We don’t live in silos.  So much of our work towards progressive social change however still is so isolated on a sector by sector basis.  Some surmise that the legacy of this isolationism is funder driven for the most part. It continues to be supported however by leadership that remains overwhelmed by fiscal and strategic survival within the limits of their specific sector.  New models are needed for leaders and their organizations to collaborate strategically, programatically and operationally.  This collaboration if it is grow would be best to take root from a values-aligned approach to change not from a framework shaped by fiscal crisis.

A new " mental metabolism" (from Jane Magruder Watkin’s "Change at the Speed of Imagination") is in order.  We need to be supporting the leadership of socially progressive organizations to communicate, connect, collaborate and create new strategic approaches to complex social issues. Building upon our collective strengths to re-educate funders on impact and results, to re-orientate elected officials on investing in change and innovation and to re-engage the public in shaping a just an equitable world.

 Too much to hope for you say?  Thinking small won’t take us the distance.

Today, our culture rotates on shorter, faster, sleeker and smaller. The design and functionality of products and even of stories is receptive to the degree in which it can be condensed.

In a recent issue of Wired Magazine, the term "snack culture" was featured in an article which traced its evolution right from cave paintings, to the Readers Digest, to cliffnotes, the sony walkman, mp3s, the ipod nano to the one second film.

But does the landscape of the quick information bite necessarily impede the impact of social progressive agendas? Our snack culture may in fact pose an opportunity for civil society organizations to reach for clarity of purpose in their public engagement initiatives, to produce creative communications and to reach beyond policy change and begin to embed a new improved vision of the world into the very fiber of our culture.

Can we popularize the eradication of poverty, inequality and environmental degradation? Can we create massive social movements that embrace culture as much as substantive policy change?

The tipping point may in fact already be at hand even in the error of shrinking space for civil society. The very contraction of this civil society space has infused global movements with a sense of urgency to address climate change, the inequalities of globalization, the brutal infringement of human rights in the name of the war on terror and the heightened violence against women and children as a strategy of war.

The evolution of global movements is taking place, new collaborations, new organizational structures and new alliances are creating are being experimented with against the backdrop of a sense of urgency. The consensus that this is the last chance to get the future right is being embraced by a wide range of social movements.

Gore observes in reference to climate change, ” The central challenge is to expand the limits of what is now considered politically possible. The outer boundary of what’s considered plausible today still falls far short of the near boundary of what would actually solve the crisis.”

Concurrent to this reality, are millions of people participating in global movements to eradicate poverty and inequality. This mass mobilization of global citizens is infact pushing the boundaries of what is plausible. Civil society in today’s democracy deficit is positioned (for better or worse) to lead elected governments to the “near boundary of what would actually solve the crisis”

He notes, “The clash of civilization is not a reality it is a project of some people. We address this by building bridges.. finding bridges to our common problems.”
“I am really impressed with the possibility to get global issues on the agenda, like global warming. Somehow there is a shift … I feel that people are not letting governments get away from it… the fact that there has been this tremendous turn around gives me hope that we are still in the game, that there is still hope,” he observes.

The importance that civil society is playing in building bridges can not go underestimated. “not letting governments get away from it” from their responsibility to govern justly, humanely and with global leadership is coming to the forefront with the shift in the global agenda. It may feel like rolling a boulder up a steep hill… but in some corners of the world it feels like gravity is finally working in the favour of global civic society.

A report released by the African advocacy organization DATA sounds the alarm that G8 countries are way off track in meeting their promises.

DATA Report 2007 analysis on effective aid: The UK and Japan are on track to meet their promises. The US and Canada are off track. Germany, France and Italy are dangerously off track. In a DATA press release issued today,

* The G8 needed to increase aid by $5.4 billion between 2004-2006 to be on track. They only increased by $2.3 billion during this period.
* Of that $2.3 billion, most of the increase came from the UK and Japan.
* To get back on track the G8 must increase by $6.24bn in 2007.

Civic society through the global mass mobilization efforts of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty now takes on a heightened importance leading up to the G8 meeting this June in Germany.

Clearly the G8 lacks the leadership to do the right think… and is waiting for civic society to hold it accountable for promises it has already made. In Canada your voice can be heard by joining Make Poverty History.

Civic society is evolving in this era of globalization that exacerbates global inequality. More than ever civil society movements need leadership. Leadership that can traverse both the macro and micro levels of the new global stage. The old slogan think globally, but act locally is really being turned on its head.

Jim Collins in his book Good to Great and The Social Sectors, says, “True leadership only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to. If people follow you because they have no choice, then you are not leading.”

One of the many challenges facing civic society leaders is to be able to lead within evolving structures of social movements, such as networks, coalitions and campaigns to name a few. When people “follow a leader when they have the freedom not to” social movements then become shaped by this “following” and in turn this becomes key in shaping the agenda of a social movement which strives to be representative, inclusive and participatory.