A system leverage points approach to governance for sustainable development

Abstract

Governments are inherently responsible for citizens' well-being. Given that achieving sustainable development ["Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs"—(WCED in Our common future, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987)] is core to the attainment and maintenance of citizens' well-being, and increasingly understood to require major transformations in integrated social, technological and ecological systems (Sachs et al. in The decade of action for the sustainable development goals: sustainable development report 2021, Cambridge, 2021), it follows that governments have a significant role in shaping transformations. Muted progress on long-standing social, environmental, and economic challenges alongside spiralling public budgets and intergenerational debt suggests, however, that public governance systems are inadequate to facilitate the transformations urgently required. Conceptualising the practice of public decision-making as a complex system, this paper investigates whether known influences on public decision-makers can be linked to Meadows’ (Leverage points: places to intervene in a system, Sustainability Institute, North Charleston, 1999) leverage point framework. Finding meaningful connections, it further explores how the leverage point framework can be employed to engage decision-making influences as enablers of desirable public outcomes. It is contended that shifting decision-makers’ focus one step beyond currently prevalent leverage points will set in motion the transformations in governance required to facilitate sustainable development.

Innovation for sustainability: how actors are myopically caught in processes of co-evolution

“…In business studies, scholars have put forward tools and frameworks to increase the chance of achieving successful innovation, through the use of experimentation, collaboration and advice to think 'out of the box'. There is also a literature of intervention points for leveraging systemic change [89,90] drawing on [91]. Leverage points are 'places within a complex system […] where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything' [91, p. 1].…”

Decision Change: The First Step to System Change

“…Resolving root causes is vital because problems may resurface if only their manifestations ('symptoms') are combatted; also, there may not be sufficient resources to suppress all manifestations in isolation. For example, a cause of global warming is emission of greenhouse gas, for which a root cause is overconsumption; pinpointing more fundamental causes requires reconsideration of goals [17]. An example of system change that only suppresses a problem's manifestation is capturing CO2 from the atmosphere to reduce global warming when this greenhouse gas is still emitted.…”

“…This list of areas should also include relevant elements of politicology, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and organisation theory (focusing on bureaucracy). In particular, it should consider problem analysis, goal setting, and opportunities for a shift of paradigm or mindset [17], possibly through unconventional modes of thinking [65,105]. Experts in information and communication technology should be involved at an early stage, for instance, to build an architecture for collecting and processing system-change proposals.…”

Public authorities for transformative change: integration principle in public funding

“…While empowerment actions initiated by local communities and civil society towards transformations are examined rather widely (Trutnevyte et al 2011;Fröcklin, Jiddawi, and de la Torre-Castro 2018;Andrachuk et al 2018;Penca 2019;Colloff et al 2020;Zwarteveen et al 2021;Shi and Moser 2021), explorations of governments as actual frontrunners of sustainability actions has been considerably more scarce (Willi et al 2020). The discussion about the role of public authorities (states, governments) in the context of transitions towards sustainability has remained at the theoretical level (Johnstone and Newell 2018;Eckersley 2021;Bolton 2022) and in form of appeals that they become stronger actors in transformations (Mazzucato 2015;Deutz and et al 2020). Portrayals of them actually being in the driver's seat of transformations have been rare.…”