The Change Alliance

Global Learning Platform - FAQ

1.    What is the purpose of the global learning platform?

The platform will provide both physical and virtual spaces to enable Alliance partners and members to learn and innovate together as they share their experiences with change and multi-stakeholder processes.  It will also ensure that the work of the Alliance has reach and impact beyond the Alliance itself. The platform will enable practitioners, who would otherwise remain isolated, to come together with thought leaders from relevant fields of research and practice: to work on practical challenges; capture and share lessons; enhance capacities and establish a joint programme of research, learning and quality improvement.  Another purpose of the platform is to support the development of robust methodologies for multi-stakeholder engagement, based on concrete experiences in the change initiatives.

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2.    Does the platform have its own learning agenda?

The Alliance partners will shape the learning agenda as the global learning platform takes shape.  However, the Change Alliance has coalesced around three related learning objectives:

• To understand, experiment with and develop the capacities and tools needed to realize the full potential of multi-stakeholder processes to address the deeper challenges of social justice and sustainability that confront global society and communities worldwide;

• To understand, experiment with and develop the practical value of complexity thinking in dealing with the complex contexts and issues that the challenges of social justice and sustainability present;

• To understand and illuminate the role that leaders in business, government and civil society can play in creating the enabling conditions for effective multi-stakeholder processes.

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3.    What is the connection between the global learning platform and the action inquiry initiatives in the change alliance?

The global learning platform will link experience and learning from many change initiatives across the boundaries of geography and issue areas to pursue its broad learning agenda. The documentation of a particular action inquiry in a change initiative not only supports effective action on the ground but also serves as the basis for sharing and connecting that experience and learning with others. Action inquiry will also produce an enhanced set of practical tools, techniques and more robust methodologies that can be used in facilitating change in a flexible way. Action inquiry sites will benefit from participating in the platform by accessing the knowledge and experience of a practitioner network and of the other change initiatives.

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4.    What activities are envisioned for the global learning platform?

The global learning platform will focus on adding value to the change initiatives of the Alliance partners and members and share its lessons learned with a wide audience. It will provide research, learning, knowledge management and capacity development functions that only become feasible and cost effective when supporting a wide network of participants. Potential activities of the learning platform include:

• Learning and coaching workshops for members of the action inquiry initiatives;

• Establishing and implementing collaborative research activities on challenges and constraints to effective multi-stakeholder engagement;

• Giving rise to the creation of new knowledge by Alliance members building on platform experiences;

• Providing web-based and interactive resource portals;

• Hosting regional and global learning and innovation workshops;

• Collaborative capacity development and training programmes with regional educational institutions;

• Documenting, communication and promoting the work of the Alliance;

• Working with political, government, civil society and business leaders on how to create the enabling conditions for effective multi-stakeholder processes and on how to apply complexity thinking to policymaking in international cooperation.

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5.    Who will be involved and in what roles?

The Alliance partners—those institutions that are engaged in action inquiry initiatives and/or are supporting the Alliance as champions or members of the steering group—will form the core of the global learning platform. The partners will build the learning platform and its research agenda together based on the input and contributions from action inquiry sites and other change initiatives in which they are engaged.  In addition, groups and individuals that provide expert support to multi-stakeholder change processes, as capacity builders, process leaders and facilitators and/or academic experts, will participate in the global learning platform as members of the Alliance. Leaders from government, business and civil society who are interested in the Alliance’s learning agenda may also participate. For a wider audience wishing to be connected to the Change Alliance network, there will be web-based access to news of the global learning platform and materials produced. The Steering Group, supported by the Secretariat, will lead in the convening and facilitation of global learning platform activities.  

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6.    What products will the global learning platform produce?

With the caveat that not all information from all action learning sites can be shared publicly, the platform will synthesize the documentation of action inquiry initiatives and provide accessible presentations (reports, videos, blogs) of this and related work. The collective learning of the group engaged in the platform will also inform the development of new concepts and training materials on multi-stakeholder engagement and the practical application of complexity thinking. The platform may also produce position papers to support advocacy for greater investment in and commitment to multi-stakeholder processes as a core strategy for change initiatives focused on social justice and sustainability.

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