Perhaps the most dramatic outcome of his early work occurred when Mexican-American parents sued the Orange County school districts and prevailed in the Mendez vs Westminster case, laying the foundation for the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown vs Board of Education.
And we don’t have to look decades into the past to see that grassroots organizing can still be one of the most effective tools to address systemic problems.
Across the country, there’s a great deal of conversation about disparities in access to quality, affordable health care. Lack thereof is disproportionately impacting communities of color in cities across the nation, as well as rural populations. Simply put, you can construct a shiny, new hospital or community medical center — a good thing, for sure — but still not come close to addressing the underlying causes that have produced those disparities for decades. Access to decent housing, employment, healthy food choices, primary care doctors and community health workers who look like the communities they serve, and ways to enhance health literacy — these are all factors impacting healthcare equity across the US, and must therefore be taken into consideration in pursuit of a solution. Current initiatives, such as the South Side Healthy Community Organization and the Garfield Park Rite to Wellness Collaborative in Chicago are both great examples of systemic and coordinated community-driven approaches to change.
Channeling the Fred Ross approach, the South Side Healthy Community Organization (SSHCO), which evolved from the South Side Health Transformation Project, employed grassroots outreach and persistent listening — through Town Hall meetings, surveys, active follow-up — to understand not just the root causes of decades-long health disparities across Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods (those were already known), but to hear how both community leaders and constituents would themselves tackle those root causes. And, that input was built into the long-term strategy, and SSHCO has continued grassroots engagement to ensure both buy-in and accountability.
It was 1982, a little more than a year after leaving office, when President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter founded The Carter Center, committed to “human rights and the alleviation of human suffering.” Never ones to fall prey to “herd mentality,” the Carters opted to tackle and eradicate severe tropical diseases that cause extensive pain and disability on continents globally, but have largely been ignored by everyone — Guinea Worm, Lymphatic Filariasis and River Blindness. Like Fred Ross, Sr., the Carters and their leadership team at The Carter Center have taken a persistent grassroots approach — boots on the ground — over four decades and are addressing root causes with persistence and community/village buy-in. They have faced obstacles and drawbacks that would have caused many to say, “Well, we’ve done what we can.” Retreat, however, is not in The Carter Center’s DNA. They have had to adapt strategy and tactics myriad times over forty years, but they are closing in on eradication of Guinea Worm on the African continent.
There has never been a time when foundational organizing principles were more needed. This is what drives our mission at the Foundation for Systemic Change. One of our pilot initiatives is the “Fred Ross Project”, a long-term impact campaign designed to use the story and lessons of Fred Ross, Sr. as a guide for successful organizing. It is through Fred’s story, and this campaign, that we hope to mobilize and organize people to tackle ongoing economic, political, social, racial, ethnic and environmental inequities with a systemic approach which lead to the long-term positive change we all seek. In turn, our goal is a more peaceful, healthy and just world. We must be willing to fund and pursue these grassroot approaches.
And so, if we want to truly solve problems, “systemic” will need to replace “quick” fix. The choice is ours. But, I’m convinced that a world with no more quick fixes can indeed be a world not constantly in such a hot mess.
John Heffernan is the founder of the Foundation for Systemic Change and has over three decades of experience in non-profit leadership roles, including at Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Physicians for Human Rights, International Rescue Committee, and the Coalition for International Justice.
