'Transnational Nonstate Actors' Approach to Innovation & Change

Change it: Asia! members,

We've had several new people join our group recently. First, welcome to all of you! Its nice to rally some interest from different parts of the world. I'm looking forward to hearing from you with comments and suggestions about new social innovation in the region -- even if you are not from here, maybe you have some thoughts (?)
Lets start some discussion and see where it leads us, if we can.

Also, I've been wanting to post some news and updates about my nonprofit organization based here in Tokyo, Japan. I'm happy to report, November has been the busiest month we've had yet. Fundraising Parties, Imperial Palace Marathons, Sports Revolutions, Team Tryouts, Girls Empowerment Features, the International Peace & Sport Forum in Monaco, and now a trip to Papua New Guinea to deliver 60kgs of sportswear donations to a small village near the Western Province of Kiunga. We're just getting started, but I think this month is definitely a milestone for Hope 81 :)

*I will be preparing an end-of-year report outlining all of our Hope 81 events & activities in more detail. If anyone is interested in finding out more about our project implementation, beneficiaries, local sponsors, etc., please send me a private message here on the Changemakers platform and I'll be happy to share a copy as soon as its ready.

DUAL APPROACH>
Hope 81 is presently working on two very different and distinctive approaches to grassroots community organizing. By simultaneously moving in two directions at once, I think we are starting to find the key to making a greater impact here in East Asia. From the very beginning (with our trip to the Beijing Olympics back in 2008) we have been aiming to take action for local interests on behalf of the government-- and when the government has trouble doing so itself. Please allow me to briefly explain this key element in a bit more detail. I believe it may be helpful to some of you out there thinking of starting up a nonprofit (regardless of whether you are in East Asia or not) and perhaps shed some light on the challenges of social entrepreneurship in general.

The underlying theme here, in this dual approach, is creating dialogue between all sides in a given conflict area. Mainstreaming an idea, consensus building, reaching the masses with an idea for a better world... the internet helps. But we can't do it alone, and we certainly can't do it without taking into consideration the interests of overarching institutions. Being encompassed by the system we belong to is a given in most societies. This doesn't mean we need to be compliant (or indifferent) if our needs are not being met, either. While the idea of a public sphere for dialogue is still relatively new here in Japan (and other parts of the region), I believe we need to find out our role, by engaging with institutional actors. Find out what's missing, and develop a way to counterbalance that 'something' with positive action on the ground level. This is civic engagement, and learning a transnational nonstate actor's approach to social entrepreneurship in East Asia.

CULTURAL INTERMEDIARIES>
For me personally, it means embarking on an eternal quest for mediation/active listening between grassroots community members and institutional leaders. FInding a point of 'informed activism', gathering a comprehensive view of the conflict rather than mere advocacy for change. Finding an angle which takes into consideration the interests of different or opposing groups, then communicating the angle in a language that effectively reaches one's target audience. To give you a better idea of my 'target audience' in East Asia, my network includes a wide range of actors and stakeholders; from youth athletes to government ministers, beauty school principals, sporting goods store owners, creative design leaders, financial advisers, and various/otherwise disconnected groups.

In my ethnographical research and continuing fieldwork in East Asian societies, I've come to notice a couple of interesting things. When youth athletes find out that their voice somehow matters, its an empowering experience for them. When government leaders realize that ground level action is being carried out by local NGOs and grassroots community members on behalf of (rather than in opposition to) the State institutional power, the effects can be equally empowering to the top. Empowering in a sense that it improves the overall functionality of the State and makes life easier for political elite to do their job when foreign relations grow stronger, public opinion polls shift, and grassroots people to people cooperation levels increase.

Take the recent efforts of political elite in the region to strike up new dialogue about the possibility of an East Asian Community. What do youth basketball players have to do with anything?? As politicians continue to face the same old barriers which have kept the region from officially reconciling its wartime past for decades, East Asian politicians may start to think about a middle ground. Local grassroots action, mixed with top level support. Multi-track diplomacy is another name for it. Whatever you call it, it means dialogue-building across socio-political boundaries and communicating messages to respective groups from top to bottom. And I've observed a willingness for cooperation amongst Chinese and Japanese youth basketball players, which seems like an area with a great deal of potential (considering China's 500 million basketball fans and the arrival of a new Sport for Peace & Development movement led by the UN and several top-level INGOs such as Right to Play). Without clear leadership from the top to properly orchestrate a new community in East Asia, and without the necessary know how to implement a new plan for action -- such as the Sport for Peace & Dev. Agenda presently being put to use in areas of more pressing conflict (N. Ireland, Israeli-Palestinian Territory, African Continent, Afghanistan, etc.), we are still a long way away from turning the corner for an East Asian Community. I understand there is much more to it than just promoting more people to people exchange, from a realist perspective, but can we somehow forget the top-down/bottom-up debate and just look at it from a new perspective. One that stands by the main principle that ***all voices matter*** ?

As one (very) old Kantian maxim points out: "everyone shall have a voice, but only the well-educated shall be heard." If the less-educated or impoverished members of our world wont be heard, shouldn't our well-educated make an effort to help them be heard? Enter the role of the intermediary.

Which brings me to my point...and sorry for the long-winded description, but it needed some fleshing out.

PNG-MONACO>
This week my organization will be working in two places at once. While Hope 81 International Relations Director Mie Kajikawa visits Monaco for the International Peace & Sport Forum (11.25-27), I will be in Papua New Guinea connecting Tokyo's grassroots community of youth athletes, pro athletes, sporting goods stores, etc. with local schoolchildren in PNG. The visit to Monaco will be a chance to dialogue with top level actors (IOC, UN officials, Government Sports Ministers, Corporate leaders, NGO administrators, and more) and Hope 81 will represent as the only NGO from East Asia scheduled to attend. A great chance to find out about where we can begin to help as a counterweight to State power. While in PNG, my visit will serve members of Japanese society with an opportunity to get more involved and take action for environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation. A great chance to ***show*** how we can act as a counterweight, and lead the way for positive change.

While we are very fortunate to be in Monaco and PNG simultaneously this week, fundraising difficulties and a limited interest in a new Japan-PNG partnership identifies the need to seek top-level/institutional support for dialogue. In order to make this a long-term, sustainable project, the process is straightforward: using sport to open up new lines of communication and build mutual cooperation across borders. The problem is not so simple: 1) getting local actors on the ground level to see the value of a sportswear donations campaign (and start donating), plus 2) getting top level institutional actors to see the value and effectiveness of the project, and start facilitating the process to help make a larger impact.

I'm sure my IR Director in Monaco is doing her very best to speak with all the distinguished panel of delegates in attendance at this year's Forum. Long term, we'll be looking to help Japan take a more hands-on approach to overseas development and relief efforts (in lieu of ODA alone) and show the cost-effectiveness and feasibility of these types of sports-based programs to those in the policy-making sphere. Who knows, maybe one day we'll organize the International Peace & Sport Forum here in TOkyo (?). One can dream, and that's the point. We've got to, if we want to bring change.

Transnational nonstate actors are the key to bringing an East Asian Community to life.
Humble beginnings, and the start of something I hope becomes more of a regional effort someday.
If you are already out there working on building dialogue, let us know! Looking forward to developing a better knowledge base and learning from one other. Based on the lack of representation on the Changemakers board from East Asia, we have some catching up to do. Or not? Time to share your voice.

Change it Asia!

Jason Hutson
Hope 81 Founder/Director
www.hope81.org