Regenerative Governance: Upgrading the Public Sector to Focus on Renewal
Governance in an era of complex, interlocking crises
Our thinking on our shared governance systems at all levels – local, national and international, and the interconnections among them – is in need of an upgrade. Democratic processes are increasingly held captive by inefficient and dysfunctional partisan political contests, driving unhelpful discourses which divert attention away from the common public interest. These dynamics too often generate policies calibrated to the lowest common denominator, if not out-right blocking policy adoption to address pressing issues of public concern. Additionally, it has been noted that civic space is shrinking and often clouded by misinformation. Across many contexts, democracy is in decline and public confidence in government continues to decrease. These trends are playing out in a context profoundly affected by the climate crisis, violent conflict, and global economic and political systems that are still highly extractive – or as one expert has described it, a global Ponzi scheme.
In recent years, regenerative approaches have been at the center of discussions of how to transform sectors including agriculture and the economy. Innovative work is also being done in regenerative development. At heart, regenerative approaches are derived from an understanding of what works well in thriving ecosystems. They are part of a growing awareness across many sectors that our work is most beneficial when we work as part of natural systems – employing a philosophy of systemic interdependence – rather than attempting to control or dominate them.
There is little to be found in recent literature or current policy debates on how we might design more regenerative approaches to governance more broadly, although there are some indications of a growing interest in how governments can embody the qualities of healthy ecosystems. Response diversity, for example, focuses on having a broad range of potential options to face economic, societal, and other disruptions, rather than the more limited set of responses governments have moved toward in the name of efficiency and optimization. This mirrors the ability of diverse ecosystems to respond to shocks at different levels without collapsing.
There is clearly a need to reimagine governance in a way that can respond more effectively to the disenchantment of citizens and various social groups on the one hand, and on the other the multiple, interrelated crises and increasing volatility we anticipate facing in the coming years.
Regenerative approaches: key principles and results
The definition of regenerative approaches varies within and across sectors, but there are a few common ideas that are particularly relevant to the way we govern:
Regeneration is about restoring and taking systems to their next level of health and potential. Systemic health means focusing on the health of everyone and everything in the system, not just certain parts of society.
Healthy systems are characterized by open flows and exchanges, rather than extraction, accumulation, and waste.
The quality of our relationships matters, whether with one another or with the natural world around us.
Change is continual; it is relationships more that are more centrally important, rather than specific mechanical and fragmented outputs or accomplishments. Relationships provide the strength, resilience, and creativity we need to continue adapting and evolving.
As part of this, it’s important to have an expansive understanding of stakeholders - one which includes nature as well as other human beings.
For our social and ecological systems to function, ensuring maximal human flourishing, our conception of the human person should be grounded in modern understandings of the value and necessity of relationships, altruism, and senses of belonging/contribution to the whole, which are fundamental to human happiness.
Living systems are always part of a greater whole – projects and initiatives are never just about direct results, but also about contributing to the evolution of the next level of the system (e.g. a community, province or bioregion).
“Partnering with place” encourages us to move away from one-size-fits-all policy prescriptions and explore the unique contributions that can come from the combination of people and ecosystems in specific communities, building shared, fulfilling and contexted identities, shared meaning, and a strong sense of belonging, linked to regenerative mandates for and with nature and people.
The results of piloting regenerative approaches in agriculture, finance and development have been encouraging. Farmers have seen regenerative approaches restore local soil health, with crop yields exceeding expectations. The slow money movement is reconnecting investors to local communities and farmers rather than complex global markets that obscure the destination of invested funds, which in the worst cases are actively doing harm through environmentally or socially destructive corporations. Regenerative development projects have helped communities rediscover their identity in connection with local ecosystems as the foundation for improving environmental, economic, and social conditions.
Applying regenerative approaches in governance
There are multiple frameworks which define the roles and responsibilities of governments, as well as the qualities associated with good governance. Commonly accepted roles and responsibilities include, for example, providing public goods and services such as basic utilities or education, safeguarding citizens from external threats, maintaining a high-quality justice system, managing and distributing resources, and protecting and upholding basic rights. Definitions of good governance further emphasize the importance of qualities such as transparency, accountability, responsiveness, and effectiveness in carrying out these responsibilities.
All of these remain relevant, if in some cases increasingly challenging to realize. Yet a growing body of evidence suggests there is also value in thinking about governance from the perspective of living ecosystems. Reframing our understanding of the purpose and nature of governance can help us think about how to transform the public sector in the years to come. It can also bring to light new ways of understanding what success might look like, defined in terms of systemic health, strong relationships and a focus on the role governance can play in catalyzing and sustaining the evolution of the financial, educational, and other systems which shape our societies.
Many government policies – from local ordinances to national strategies to international agendas including the Sustainable Development Goals – focus on addressing particular problems, which means we often focus mainly on the “what” of specific solutions to these problems. Thinking regeneratively requires us to focus both on foundational values and on the “how,” with the potential to create more beneficial outcomes, even if some of these outcomes don’t immediately lend themselves to clear definitions or metrics. There are different ways to think about what this means in practice.
As a starting point, openings certainly exist for governments to develop policies which incentivize, prioritize, and learn from the transitions toward regenerative approaches which are already underway in agriculture, finance, and other sectors. On a deeper level, it’s also valuable to re-examine the purpose and focus of our democratic institutions. We’re living in an era in which many of the policy prescriptions of the past have proven wholly inadequate in the face of the multiple crises we are experiencing today. Mechanistic thinking around productivity, types of efficiency, and wealth accumulation/concentration has become so ingrained in our lives and institutions that it is sometimes hard to recognize. Questions along the lines of those below could support an exploration of how the principles of thriving ecosystems can inform and shape not only government policies, targets, and metrics, but also how decisions are made. None of them can be answered easily, but it’s by asking that we stop assuming our systems are guided by the “right” priorities and begin to expand our sense of what’s possible.
What is unique about the role of a specific town, province, region, or country? What does it offer that is most beneficial to the system of which it is a part?
What is the quality of relationships within a given system or place, among members of society and with the natural world around us? How do we know?
What would it look like to prioritize systemic health in governmental decision-making? Do governments have an accessible, locally relevant definition of this concept that could help them (together with citizens) better weigh the costs and benefits of different decisions?
Do decision-making processes incorporate nature as a stakeholder? What does it look like to give nature a voice in governance?
Are patterns of consumption driving ever deepening ecological debt? What metrics are needed to answer this question and to reverse trends of depletion/extractivism?
Are governments facilitating the flow of key resources such as food, water, human and financial capital, and information throughout the system? Are these resources blocked by policies which encourage accumulation by a few, corruption, or other obstacles?
How can a government’s policies and practices contribute to the evolution of the next level of governance, beyond its direct responsibilities? For example - can the way local communities consume and manage resources shape more sustainable policies at the state or national level?
Our democratic institutions hold great potential, some of which remains constrained or obscured by outdated incentive structures, metrics, and economic models. We have an unprecedented opportunity now to usher in a new era of public service, founded on a renewed sense of purpose and beneficial for both people and planet. It is an exciting time to reexamine the purpose of governance and to bring governments at all levels into alignment with the principles that underpin thriving ecosystems. There are practical entry points for doing so, from integrating regenerative principles into the growing movement of citizens’ assemblies and other forms of participatory local governance, to identifying regeneration as a cross-cutting goal of the post-2030 Agenda, to piloting new metrics that help governments and citizens to weigh options and make decisions against a new (and potentially more effective) set of criteria. Public servants across all sectors could be trained in and incentivized to apply regenerative approaches.
Among the many definitions of good governance, there is space to add a new value: regeneration, or the degree to which a system of governance is regenerative. And to ask a new question: what if one purpose of governance and government were to support regeneration and evolution?