A Consortium of Change for Sustainable Development
Multi-stakeholder and cross-domains collaboration efforts to create a better tomorrow
Last week, I joined the first day of CLIC Project final conference which was a project funded by the EU Horizon 2020. CLIC represents ‘Circular models Leveraging Investments in Cultural heritage adaptive reuse’. I was there to learn about the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage as a resource for local sustainable development.
During the sessions, I was intrigue by the term ‘consortium’ which was used in the presentations throughout the day. The word ‘consortium’ can be defined as “an organization of several stakeholders joining together as a group for a shared purpose”
Research and innovation projects funded by the EU often include collaboration between partners, for example universities, NGOs, companies, agencies, local governments, research institutes etc. In presenting such a project, the group of stakeholders is often refer to as ‘the consortium’ representing a team, a group or an alliance who are part of the endeavor.
Why does this term caught my attention?
Mainly because it provide a clear description that the works are implemented through the collaboration of many. These stakeholders may come from different background, professions, culture, as well as locality. Their collaboration across different domains offers the means to build a consortium of change for better tomorrow.
Cross-domains Collaboration
Various resources and capabilities are required to tackle our complex problems. However, not all inputs, knowledge, skills and experiences are necessarily available internally. Cross-domains collaboration, in this case, offers the means to mobilize external resources.
In such a setup, not only that the stakeholders involved can share their knowledge and experience but they can also influence the process and its outcomes.
A few pointer before initiating collaboration:
- to understand about the resources needed for development;
- to be aware of the resources that can be offered to the partners;
- to identify skills and knowledge that each stakeholder possess and how it can be of value for the partners and the projects.
These also offer the means for everyone involved to understand their motivations, identify suitable partners and determine their roles in the process.
Effective cross- domains collaboration efforts
Starting a new collaborative space with unknown partners can be destabilizing, discomforting, and more often than not filled with uncertainties.
But that is also where the beauty of collaboration exists.
It instigates a space for critical reflections, especially when the automated way of working is being examined by the others. Ways of working that is familiar and natural for one may be questioned by the others paving ways to gain insights from ‘the familiar’.
Therefore it is important to internalize these practices during the collaboration process:
- Appreciate and respect inputs from all the stakeholders;
- Focus on inputs based on stakeholder’s domain-specific knowledge;
- Explore and invest in effective means of communications among the stakeholders.
Collaboration can benefits the partners in the long term (beyond the actual collaboration phase) and the result of the effort influence both the project and the people involved in the process.
A Consortium of Change For Sustainable Development
Sustainable development include complex, challenging, and wicked problems Systemic approaches are required to tackle such challenges and the collaboration of stakeholders within the network is vital to enable and nurture meaningful solutions within the society.
Working together as a consortium requires collective effort to gain knowledge from each other, to tackle problems and find solutions together. It is a stimulating way of working; an insightful and fruitful approach for mobilizing stakeholders’ knowledge, views, experiences, and knowledge towards a systemic change.
The way we choose to work today are part of the construction of our culture of tomorrow.
