Session Description
Impact assessment increasingly recognises the need for systems thinking, but implementation remains limited. IA is often shaped by compliance, specialist silos, short timeframes and incentives that reward minimum legal adequacy rather than understanding interactions among climate, nature, social, cultural and economic systems.
This 90-minute workshop asks: How can demand for systems-informed IA be created where proponents, governance, finance and IA practitioners interact strategically, from project level to local, regional and national plans?
Using focused participatory systems mapping, the workshop will build from a provisional seed model. Participants will develop and connect short causal chains to explore how interactions, incentives, risks and value arguments may influence whether systems approaches are requested, resourced and used.
The mapping will focus on the interface between those who commission, finance, regulate and use IA and those who practise it. Training practitioners builds capacity, but implementation also requires proponents, authorities and funders to understand its value. With systems thinking and facilitation skills, practitioners can advise earlier, helping frame problems, recognise interactions, clarify risks and gains, and see this value before decisions, scopes and budgets are locked in.
The workshop explores how demand can grow for IA practice that supports systemic approaches, while helping reduce pressure on planetary boundaries. It will not attempt a full systems analysis. Its output will be an initial map of variables, causal chains and feedbacks to inform later analysis, Hub dialogue, professional development and follow-up.
Session Summary
Systems thinking is gaining attention in IA, but implementation depends on demand. This workshop explores, using a systems approach, how proponents, governance actors, finance and IA practitioners can interact to create demand and move systems thinking into commissioned IA practice for a future within planetary boundaries.
Additional Information
This workshop complements the Fit for Future Initiative (3F) and related IAIA discussions on Global Commons Alliance (GCA) partner initiatives. It aligns with their focus on planetary recovery, strategic-to-project linkages, finance/risk interfaces and systems-based IA methods. 3F is proposing a session stream called “Systems and strategic thinking for planetary recovery”. To maximise cross-participation and avoid duplication, please schedule it so it does not overlap with other sessions proposed for this stream.
Session Chair
Johanna S. Gordon
STIA LAB | Systems Thinking for Impact Assessment | Training & Consulting
Germany
Session Co-chair
Ken Froese
Gatepost Consulting
Canada