A. The Local Action Component

FRAMEWORK COMPONENTS

 

LOCAL ACTION PROJECTS / INITIATIVES

 

Local level initiatives that should be encouraged and supported

 

            The participants in the discussion compiled an impressive array of initiatives, projects, research, programs and experiments being already undertaken by individuals, groups, companies, universities, non-government organizations and governments. While some of these projects are large scale, even global, most are still small, local, experimental 'alternative' initiatives outside or even in opposition to the perceived mainstream systems, or part of the efforts of governments, or businesses, to gain a competitive advantage in their field. It has been difficult to establish an orderly grouping for all this material, not least because the more interesting and promising projects are covering several areas of concern, aiming at multiple interconnected objectives. Projects have been distinguished according to 

--               their level of 'system'   >> (David…)  or methodological approach;

--              their level of 'practicality'  ranging from purely theoretical research and conceptualization to very specific, hands-on projects and activities;

--              the main agencies or entities seen as responsible for their implementation;

--              their predominant area of application and concern, such as: 

            supply of food (agriculture, gardening, fishing)

            extraction, use, conservation, recycling of resources;

            supply of clean water;

            air quality,

            governance,

            finance, banking, taxation, monetary system;

            education;

            preparation and response to natural and man-made disasters

            climate change

            social attitudes, awareness, inspiration, ethics, cultural aspects

--              their degree of 'readiness for implementation':

-              ongoing projects already being undertaken by individuals, groups, communities, companies, nations and international / transnational organizations;

-              ready-to-go’ projects for which the resources, tools, techniques are available today and that only would need ‘startup’ help to be implemented in the near future; and

-            project 'ideas' that are needed, either as responses to problems and emergencies caused by natural disasters or human conflicts, for which adequate preparations must be made, or as components for innovative implementation of new modes of operation (new economic models) that are currently not yet available.

 

Examples:

 

The following are some selected examples, briefly described to illustrate the variety of such efforts but by no means exhaustive. More detailed descriptions  of these projects are provided in the appendix.

 

            (Note:  The first part of the following list is from Helene's recent post and proposed outline;  however, only some of these items  are 'action projects' (bold);  others seem to more properly belong into the section on 'problems' , 'principles' or 'approach',  or specific components of the proposed framework? The second part are ideas proposed during the STW discussion.  THIS PART NEEDS WORK

 

Framework on sustainability ?

Systems Thinking Approach  

Solutions & Future envisioning  (?)

Diffusion/customization/scaling

Circular Economy Trurtoo (Douwe Jan)

>Economic growth and inequality

Mining the UN & Population threads (Helene, Nick)  

OASIS / Pocketful of Acorns (Greg)

>Forests

Sanitation: Sulahb (TA), Soil Haiti (Mary)

>Health

School in Oregon (Mary)

Supporting unemployed volunteers (Greg)

>Poverty eradication

Water/Energy Solutions (Bill Williams)

>Energy

>Water and sanitation

Agroecology solutions (Mary, Dan) :  Small / family-size farms / gardens

>Hunger and undernourishment

 

----

 

OASIS Project

Innovation / Experiment zones in areas destroyed by disasters

Dual economy

Urban gardens

Biofuel crops on highway median / right-of-way irrigated by grey water

Rooftop gardening / shell roofing

Alternative currencies (WIR Bank, time banking)

Alternative measures of performance (replacing GDP…);

Cartmart

Waste recycling and reuse projects

 

 

Projects of prevention:  'what NOT to do'

 

Reduce agricultural 'monoculture'

Gen-modified crops (mode of introduction/

Excessive use of fertilizers

Pursuit of growth (companies, overall economy..) as performance measure

Continued patterns of waste

Continued transportation of food products over long distances

 

Some examples that might be briefly summarized here are placed in the Appendix

            …

 

Recommendations:

           

            The experimental and exploratory nature of many of these projects implies that their eventual success and performance towards 'ensuring an economic model for survival' cannot currently be adequately predicted or guaranteed. Their methodological, ideological, political, spiritual basis and assumptions are not uniform or consistent. Nor is such consistency necessary or even desirable: a variety of such experiments is needed to generate much needed information about 'what works' and what does not work; but also as opportunities for people to create 'their own' versions of desirable future, to develop the variety of different economic cultural, societal models within an overall set of agreements for compatibility, cooperation and nonviolent conflict resolution.  

 

            The recommendation is for the UN and other governmental and non-governmental agencies to actively encourage, support and facilitate such experimental 'alternative' projects, by means of financial support where appropriate, information-sharing, and removal of bureaucratic and regulatory obstacles, even (and especially) if they do not fully conform to current practices and legal provisions, and to invite and engage their initiators and supporters in the global discourse.

 

            It is the need for such overall agreements on sustainability and nonviolent conflict resolution that requires a network of support, information-sharing, coordination, discourse, negotiation, research and education that form the remaining 'global' components of the proposed framework.

 

 

The Items in the ‘project’ box are actually just themes or topic areas for more specific projects –  as ‘action projects 1,2,3,4…. (>>> Appendix)

 

 

 

 

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