By Tara Rao
This article is part of a series of articles on the issue of conceptualizing resources in civil society and why it needs to be rethought – specifically in terms of a greater appreciation of the “intangible” assets of civil society. See some other related publications: Rethinking civil society resourcing It is Moving from the old to the new: Why it's time to rethink civil society resourcing.
When we think about capital or resources (I will use these terms interchangeably), we automatically think about money, finances, cash availability, monetary resources. Yes, without a doubt this is a type of resource. But is it the only type of resource capable of making things viable – bringing drinking water to a community, setting up a network of health centers, installing a waste management system in an urban neighborhood?
Let’s think about this for a second – what are the different types of resources that, together, can really create something of value for a community, something that changes the lives of the people in the community?
Every system – be it a village, a school, a self-help group, a local football team – tends to function using several types of resources. And different elements of each of these systems bring with them various types of resources to enable the systems to function. You individuals who make up the village or football team can contribute time, talent and experience – human and intellectual capital. To the communities tend to have in common their history, values, commitment, workforce, relationships and networks – social and cultural capital. To the institutions, such as the village council, the local education department, the water and sanitation department, have equipment, buildings, infrastructure AND their respective leadership proposals – social, political and physical capital. In any system, if we look, we will discover a wide range of resources, which are part of the “resource group”, but which are not always fully visible.
Furthermore, when evaluating any system, we can consider the fact that it has both a need how much sources of different types of capital.
So, if we were to replace the image that comes to mind of a single pot of money and start seeing it as a pie with several slices, what would our “resource pie” look like? It's worth remembering that all the slices make that pie round. The pie would be incomplete without one of the slices. Therefore, having just a slice of financial capital will never be enough to institute the change we need.
When creating a new system, it can be interesting to think with the head of who lives in the new system. What I mean is that it may not be possible to create the system we want if we insist on the old system thinking, where, for example, financial capital was the only existing resource. You may need to transform the image of the single pot of money into a pie, with several slices.
When we think through the logic of the new system, the pie opens up before us the broadest palette of capabilities that exists as part of any system.
The opportunity we have here, with the logic of the new system, is to begin to influence and negotiate new forms of appreciation, collaboration, partnership substantiated in mutual respect, dignity, integrity and a redistribution of power – the true basis of collaboration. It can also hold the key capable of uniting us (that is, the system's current supply and demand poles) to create together integrated fundraising strategies – strategies to replace the one-pot with the multi-slice pie, while driving change.
In this process, we can discover what each one has to offer and as we must effectively begin to negotiate the future path, with new and redesigned ways of thinking and acting, collective and cohesive.
Tara Rao: Working on development, human rights and climate globally for over thirty years, Tara is proud to live her life as an agent of systems transformation, serving diverse communities. She began her professional life as an architect and now combines her skills and experiences in stimulating actions in the field, such as #SshiftThePower.
*Text originally published in English on the ShiftThePower blog: https://shiftthepower.org/2022/06/10/can-money-buy-everything-resourcing-in-the-new-system/ and translated into Portuguese for the RFJS blog by Dayse Boechat.
