Inclusion of For Profit and Government Agencies on WiserEarth
Proposal:
The work toward a just and sustainable world means being inclusive. Responsible businesses and supportive government agencies bring key resources for making lasting change.
There are a number of groups that are organized as multi-stakeholder processes and find themselves limited by the currrent scope of WiserEarth.
We suggest we expand the scope of participants to include for profit organizations and public agencies.
We think this scope will give WiserEarth another unique characteristic. Of course, accountability, integrity and transparency are critical to maintaining trust and confidence in all participants and the claims being made.
I manage a non-profit, the Interra project, and we would be able to expand our use of WE open wiser. This is also true of the California Food System portal and a number of other groups.
We have the support of NCI, we need your support by voting on it. What do you think?
Jon Ramer
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Discussions around this topic on WiserEarth
Comments
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Hi Jon,
May we know more info other than the proposal and the community discussions linked above? Especially the ones in the WiserEarth Partners meeting(s)...
For practicality and eventuality reasons, I see no wrong in integrating WiserBusiness.org and WiserGovernment.org into WiserEarth. Provided that we install appropriate safety measures as probed in the questions page.
Info for readers of this page:
This is a short description of what constitutes WIserEarth Partners --> http://www.naturalcapital.org/wiserpartners.htm
Are there more info out there that the community should know about? Just to conform with WiserEarth's transparency principle which states that "WiserEarth is open to full public scrutiny". |
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Hi Angus, At the WiserEarth Partners meeting it was agreed that WiserEarth is open and the scope can be expanded to include for profit entities and government agencies. |
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Can someone summarize the state of the debate on this issue in the community? Just as a practical matter many non-profits are registered as for-profit businesses because the legislation / regulation in their countries don't allow otherwise. Also government agencies tend to be very important in terms natural resource management, proverty alleviation, repro health etc.
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Contributors to this Page
Hi Bowo,
It is inspiring to be working on an open project with a community of people who genuinely care so much. Since accountability, integrity, and transparency are so key to protecting and preserving our values, I can assure you that I will gladly share what it is that I know.
For me, it has always been just a matter of when and how we include supportive businesses and government agencies. At the same time there must be a clear values alignment amongst the participants whether they are affiliated with public, private, or civil society.
Our experience has been that just and lasting change requires being inclusive and inviting those that have the power, authority and influence to the table to help bring about change. Effective policy changes can go a long way to change the conditions in which NGOs operate. The marketplace and its demand for innovation can help be a driver for social change and the flow of capital.
I am the executive director of the interra project, The work of the interra project is focused on three way partnerships -- the bottom up, the top down, the outside in. This is true for the foodsystem work we've been doing in California and in the Pacific Northwest. We all have groups on WiserEarth but have reached the limit of what we can do to include all the relevant and affected parties.
Of course they can add themselves as individuals. That is appropriate and a necessary first step. But we also want to identify and relate to the organizations that they represent. My recommendation is that we simply extend the type field and the activity field to include organizations that are public and private.
As long as anybody can edit an organizational profile and comment on an organizational profile we can hear from all of us. We can at least start down this path and see what shows up.
What I know from the wiserearth partners meetings and from my conversations with Paul Hawken and Peggy Duvette is that they are open and looking forward to the community as a whole taking greater and greater responsibility for the direction and future of WiserEarth.
WiserEarth can become a critical place for finding and connecting to each other as we journey together toward our new tomorrow. I look forward to our working together. Thanks to everyone for their contributions!