The Ashoka Systems Change Podcast

Interview with Dr. Yuhyun Park, Founder of DQ - Global Standards for Digital Literacy, Skills, and Readiness, on building a new field, Digital Intelligence, and shifting mindsets around it. Dr. Yuhyun Park is a world-leading expert in digital skills and child online safety. She created the Digital Intelligence (DQ) concept and framework, which is the world's first global standards and a common framework for digital literacy, skills, and readiness endorsed by the IEEE Standards Association, OECD, and World Economic Forum. Dr. Park developed the Child Online Safety Index, the world's first real-time metric tracker to help nations understand their children's online safety status, and leads the #DQEveryChild initiative, a global digital citizenship movement for children. In this episode, Dr. Park shares her journey of bringing awareness of the importance of developing digital intelligence, the willingness to address the issue and creating the tools to build up digital intelligence capacity.   She shares her main strategies for success in creating such a powerful shift, building a movement of actors: networks of funders, program providers and educators who are pushing for the world to empower 1 billion citizens with digital intelligence by 2030.  As a bonus, she shares insights on what it takes for social entrepreneurs to make it when facing so much adversity. Preview: it includes embracing both family AND your naysayers! Organization site: https://www.dqinstitute.org/ Book: IQ EQ DQ: New Intelligence in the AI Age Check out the free online course at https://www.ashoka.org/en-gb/mindset-shift-course (English version) and https://academy.vc4a.com/courses/como-influenciar-impacto/  (Spanish version)  

In this episode, we speak with Princess, former journalist turned social entrepreneur, on her groundbreaking work in Nigeria and Africa to prevent and reduce vulnerability and exposure to sexual violence, especially among women and children.  Princess shares with us how she strategically set out to raise awareness around this issue, which, until recently, had been frequently swept under the rug.  She explains the critical role of journalists and the tactics she used to engage them consistently and effectively to set off a major shift in thinking about how to manage cases of sexual violence. She also highlights the role of children themselves as compelling ambassadors whose voice helped educate other children as well as pressure policymakers.    Read more about Media Concern here: https://mediaconcern.net/ We encourage you to have a look at our free online course on this topic at https://academy.vc4a.com/courses/como-influenciar-impacto/  (Spanish version) and https://www.ashoka.org/en-gb/mindset-shift-course  (English version).

The third season of the Ashoka Systems Change podcast explores how to influence the way people think, to change the way society works. In Episode 1 Olga Shirobokova, co-lead of the Systems Unit at Ashoka Globalizer and lead developer of the on-line course on this topic, speaks with Nadine Freeman, co-director of Ashoka Globalizer, to introduce listeners to the course, why it was important to develop and key issues around the topic of influencing mindsets to achieve important changes in social systems. If you are interested in learning more about how changemakers can analyze their narrative environment and begin to build a strategy around shifting mental models to create the conditions necessary for systemic change, we encourage you to have a look at our free online course on this topic at https://academy.vc4a.com/courses/como-influenciar-impacto/  (Spanish version) and https://www.ashoka.org/en-gb/mindset-shift-course  (English version). The online course and the third season of the Ashoka Systems Change podcast were developed thanks to the support and in partnership with PES Latam.

This episode invites you to a conversation among the representatives of three fields – a social entrepreneur, a former government official and a funder interested in supporting cooperation between social entrepreneurs and governments. Listen to the experiences and recommendations of Denisa Livingston, an Ashoka Fellow empowering Navajo communities to take control of food policy through Diné Community Advocacy Alliance (US), Maria Vassilaku, former deputy mayor of Vienna (Austria) and Jim Anderson, Director of Government Innovation at Bloomberg Philanthropies (US). If you are interested to learn more about how social entrepreneurs can effectively work with government and what are the examples, we encourage you to have a look at our new free online course on this topic at https://academy.vc4a.com/courses/trabajo-con-el-gobierno/ (Spanish version) and www.ashoka.org/working-with-government (English version). The online course and the second season of the Ashoka Systems Change podcast were developed thanks to the support and in partnership with PES Latam.

The third episode of season two examines how cooperation among social entrepreneurs can help governments design effective support measures for the whole field of social entrepreneurship. We spoke to Markus Sauerhammer, Chair of the German Association of Social Entrepreneurs, and learned what helped them get to the point when every political party in Germany references social entrepreneurship in their program. If you are interested to learn more about how social entrepreneurs can effectively work with government and what are the examples, we encourage you to have a look at our new free online course on this topic at https://academy.vc4a.com/courses/trabajo-con-el-gobierno/ (Spanish version) and www.ashoka.org/working-with-government (English version). The online course and the second season of the Ashoka Systems Change podcast were developed thanks to the support and in partnership with PES Latam.

In the second episode of Season 2, Sascha Haselmayer and Olga Shirobokova explore the role communities play in keeping governments accountable. You will hear examples of how social entrepreneurs from Peru, the UK, Romania, India and the US empower people affected by a social problem to take charge and effectively engage with governments in order to improve public services. If you are interested to learn more about how social entrepreneurs can effectively work with government and what are the examples, we encourage you to have a look at our new free online course on this topic at https://academy.vc4a.com/courses/trabajo-con-el-gobierno/ (Spanish version) and www.ashoka.org/working-with-government (English version). The online course and the second season of the Ashoka Systems Change podcast were developed thanks to the support and in partnership with PES Latam.

The second season of the Ashoka Systems Change podcast explores how social entrepreneurs can effectively work with governments to improve systems together. In Episode 1 you will hear a conversation between Sascha Haselmayer, a seasoned social entrepreneur and an Ashoka Fellow who has worked with 135 municipal governments across the world to improve the provision of public services, and Olga Shirobokova, co-lead of the Systems Unit at Ashoka Globalizer. Sascha shares how his approach to addressing a social problem has evolved over time - from being fixated on his own solution to seeing his solution as a seed or a stepping stone in a bigger story, where there is more space for co-creation and mutual support between multiple stakeholders, including government. If you are interested to learn more about how social entrepreneurs can effectively work with government and what are the examples, we encourage you to have a lookt at our new free online course on this topic at https://academy.vc4a.com/courses/trabajo-con-el-gobierno/ (Spanish version) and www.ashoka.org/working-with-government (English version). The online course and the second season of the Ashoka Systems Change podcast were developed thanks to the support and in partnership with PES Latam.

Silvia Bastante de Unverhau is a leading expert in philanthropy, with over 20 years of experience working across the international development, non-profit, business, and government sectors. She is currently the Chief Philanthropy Officer at Co-Impact, a collaboration between donors that pledged 500 million dollars for systems changing initiatives.  In the interview, Silvia talks about the principles of funding systems change work, how it differs from traditional funding practices, and how foundations can adopt this new mindset. She also has tips for social entrepreneurs who are looking for funding for systems change work from a donor's perspective. Key questions: How is funding systems change different? How should foundations support systems change?

Kendis Paris founded Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT), an organization that mobilizes the US trucking industry to fight human trafficking. TAT has registered and trained more than 850,000 professional drivers. TAT also played a key role in getting new policies approved that in many US states make spotting and reporting human trafficking activities a component of the mandatory professional driver's license trainings. In the interview, Kendis explains how she found allies early on by making herself available to policy makers and administrators, traveling to spread her ideas, and being a bridge between administrators and the transportation industry. She also talks about the power of turning people into changemakers -- a core feature of many successful social entrepreneurs.   Key questions addressed in this episode include: What do social entrepreneurs have to do to promote policy changes? How can they support policy makers and administrators even without a big organization?

Michael Sani founded Bite the Ballot (BTB), an organization in the UK that mobilizes young people to vote. BTB started as an idea in one classroom and grew into a national movement. At a national election in 2014, over 400,000 people registered to vote via BTB's platform. For the BREXIT referendum, that number was 1.9 million. The organization also promoted a number of policy changes that made voter registration easier for young people.   Each step of the journey required Michael to assume a different role, including teacher, organizational developer, campaigner, advocate, network builder, and others. In the interview, Michael walks us through his thought process of why he decided to transition from one role to another, as well as the difficulties and conflicts that these decisions entailed. He also highlights the importance of personal development and letting go of "ego" in order to have more impact on a systems level.   Key questions explored in this episode include : How do you decide which role you should play as a social entrepreneur? What is the relationship between systems change, personal development, and well-being?

Jeroo Billimoria is the founder of many successful social ventures, including Childline India, a network of over 1000 organizations that provide support to millions of children each year, especially in crisis situations, as well as Aflatoun, an network of 275 partners that offers social and financial education to millions of children and young people worldwide. In this episode, we mostly talk about Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI), a network that promoted systemic changes in the education and banking systems in dozens of countries to improve children's financial education. "Promoted", because CYFI announced that it had achieved its mission and shut down on 31 December 2019. An almost unheard-of accomplishment. In the interview, Jeroo walks us through five tactics and five leadership principles that she used to build the network that was ultimately so successful on a systems level. Key questions that we address include: How do you create coalitions for systems change? What leadership principles should we adopt -- and which ones do we have to unlearn?

In this episode we explore a number of key questions at the heart of systems change: What is the motivation behind systems change? What are the differences and relationships between systems change and a direct service approach? Jordan Kassalow is the founder of VisionSpring, an organisation that works to provide affordable access to eyewear, everywhere, and eliminate poor vision, due to the lack of eyeglasses-- the largest disability in the world. VisionSpring's initial focus was on distributing ready-made, non-prescription reading glasses via a network of Vision Entrepreneurs… an on-the-ground sales team, later evolving a broader approach using sales through distribution partners, and an emerging “full service” model, providing affordable, high-quality prescription glasses By Autumn 2019, VisionSpring had reached 7 million people with eyeglasses and generated over $1.2 billion of economic impact for its customers. Notwithstanding VisionSpring's success, Jordan has been looking for ways to increase the scale of impact on this problem, for a more systems-based approach, and in 2016, he co-founded EYElliance, a system change, multi-sector alliance of over 60 organizations working together to eliminate poor vision due to the lack of eyeglasses.  For more information, please find the link to a detailed case study on VisionSpring https://bit.ly/2Xh9uf2

Fergal Byrne, host of Inspiring Social Entrepreneurs, and Odin Mühlenbein, Lead of the Systems Unit at Ashoka Globalizer, introduce the Ashoka Systems Change Podcast