The Academy has begun work on developing a national strategy for social innovation. Find out why a strategy is needed and what it should contain.
How can we as a society become better at solving complex challenges such as climate, welfare, and inequality—while experiencing increasing geopolitical pressure from outside?
At the Academy, we believe that new approaches to social change are needed. Social innovation is a well-documented and widely used tool for creating a more equal society – economically, environmentally, and socially. While social innovation is used by the UN, OECD, EU, and our neighboring countries, among others, Denmark has not yet invested in the capacity needed to establish social innovation as a broad approach. As a national center of excellence for social innovation, the Academy will pave the way for a strategy to ensure a broader understanding and anchoring of social innovation as a field and approach in Denmark.
"Thefundamental question is: What kind of society and world do we want to live in and pass on to future generations?" says Academy Director Anders Folmer Buhelt. He acknowledges that a strategy on paper alone is not enough to bring about real change. "But the mobilizing and knowledge-building process, through which many more people—not least those in high positions throughout society—will gain an understanding of what social innovation is and what it can offer, is important."
The five ambitions
A working group of members defined five specific ambitions for a national strategy for social innovation. The Academy will continue to work on these ambitions in the coming period in close collaboration with external experts and partners:
- A national strategy should be a turning point: There must be a clear before and after strategy for social innovation
- A national strategy must contribute to broadening the understanding and conversation about social innovation and collective action to far more people.
- A national strategy must anchor social innovation broadly in society and be a starting point for cross-sectoral collaborations.
- A national strategy to make social innovation something that is taken seriously, that is actually seen as a contribution to creating the society that we are fighting in many ways and at many levels to preserve and further develop and pass on to future generations.
- A national strategy must have political backing and thus be able to lead to real political action with social innovation.
Strengthen cohesion
The backdrop to the strategy is growing social insecurity. For the first time in many years,the World Economic Forum assesses that the biggest global risk factors are not climate or economics, but growing inequality and a lack of cohesion.
"Thisconcerns us all – whether you are in an NGO, a company, or a municipality,"emphasizes Vibeke Normann Andersen, a member of the working group. She points out that the ambitions of the strategy must first and foremost be realized through leadership and collaboration."As leaders, we must be able to operate, innovate, and collaborate across sectors. So how do we build the capacity to do that? And how do we mobilize the leaders of the future in the public sector?"
