United Action for
Systemic Change
5 charities
Fixing broken systems through sustainable solutions.
We live in a world where many problems within our society are complex. To find sustainable and long-lasting solutions we need to critically review the current systems we have in place. This United Action supports charities doing exactly that - charities woking to fix broken systems.
The problem
Currently, as a society, we are facing increasingly complex and interconnected challenges, from poverty to inequality of marginalised groups, water scarcity, global political and civil unrest to rising global temperatures. Many of these problems can be seen as a web where one problem often causes or intensifies the other. Because of such interconnectedness, the efforts to solve an issue, such as poverty, are inefficient as they frequently don’t aim to reach the fundamental root causes.
Unfortunately, the world doesn’t work in linear ways and therefore, only a systemic (interconnected dimensions) approach will create what’s desperately needed: a more sustainable world.
Achieving this kind of long-term, transformational change can be incredibly hard because there are no simple solutions. No individual, business, government or community is able to do it alone. When our objective is systemic change, we need to look at the whole system including all its components and the relationships between them. Simply put, it takes time, with different actions from different actors operating at different levels to create more holistic approaches.
Thus, achieving a long-term, transformational change is only possible if actors operating at different levels collaborate which each other and take action together.
Solutions
Systemic change is at the core of effective development, offering the potential to solve the world's problems holistically. When our objective is systemic change, we need to look at the whole system including all its components and the relationships between them. Generally, it requires adjustments or transformation in policies, practice, power dynamics, social norms and mindsets that underlie the societal issue at stake. If you take plastic pollution, for example. You can go around collecting plastic from the ocean, however, that won’t solve the root cause of the issue. In order to ensure that the ocean stays plastic-free, you have to change the policies, guidelines and behaviour within society. You have to change the whole system.
Systemic change needs the collaboration of several players depending on the root cause of the issue. It is vital to shift and transform mindsets, behavioural patterns, underlying structures, dynamics, and relationships. This can be done through purposeful interventions that look at and help understand the complexity of problems to enable the right leaders to shift power dynamics and strengthen capacities to properly engage with strategic multi-stakeholder approaches.
The charities in this United Action all focus on tackling the root cause of a system that needs to be changed. An emphasis was put on youth as the key driving force of change.
Charities in this United Action
Donate to this United Action to make your money as effective as possible. Our research team rigorously evaluates each charity, and curates collections of the top performing among them, so you can tackle the same urgent problem with different solutions.
Human Rights Watch
Tyranny has a witness
Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world. We are experts, lawyers, journalists, and others who work to protect the most at risk, from vulnerable minorities and civilians in wartime to refugees and children in need. We direct our advocacy toward governments, armed groups and businesses, pushing them to change or enforce their laws, policies and practices. We partner with organizations large and small across the globe to protect embattled activists and help hold abusers to account and bring justice to victims.
Het Vergeten Kind
A smile for every child.
Thousands of children in the Netherlands can’t live at home for various safety and health reasons. Unstable homes can create a negative environment for a child to grow up in. These traumas leave deep traces and can have negative long-term impacts on their physical and mental development. Later in life, these children run an increased risk of becoming more marginalized and receiving fewer opportunities. Het Vergeten Kinds fights for a stable environment where ‘vulnerable’ children can develop better. They initiate activities that contribute to a stable and safe home for all children while also encouraging policymakers to improve the quality of care for ‘forgotten’ children in the system.
Free Press Unlimited
People deserve to know
Free Press Unlimited enable and support news and information for everyone. They believe everyone has the right to independent, reliable and timely information. People need that information to control their living conditions and to make the right decisions. To that end, press freedom and freedom of information are indispensable. That is why they support local media professionals and journalists, particularly in countries with limited (press) freedom. They enable them to give people access to the information that helps them survive, develop themselves, and with which they can monitor their governments.
Aflatoun International
Children Empowered
Aflatoun believes it is more important than ever before that children gain social and financial skills to learn to get along and get ahead in life. They want to create socially and economically empowered children and young people who act as agents of change in their own lives for a more equitable world. Aflatoun International is an NGO based in the Netherlands offering social and financial education to children and young people worldwide. Aflatoun International creates high-quality curricula, for different age groups, which can be contextualised to local needs or specific circumstances.
Restless Development
Powered by young people
More than ever the world needs young people’s power and leadership to solve its greatest challenges. Restless Development wants to proactively shift power to ensure every young person is able to lead and create a better world. As a feminist, inclusive, gender-transformative and anti-racist organisation, they train, mentor, nurture and connect thousands of young people to use their youth power and lead change. They recognise historical power inequalities and aim to decolonise development, with youth at the forefront.
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