“We need to begin to know that meaningful development can only come when we all come together, share our best practices and replicate them if possible. Each one has a role to play. No one has a better answer than the other. We must provide a platform for conversation, a platform for partnerships and a platform for being honest with each other when there are issues.” That’s Mark Chilongu, executive director of Africa Directions, and it speaks to the value of insights about what’s working in social change. So much media coverage and even conversation among social entrepreneurs focuses on the problem. But we want a different lens — one that focuses on our common goals and what’s working to build that world.
What’s Working Solutions is an online insight index from the Solutions Insights Lab pairing changemaker interviews with powerful stories of social progress. Uniquely, both the stories and conversations are structured around a solutions journalism lens. Solutions journalism explores a response to a problem and how it works (call it “the howdunnit”), evidence of its impact, insights others can learn from and limitations or caveats to the success.
At whatsworkingsolutions.org, social change insights meet journalistic curiosity and global cooperation, under the umbrella of common goals rather than only the problems. So dive in to uncover the insight that will help you see your work — and maybe the world — a little differently. When it comes to social change, we should all know more about what’s working.