Bridge
20 Days to Go: Why the G20?
The G20 Summit in Seoul commences on 11 November. So too does the 10 City Bridge Run.
But why the G20? Isn’t that only about banking and a talk-fest among world leaders?
The 10 City Bridge Run forms a bridge conceptually between the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (in particular MDG 4: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate) and the leadership of the 20 largest economies (19 countries plus the European Union).
This is what the G20 agreed upon following the last meeting held in Toronto in June this year under the heading of ‘Development’:
We recognize that 2010 marks an important year for development issues. The September 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) High Level Plenary will be a crucial opportunity to reaffirm the global development agenda and global partnership, to agree on actions for all to achieve the MDGs by 2015, and to reaffirm our respective commitments to assist the poorest countries.
In this regard it is important to work with Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to make them active participants in and beneficiaries of the global economic system. Accordingly we thank Turkey for its decision to host the 4th United Nations Conference on the LDCs in June 2011.
Narrowing the development gap and reducing poverty are integral to our broader objective of achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth and ensuring a more robust and resilient global economy for all. In this regard, we agree to establish a Working Group on Development and mandate it to elaborate, consistent with the G-20’s focus on measures to promote economic growth and resilience, a development agenda and multi-year action plans to be adopted at the Seoul Summit.
The website foe the Working Group opens a blank page. I want that to change.
The methodology used by the 10 City Bridge Run is about raising awareness of an individual’s capacity to act to influence extreme poverty. It involves:
- Observing
- Listening
- Bridge building
- Petitioning
- Doing
- Asking institutions what action they took after making public statements
- Learning
Join me on this journey. It is not a spectator sport.
Lisa Asked: How Does It Work?
I was speaking with my good friend Lisa last night at GreenUps here in Sydney, and the conversation shifted onto the 10 City Bridge Run.
Lisa asked how did it all work. Good question. Here is my answer.
The start point would be to frame the 10 City Bridge Run: a global endurance challenge where I will run 10 sub-marathons each of 24 km in 10 cities across 10 countries within one month. The purpose is to raise awareness of an individual’s capacity to act to influence extreme poverty.
I will start running in Sydney on 14 October, and finish in Seoul on the last day of the G20 Summit 12 November.
These dates are part of a design to form a ‘bridge’ between two key institutional events: a United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals held last month in New York commencing 20 September, and the G20 Summit in Seoul starting on 10 November.
I contend that what happens in between, the engagement of people like you and I, is of the same importance.
This is about much more than just running. Each run represents the 24,000 children under the age of five who on average die every single day. While 0.1% of this figure is from the West, a staggering 50% comes from sub-Saharan Africa alone.
This is an initiative about participation. Not through running, but bridge building. I am asking people to take photographs of themselves or other people making bridges between themselves and for these to be collated and then presented to the G20 Summit leadership (President of Korea). Together can we collate 24,000 of these photographs which will be printed, curated and then delivered to the President of Korea?
Another outcome is a book that will be published in electronic and print format containing 1,000 selected photographs from those in the petition. The book has a working title of “Above the Line”, a reference to the challenge of moving people often corporately identified as ‘The Bottom Billion‘ above the line of extreme poverty.
The 10 City Bridge Run is community funded, that is to say ‘crowdfunded’, by many sponsors who each pre-purchase the book “Above the Line” enabling the running to take place, and importantly the achievement of all Six Outcomes.
Sounds difficult? The tagline for the event is “Is the seemingly impossible possible?” I don’t believe we can fully address this question without first seeing what is possible ourselves through an experiential challenge.
What I propose is possible, but it requires the participation of others. Will you join me vicariously on the run as a sponsor? Sponsorship is $240 for a printed copy of the book or $24 for a electronic copy of the book.
Please be part of the difference that makes a difference and sponsor the 10 City Bridge Run.
Bridge as metaphor…useful as a way of seeing?
The structure of a bridge is a metaphor I have drawn upon to help define what this work is communicating. Do you think that is appropriate given the complexity of the issue of poverty, and the many stakeholders involved?
Gareth Morgan in his classic 1997 text Images of Organization writes:
Metaphor is often regarded just as a device for embellishing discourse, but its significance is much greater than this. The use of metaphor implies a way of thinking and a way of seeing that pervade how we understand our world generally.
Take how I have defined sponsorship for example: all the parts that make up a bridge are important. Without one bit, the other bits would either collapse, cease to be functional, or be structurally weakened. (Note: Post amended to reflect the new crowdfunding site at http://www.pozible.com/lifebridge) I have drawn upon the architectural definitions of:
- Support: The structure that props up a bridge. Even if a plank is rested across a gap to make a bridge, the two ends are what provides the support.
- Span: Span is defined by wikipedia as the distance between two intermediate supports for a structure. The span is a significant factor in finding the strength and size of a beam as it determines the maximum bending moment and deflection.
- Foundation: The portion of a structure that transfers the weight of that structure into the ground.
What this means in plain terms is that it is the span that provides the functional purpose of the bridge, but without the necessary number of supports a point of weakness is reached through bending under an unevenly distributed load. None of this will matter if the foundation established is not sufficient to carry out the ‘heavy lifting’ needed.
Thanks to those sponsors who have made a contribution to date. None of this would be possible without your engagement. Please also note in relation to support, span, and foundation each is vitally important for the reasons mentioned above.
A bridge is also a structure which enables different functions. As a metaphor, a bridge between people enables the passage of ideas, it connects people who are in different places, it enables help to be connected, it opens up the opportunity for people to be helped, it reduces isolation, it is a more efficient way of getting to another point, it increases the range of options available, and the list continues…
Far from being a facile word-game, I contend that ‘bridges’ are critical in the quest to eradicate extreme poverty. Certainly, just building bridges would be an act of folly if they are built with no purpose or are merely ornamental. To my mind, the process of inquiry of ‘what is not working here, and what are we doing ok at?’ is related to building a bridge. The hundreds of books and articles that have been written about the eradication of extreme poverty are in themselves bridges, as much as the conferences and forums that are held to address the issue.
Let’s build bridges with purpose, and where possible direct our efforts into strengthening and even crossing the bridges established by others in order to make our interest, inquiry and efforts all the more productive.
What is a bridge to you?
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