Last week, I had an incredible opportunity to tag along with some of my IBJ colleagues and attend the Skoll World Forum at Oxford.
In many ways, I felt like a groupie… celebrating the efforts of extraordinary social entrepreneurs from around the world. I was in heaven. Jimmy Carter. Jeroo Billimoria. Bill Strickland. These were truly the rock stars of sector – their stories made famous by David Bornstein, Bill Drayton, and Jeff Skoll. The awards ceremony did little to diminish the festive, hopeful environment – with the Skoll Foundation naming their latest fellows – Kiva, Digital Divide Data, and Partners in Health among them.
And yet… among the smiles and endorsements, each social entrepreneur seemed to have an incredible intensity – a feeling that their efforts were only scratching the surface. Al Gore had a particularly strong tone when he talked about the mounting climate crisis – suggesting that, perhaps, we didn’t understand the urgency of the situation; being five years late to act could make a huge difference. Paul Farmer shared the sentiment, wrapping up his closing speech by mentioning that, tomorrow he would be “heading back to work in Rwanda.” A social entrepreneur’s job is never done.
Urgency was also a central theme of IBJ founder Karen Tse’s message during the opening plenary. While highlighting her experience working with Cambodian defenders to promote reform after the Khmer Rouge genocide… she was quick to point out the countless number of defenders who yearned for IBJ’s assistance in countries worldwide. She stressed the importance of helping those people ASAP.
As an observer and IBJ employee, I couldn’t help but agreeing with Karen. Having discovered an effective model for criminal justice transformation, we have an *obligation* to bring IBJ’s services to scale. And… at the same time… that’s what’s so challenging about the environment. A global defender support program necessitates the right systems, the right people, and the right ways to measure the impact of our work. But, given the demand for global justice, can we really afford to take our foot off the gas???
The good news is that IBJ realizes these challenges… and we’re crafting strategies that allow us to give more defenders more access to IBJ services, without the bulk and expense of formal country programs. It’s called the Global Defender Support Program… and it blends elements of the multi-stakeholder governance model pioneered the Marine Stewardship Council… with the social networking and collaboration platforms of igenius and Social Edge. The hope is that defenders will be able to share ideas, provide guidance, catalyze criminal justice stakeholders to affect change without the direct involvement of IBJ staff.
Can we ever live up to Karen’s expectations that IBJ will be global overnight? Probably not. Are we glad she pushes us? Absolutely. After all, if someone doesn’t dare to dream the impossible, nothing changes. Jimmy, Jeroo and Bill can attest to that…