This chapter explores the importance of collaboration in achieving successful systems change, emphasizing the need for selflessness and a focus on the greater impact. It discusses the role of honest brokers in bringing organizations with different perspectives together for collective goodness and greatness. The chapter highlights the challenges, processes, and significance of convening, connecting, and co-creating within a movement to promote collaboration and achieve collective impact.
Jeroo Billimoria is the founder of many successful social ventures, including Childline India, a network of over 1000 organizations that provide support to millions of children each year, especially in crisis situations, as well as Aflatoun, an network of 275 partners that offers social and financial education to millions of children and young people worldwide. In this episode, we mostly talk about Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI), a network that promoted systemic changes in the education and banking systems in dozens of countries to improve children's financial education. "Promoted", because CYFI announced that it had achieved its mission and shut down on 31 December 2019. An almost unheard-of accomplishment. In the interview, Jeroo walks us through five tactics and five leadership principles that she used to build the network that was ultimately so successful on a systems level. Key questions that we address include: How do you create coalitions for systems change? What leadership principles should we adopt -- and which ones do we have to unlearn?