As the global community strives to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), rethinking how development aid is approached can play a critical role. The Seeds of Transformation project aims to identify, assess, and support transformative development practices.  

 

Overview

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​The project focuses on identifying and connecting “seeds” in the Swedish development aid landscape.  A “seed” is a change initiative that, together with others, has the potential to transform a complex system (e.g., food system, trade system, aid system) from its current state to a more equitable, sustainable, and just version.  The project aims to better understand what constitutes a seed and how such initiatives can be nurtured to achieve broader system transformations. 

 

Roadmap

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The first step involves identifying promising local and regional initiatives within the Swedish development aid landscape that demonstrate potential as “seeds” of transformative change. Collaborating closely with partners, the team will assess the transformative qualities of these initiatives, exploring the characteristics and contexts that could support systems-level change.

 

At a later stage, a workshop involving selected practitioners will be organised in Stockholm to uncover new insights into the conditions and processes shaping these initiatives. This workshop will potentially focus on enablers and challenges, synergies and interferences.

 

Finally, the project will analyse the insights gained to inform and guide future transformative approaches within Swedish development aid.

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Stakeholder involvement

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The project is a collaboration amongst the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Global Resilience Partnership (Swedish Secretariat) at Stockholm University, the Department of Economic History at Lund University, and Rädda Barnen (Save the Children, Sweden). It builds on a previous project exploring systems and complexity thinking amongst Swedish aid partners (the report is available here) and resulted in the production of a series of toolkits for practitioners (hosted by Rädda Barnen). 

 

The plan is to invite stakeholders from various regions to share their seeds and collaboratively explore their transformative potential. The specific local partners are still being identified, though they are expected to relate the following initiatives 

• Communities after Genocide (Iraq).

• Vectors of Peace (multi-country).

• Healing and Trauma (Iraq).

• Economic and Social Development, African Union Development Agency–NEPAD (Nigeria and Ethiopia).

• Localisation of Aid (Tanzania).

• Child Rights and Child Labour in Mining (Democratic Republic of the Congo).

• Cocoa Supply Chains (Ghana and private sector supply chain actors in Europe and globally).

 

Expected outcomes

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By working with local partners and stakeholders, the project aspires to co-produce knowledge and strategies that enhance the impact of development aid. Anticipated outcomes include:

 

• Identifying the transformative potential of several targeted initiatives supported by Swedish aid.

• Leveraging initiatives that build on scientific results and existing partnerships.

• Supporting ongoing efforts to transform development using context-sensitive approaches.

• Supporting research-informed knowledge mobilisation and learnings that can be published and shared.

 

Project lead​s

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Per Olsson, Stockholm Resilience Centre

Michele-Lee Moore, Stockholm Resilience Centre