Networks, Agreements & Systems Change

Humanity United has always believed in funding networks and platforms for people from multiple spaces, sectors, and geographies to work together towards systems change. While support for networks is a way to amplify the impact of our limited resources, it is also rooted in a much deeper yet simpler truth: systems change is all about relationships. Systems are made up of people and people can change. That shift in the relationships needed to create the change we seek is guided by shared agreements in supporting the work of networks and platforms, it is critical to know what you are trying to achieve together, how you will work together, how you will make decisions, and what you will do when you disagree. Knowing what kind of networks we are supporting and the best ways for us to support and walk alongside those networks has been a critical and ongoing body of learning for the organization.   

We invest in people and their relationships and our returns on those investments are the relationships that bring about systemic and profound change, led by those closest to the context.  However, as we have invested in these networks, we have come to realize a critical truth for donors and change makers around the world: it is not the network that matters but the agreements that guide the relationships within the network.   

The agreements that a group of people make to work together and achieve a shared goal are what we refer to as governance. Governance (as our friends at the Governance Futures Network lay out) is about how we relate to each other; how we work together, decide together, connect together, and care together. Good agreements include rituals, repetitive practices, collective actions, and reflective spaces to create, deepen, and expand connections and relationships that are needed to achieve a shared goal together. 

All of Humanity United’s work focuses on elevating the voices of those with lived experience that are closest to the context. A critical component of this work is to work towards a system that is led by the power and agency of communities. Governance is agency in action. It is how people can choose the way that allows them to feel the choices and the power they have to make change for themselves.    

For the past seven years, we have shared a journey into networks and the agreements that guide them with Pedro Portela. Creating, using, and adapting agreements together are critical to the relationships that create systemic change.  As Pedro once wisely pointed out to us: “there is no system of governance that does not have a scar underneath it.” Those scars come from relationships getting challenged and maybe even hurt. We gather, we take action, we learn, and we adapt. This directly relates to one of his key observations that collaboration is a catalyst for conflict, and that is a good thing. Good agreements create the container for healthy conflict and working through this conflict together deepens relationships and makes them more resilient to the constant flux, chaos, and complexity that we witness on a daily basis.   

In the coming weeks and months, Humanity United will share a series of reflections exploring our evolving perspective on the importance of agreements and governance in systems change work that centers on how to create, support, and adapt healthy containers to take on the relational work of systems change. In particular, this series will share lessons we have learned as a funder, questions we consistently ask ourselves, and actions we’ve taken or not taken when accompanying people working together collectively towards a shared goal.  We hope others will learn and adapt with us to uncover, name, and address the spoken and unspoken agreements that often determine whether or not we are successful at addressing the root causes of violence, exploitation and injustice.