In an age of crisis, we the people, are the solution.

Introducing Iswe’s approach to creating political systems change, and how we’re developing new ways for people to lead local, national and global decision-making.

All around the world, societies are grappling with the urgent need for systems change. A staggering 56% of citizens across 17 major economies believe their political systems require a radical transformation or complete overhaul. Our existing systems are failing us on all major issues: devastation caused by pandemics, climate change, and widening inequality.

At the same time, governments around the world are increasingly taking advantage of crises to turn towards authoritarianism, further eroding democratic ideals. We believe that many of the crises we face globally are symptoms of political institutions that have ceased to serve the will of the people. We are in the midst of what could be defined as the greatest democratic pushback in history. People know that our current political systems are destabilizing societies, and the planet. 

In the face of these myriad challenges, there are waves of optimism. The so-called “deliberative wave” is a part of this - a trend since the latter end of the 20th century of people coming together to make political decisions through citizens’ assemblies. At Iswe, we develop new ways for people to lead local, national and global decision-making. We also know that to achieve change, you have to look at the whole system. That’s why we’re working to create people-powered citizens' assemblies, but also public services, and leaders.

We’re concentrating on the big challenges posed by AI, to the climate crisis, on being able to access the help and services we need, and on making our hometowns better places to live. We’re researching, developing, piloting, and making tools - standing with people to come together and create our own solutions.

Citizens’ Assemblies

In a citizens’ assembly, members of a population come together to learn, deliberate and make recommendations on a specific issue. Our definition includes those who are stateless, for example refugees, and deliberative processes from all traditions across the world.

There is strong evidence that when run well, these citizens’ assemblies generate ambitious, fair policies and engage citizens. They also create informed public debate, help to overcome polarization, and enable politicians to make bolder decisions that they stick by. 

From waste management in Brazil to constitutional reform in Mongolia, and, notably, the historic abortion decision in Ireland, citizens' assemblies have demonstrated their effectiveness in resolving challenging problems. Citizens' assemblies also exhibit a level of trust that politicians frequently lack, because they are perceived to be operating in the public interest.

Earlier this year, with the Iswe team as advisors and observers, The Future Armenian initiative brought nationals and those residing across 23 different countries together in the capital of Yerevan. 200 Armenians deliberated on the challenges facing their nation and the wider diaspora. The Convention of the Future Armenian was highly productive despite geographical challenges and ongoing conflict, and 95% agreed that deliberative processes are an effective way of engaging people in decision-making.

In 2021, we brought together the world’s first and only Global Assembly on the climate crisis. We convened over 1,000 people to ask: "How can humanity address the climate and ecological crisis in a fair and effective way?"  Made up of a “core” assembly, and many more community assemblies, the process empowered global citizens to come together and share wisdom. 

We presented the insights we gained to the United Nations, and are now advocating for this to be a regular fixture that can advise and shape decision making. As we envision it, this Global Citizens’ Assembly could become a new piece of international governance infrastructure, sitting alongside the UN, and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). We, and our contemporaries, know that this would be key in ensuring citizens voices are heard at global level.

“The Global Citizens’ Assembly for COP26 is a practical way of showing how we can accelerate action through solidarity and people power.” António Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN.

Building on the knowledge of these projects, we are also developing an online platform to support people all over the world. Our tool will help others to design and run affordable, high-impact assemblies on the issues that matter to them - from community to city-level events. Our first phase of the project is focusing particularly on supporting global climate assemblies. 

As well as offering easy-to-use, step-by-step guidance, we aim to connect and inspire a global community of assembly organizers. They’ll be able to use our platform to share learnings, access support and track impact over time. Working with academic partners we are developing a dashboard, to aggregate and visualize data from across the global community. We hope this can strengthen local outcomes of assemblies, and inform regional, national and global decision-making.

Public Services

In order to support systems change, public services need to incorporate the perspectives of people using them. We work with local authorities, thought leaders and the public, promoting interactions across public services which build confidence and purpose in the people using them. This is an approach backed up by decades of academic research. It also builds on the success of our 2018 report Good and Bad Help, which was the most downloaded public service report of that year.

Following our 2018 report, hundreds of organizations were engaged to take Good Help principles forward. Twenty Local Authorities in the UK were initially on board before the 2019 pandemic. As Covid struck, Rochdale became the first council in the country to implement a comprehensive Good Help strategy.

Iswe has since worked with Rochdale Borough Council on a multi-year reform and integration project designed to help the borough respond to crises. The project set out in particular to reduce the costs of public services, help to repurpose those services and improve service outcomes, supporting people across the borough to flourish. We’ll be bringing our report out in 2024.

Leaders

We know that power is undoubtedly at the heart of our many intertwining systemic issues. Not everyone has equal influence over the decisions that create society’s future course.

In addition to this, some types of influence are more obvious and visible than others. We’re working with local independent councillors to develop People Powered Politicians - a movement of leaders at all levels of government who are putting people first. The goal is to build a new kind of politics not defined by left or right but by a commitment to community-led change. We’re helping to grow a movement of politicians with the tools and desire to redistribute power. 

Working together with politicians, Iswe is helping them to hold Citizens’ Assemblies to make collective decisions on divisive issues, advocating for the devolution of power to communities, and buying local assets to create power and opportunities in their local areas. 

We want to see resilient communities that have the energy, power and tools to solve problems themselves. We’re currently working to get more people-powered leaders to get elected, supporting those who already are to develop their skills, and creating new tools to support all of these politicians to fulfil their commitments and generate change.

We believe many more citizens’ assemblies are needed to tackle multiple ongoing crises. We’re working with networks across the world to support a global movement of people-powered citizens’ assemblies. From academics, NGOs, community groups and funders, we’re gathering those who want to help tap into the collective wisdom of everyday people to tackle complex issues, and fortify communities along the way. 

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