On January 26, 2018, in Rome, the Secretary General of ActionAid Italia Marco De Ponte, launched the first day of the International Masters Social Change School with a Keynote Speech on society transformation; a speech extremely focused on the reality of facts and changes needed, that was in fact addressed to those who already are or will soon be part of the NonProfit world.
Let’s meet once again Marco De Ponte, after our previous meeting on 13th December 2017, in occasion of ActionAid Italia’s “2028: Towards a better quality of democracy” event at MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts- in Rome, for the launch of the new 2018-2028 strategy. The NGO is one of our partners, and the School attended the event, supporting and sharing their same beliefs and thoughts (Read our Editorial on the event: ActionAid, is democracy about power?).
During the Keynote Speech, Marco De Ponte presented the principles underlying ActionAid’s vision and work and underlined that in order to obtain substantial results of development and democracy, a power redistribution is necessary. NGOs should not aim to impose and replicate their own systems but should instead aim to provide communities with the tools to achieve development on site. Resources and knowledge redistribution, empowerment, community resilience and political activism are some of the tools that are necessary to obtain social change and a better quality of democracy.
Furthermore, he addressed the fellows and invited them to be politically engaged and to reflect on the fact that, to transform society, together with the skills, it is necessary to have a clear vision of the direction they want to follow.
After the intervention, De Ponte released a declaration, clarifying the impact that the Social Change School can have, through its fellows, on democracy. ActionAid Secretary General underlined how “there is no substantial transformation without politics, technical skills are not enough”. The impact that the School can have is indeed not just to teach the skills and techniques, but also to transmit the importance of being activists and of having both a professional and a political responsibility.
Photo source: iSchool
