REVIEW 21ST CENTURY SOCIAL CONTRACT: THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGING INNOVATIVE- DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA In the last few years, Nigerians social contract -- the system of institutions and policies designed to empower and support citizens from childhood through work and retirement -- have started to crumble. As a result, we need to find ways to create a new social contract that fosters innovation and openness, encourages long-term growth and broadly-shared prosperity, and engages individuals and families not only as participants in the economy but also as citizens. Our trust in government is in deficit because our governments are proving deficient at managing the trials of our time. At the dawn of the 21st century, humanity is the most connected, imaginative and capable we’ve ever been. Yet our modern age is rife with vast instability and conflict, unrest and unpredictability. Struggle and strife and dissatisfaction are palpable the world over. These are symptoms of the bigger tensions tearing at the fabric of our global society—resource scarcity, economic inequality, geopolitical transformation, technological upheaval. All while we seemingly lack the appropriate mechanisms to manage them. Like in 2011, The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) now published it´s flagship report entitled World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability. In this report, the WBGU explains the reasons for the desperate need for a post-fossil economic strategy, yet it also concludes that the transition to sustainability is achievable, and presents ten concrete packages of measures to accelerate the imperative restructuring. If the transformation really is to succeed, we have to enter into a social contract for innovation, in the form of a new kind of discourse between governments and citizens, both within and beyond the boundaries of the nation state. Enterprises have an extended set of stakeholders today — local communities, social organizations, and society. These stakeholders have the potential to influence the future of business. These stakeholders have ethical, social, and environmental expectations that extend beyond financial goals and legal requirements. We believe that these social covenants are fundamental to nurturing stakeholder trust and ensuring business continuity and form the basis of our contract with society and the rise of intrapreneurs—is transforming how government agencies operate and how they interact with citizens. Within the past four years, the number of networked computers that can connect to public or private sensors and feed into or draw from massive databases has exploded, both in terms of absolute numbers and relative to the population. The effect of these converging factors is that governments at every level are finding new ways to improve three critical tasks: • Real-time data collection and analysis to drive decision-making • Efficient use of physical and communication networks • Managing citizen participation in agency activities When each of the above actions are done well, mission-critical activities are developed thoughtfully and implemented effectively. These characteristics contribute to the creation of an effective government. While governments have long sought to execute policies through thoughtfully developed and effectively implemented programs, the current environment presents a new challenge for governments at the federal, state, and local level. Awash in data and the sensors for gathering it; surrounded by expansive and expanding networks through which information and material can flow; and assisted by innumerable people connected to those networks, governments today must comprehend and command increasingly complex and dynamic systems that affect how they make and implement decisions. Further, citizens—especially during an emergency, as we have seen this week—expect to participate in these recovery efforts in meaningful ways. At the very least, they demand to remain informed about their conditions in a more transparent and immediate ways than ever before. The following five emerging trends in innovation and social media will require government attention if agencies are to achieve the levels of responsiveness and effectiveness that Americans experience in their professional and personal lives and have come to expect from their government. Throughout the next few weeks, Ill examine each of these trends in detail and demonstrate how it influences data collection and analysis; challenges or enhances the efficient use of networks; and alters the citizen participation dynamic. 1. Always-on Connected Devices 2. Public and Private Networked Sensors 3. 3D-Printing Plus 4. Advanced Sharing 5. Identity Management and the Collapsing Borders between Personal and Professional Life The importance of social media and innovation has moved many agencies to create positions that focus on those tasks. Historically, we’ve relied on our families, communities and governments to grant us some protection from these threats. Yet their modern scale is well beyond what we can expect of our families and neighbors. And our governments seem unable, or unwilling to manage. I know that argument may provoke criticism, but I stand on recent events. For instance, in America, we recently saw our government allow Wall Street to destabilize the entire world economy through a combination of weak regulation, and the institutional embrace of greed. Globally, nations simply can’t agree to curb the existential threats of nuclear war and catastrophic climate change. The Social Contract model was based on managing risk (risk to reputation, risk to retention) by being a good citizen – i.e., it used business profits to create social change. The Social Capital Market model turns this upside down by focusing on using social change to produce profits and solve business challenges. Today’s program administrator needs to be tomorrow’s social entrepreneur. One of the cornerstones of the sunBEN ICT Academy, social contract philosophy is to work towards the upliftment of society, provide opportunities to our employees and to stay relevant to their needs. In the last two years ago, we focused on recognizing employees’ volunteering efforts and developing their social empathy. Through numerous initiatives, we are bringing innovation to the table, thereby creating a smart workplace where our employees can work as one to achieve a common dream. Hereto, what role should volunteer program administrators play in this search for solutions to business challenges? we argues that within the domain of volunteer engagement, no one is better suited to identify the positive business outcomes that employee service could address. Need to increase customer base? Create a volunteer program that introduces the brand to new audiences. Need to boost employee retention? Create a volunteer program that uplifts morale and staff attitudes. Need to change customer relations attitudes? Create a volunteer program that engages more employees directly with customers. And so on. Each of these examples shows similar characteristics: • Identifying outcomes that make sense for the business to be addressing. • Engaging in a different conversation that the one previously. • Being outcomes driven – that is, designing strategies to produces the measurements you want to see, rather than perfunctorily measuring a existing work. • Thinking in terms of solving problems; not creating projects. Therefore, renewing citizens Social Contract is a series of major policy papers outlining bold proposals from leading thinkers for reforming Nigerians social policy in areas from wages and job creation to taxation and the welfare state. Representing diverse perspectives from across the political spectrum, the contributors to the series share a commitment to questioning orthodoxy and enlarging the boundaries of debate. Hereto, An important challenge for enhancing youth participation in global institutions is overcoming young people’s perception that they do not have enough influence (power) or qualifications to effect change, as they are not given enough engagement opportunities in such institutions; are insufficiently seen as credible actors; and lack access to relevant information. In an attempt to redefine global governance according to many organizational vision in Nigeria, youth participants proposed a series of concrete actions marked by a willingness to increase their audibility in the international area. Recommendations made include the creation of a fund entirely run by youth for youth projects or organizations; the development of one unified youth movement to gain more visibility and become a greater force at the global level; the use of social media to improve public information; finding ways to reach out to those without Internet access; the promotion of youth leadership over youth participation; and the creation of a databank featuring key development issues and their solutions. On the political level, some participants called for a bottom-up approach in UN processes, in which young people could play a role. Others recommended strengthening the political dimension of civic assemblies, for instance publishing reports, launching petitions, or inviting parliament members to meetings. The participants also called for new economic policies, asking international organizations (such as the IMF) to cancel the debt of developing countries and to consider the “de-growth model” as a potential solution to the problems generated by growth today. Yet, despite undeniable differences in both the quality of their health care systems and the legal protection they enjoy, the populations of developing, emerging and developed countries are all now experiencing an increase in health inequities and facing a fundamental threat to their right to health. The current policy context offers a unique opportunity and obliges us to address these inequities and to define the rights we should respect and the rules we should adhere to in both the national and global community. Henceforth, we will like to think in democratic way about social life and business (even though there are plenty of complaints to democracy which I will not mention here). Therefore, any startup or entrepreneur exists in some social environment. This environment could be similar to the famous one like Silicon Valley, or like Israel Tech Cluster, or even Russian Innovation Ecosystem (which is only in the emerging stage), or many others with different level of maturity. Undoubtedly, any individual can’t exists in the environment without being influenced by it. The level of environment maturity have direct correlation with the entrepreneurs, startup projects, way of doing business, hardware and software of innovation ecosystem. Following this logic I was asking myself, in which environment I would like to be? How it could be charaterized or described? What are key essential factors? Above all, we must develop forms of government that are more tangibly connected to the specific people and places they relate to. This will lead to greater accountability and improved public service delivery. Embracing failure can improve process and outcomes. The bulk of human ingenuity and invention has been the result of trying something new in response to previous failures in problem solving. It’s clear then: Failure is an inevitable and necessary part of ‘progress’. Yet our governments and other institutions of authority seem allergic to the notion of failure. In matters of life and death, this conservative outlook is understandable. But it leads to an inevitable myopia and hubris. We so often hear the refrain “failure is not an option”. But of course failure is always an option, and so often the result. We are very far from Americans. By discouraging the norm of failure, we lose the ability to learn why something didn’t work, and adapt our approach to hopefully get things better the next time. But it’s equally shortsighted to place the burden for this embrace of failure on governments alone. We as civil society and activists must also change how we think. Our instincts are to scrutinize, criticize and challenge those in authority. This is understandable, given we’re usually excluded from the exercise of power. Yet it is also self-defeating. If we assault our governments every time they fail, they will remain conservative and fearful from including us in decision-making. As the theme of today suggests, we must build more forgiving partnerships where we accept government failures as necessary steps towards progress. This will be easier to accept if diverse perspectives are meaningfully included in the process of governing. And if we have credible means of holding our governments accountable when they fail to learn from mistakes that all can see. If we embrace the idea that all progress is ‘failure based’, then we will have more empathy for each other when we realize we’re not where we want to be. Few weeks ago, I was blogging about these factors before. However, I didn’t mention the soft side of environment in which entrepreneurship will flourish. I was asking myself in what society I want to live in order to make business, be successful in it and be happy, think about prosperity of my family, region, country and human it, think about future generations and live for them. What should be the guiding principles of society where this all will be possible? I came up with principles of World Development which will be guided by innovations. I would like to share it with you. 1. I am joining a global community of people who share a common faith in the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. I am open to meeting anyone in this community. 2. I understand that I will receive valuable help from others for free or at a very low cost. 3. I agree to “pay forward” whatever positive benefits I receive. For every introduction I get, I will provide an introduction to another person. For every hour of advice I receive, I will give an hour of advice to someone else. For every risk someone takes with me, I will take a risk with a different person. 4. I will give trust to others before expecting to receive trust in return. I will treat everyone fairly. I will take advantage of no one. 5. I will bring people together, as none of us is as smart as all of us. 6. I will dream, experiment, iterate, and persist. I understand that mistakes and failure are acceptable ways of testing new ideas. 7. I will open myself to learning from others. I will help nurture learning in others. 8. Each person is a role model for everyone else. I will live these ideals as a member of the Rainforest community. Finally, I do not stand here naïve or blind-eyed about the incredible difficulty of achieving substantial social progress. Countless brave souls have given their lives and livelihoods to advancing the arc of justice. More will do so. But I remain optimistic. In part, because there are plenty of examples of positive progress already around us. Take for instance, the Open Government movement. Yes, it is in its infancy and has yet to find fully formed models of how government can work better. But the ethos, no matter the label of the day, has achieved widespread embrace, here in Nigeria and the world over. This shows the common appetite for the ideologies of participation, transparency, and inclusion. And we see positive change in our most influential institutions. Take the case of the World Bank, a body that has long faced criticism for its opacity and unaccountable governance. Yet cultural shifts are happening inside the organization faster than any critic’s expectations. For instance, a recent internal evaluation reported that 70% of initiatives involving technology failed. The Bank openly released the report, publicly acknowledging its problems in delivering impact. And the World Bank is continuing to invest meaningful resources in technology, with open acceptance that failure will be a necessary and value added part of the process. But beyond these constructive glimmers of what could be, I am optimistic for deeper reasons. While we may have lost trust in our governments, I trust our collective ability to reshape our governing institutions in the image we need. I believe it’s possible, because the risks to our collective well-being are grave enough, that even the most entrenched interests have incentive to facilitate more inclusive governance. I believe it’s possible, because I trust in the empathy of the human spirit, and because I know that more humans than ever before are engaged in the contests for civilization. This is increasing the opportunities for our better natures to shine. And I believe it’s possible, because of my experience working with communities just like this one. This work has taught me that when people have the means and opportunity to create and share, we would rather be constructive than destructive. So despite the many challenges and uncertainties we face, I believe now is the best opportunity we’ve ever had to build the institutions we need to thrive in the 21st century. I also worry, we don’t have time to wait. What do you think? Will you add/delete/change something here? I well come your comment.. Thank you for letting me come and share a little bit of how I understand the world and how we might think about working together to make it better. Powered by: sunBEN ICT Academy
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 14:36:10 +0000
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