During Catalysing Change Week 2021, we united experts, social innovators, and representatives from the private sector and governments to showcase, listen to and come to understand one another. We raised awareness of the outstanding practices in the field and their potential to bring about change.

Catalysing Change Week is an annual event over which we intensify our activities by bringing together stakeholders. Social entrepreneurs, representatives from the private sector, governments, funders, and other agencies involved in systems change gather to showcase their systems change efforts and the best practices that can accelerate our work in pursuit of the SDGs. These models of best practice are in keeping with recent findings from the Embracing Complexity and New Allies reports.

Catalysing Change Week 2021 had three key themes:
Connect. We wanted to create an environment that enabled collaboration and co-creation.
Celebrate. We wanted to encourage, inspire and re-energise each other as we go about our work.
Accelerate. We brought key stakeholders together to create tangible outcomes for policy making.

Our sessions were structured around these three key themes.

The overarching goal was to change mindsets of current policy makers, funders and leaders, improving understanding of the conditions that best allow social entrepreneurs and their allies to thrive. This understanding can then be translated into tangible policy recommendations and programs that can be implemented globally.

To achieve this goal, we had six key objectives for Catalysing Change Week 2021:

1. Celebrate positive systems-change models
2. Build commitment to systems change work in policymaking
3. Showcase practical problem-solving abilities within the network
4. Bring the voices of unheard people to the conversation
5. Accelerate efforts to achieve the SDGs by 2030
6. Learn from all network members and build capacity

The programme featured five days of online ‘Catalysing Change’ sessions. Social innovators shared their systems change work with other participants, and created partnerships across countries, regions and sectors. Everyone was welcome to participate in Catalysing Change Week 2021. However, only Catalyst 2030 members and Catalyst 2030 Awards finalist hosted sessions. All sessions were co-created by membership. The secretariat facilitated and organised the sessions.

Find out more details in the Catalysing Change Week 2021 Overview Document or explore the Catalysing Change Week 2021 YouTube playlist to watch past sessions on YouTube.

It is our hope that the Catalysing Change Week 2021 made real and lasting impact on the social innovation ecosystem, by encouraging allies to imagine bold new ways to support social entrepreneurs.

Contact: Lynne Smit
Communications Lead, Catalyst 2030
Email lynne.smit@lesacommunications.org

“At Catalysing Change Week 2021, we will unite experts, social innovators, and representatives from the private sector and governments to showcase, listen to and come to understand one another. Participants in the event will be able to tap into the collective wisdom around systems change while forging partnerships across countries, regions and sectors,” said Jeroo Billimoria, spokesperson and one of the movement’s co-founders.

Catalysing Change Week 2021 will host 120 online sessions over five days, covering all major time zones. Session presenters will include Catalyst 2030 Award winners and finalists who will bring their own distinct contributions to the programme, as well as Catalyst 2030 members and changemakers from around the globe.

The Week will build on the success of Catalysing Change Week 2020 which had an audience of over 4,000 individuals. Together, participants represented more than 1,600 organisations across 131 countries.

This year’s themes reflect the priorities of the movement in this unique period of our global history. The Covid-19 pandemic has the potential to delay the achievement of the SDGs by 50 years or more. It is in this context that the creation of a space for the world’s top social innovators to interact, co-create and share best practices is even more important.

The sessions will be structured around these three key themes.

Connect. As a core principle in our Theory of Change, we serve as honest brokers who foster connections between various stakeholders in our ecosystem. Our objective is to create an environment that enables collaboration and co-creation as we, together, seek to address the most pressing issues of our time.

Celebrate. Celebration is a great way to encourage, inspire and re-energise each other as we go about our work. We showcase best practices, creating a ripple effect as other stakeholders adopt these practices in addressing their specific challenges.

Accelerate. We bring key stakeholders together to create tangible outcomes for policy making. This is particularly relevant as we engage with governmental stakeholders. As outlined in our Embracing Complexity, Getting from Crisis to Systems Change and New Allies reports, social entrepreneurs’ collaborations with governments are key to bringing about change and achieving the SDGs at local, national, and global levels.

The overarching goal is to foster an improved understanding of the conditions that best allow social entrepreneurs and their allies to thrive. This understanding will then be translated into tangible policy recommendations and programmes that can be implemented globally.

To achieve this goal, Catalysing Change Week 2021 has six key objectives.

1. Celebrate positive systems-change models
2. Build commitment to systems change work in policymaking
3. Showcase practical problem-solving abilities within the network
4. Bring the voices of unheard people to the conversation
5. Accelerate efforts to achieve the SDGs by 2030
6. Learn from all network members and build capacity

Registration for Catalysing Change Week 2021 is free.

For more information, visit https://catalyst2030.net/about-the-campaign/

Download the overview document here.