Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Trust Building — Part 1: The 4R’s of Building Trust

 This is the first part of a two part series looking at Trust and Dialogue.

Trust is in short supply

This blog is prompted by the feeling that currently global trust is in short supply. With many people across the world increasingly being anti vaccine and being susceptible to the misinformation that is being spread, a reluctance to take the covid vaccine and adhere to safety protocols signals a lack of trust in the system and those enforcing the system. This lack of trust is symptomatic of a wider global malaise where there is a massive trust deficit in society, with old institutions and positions such as bankers, journalists and politicians facing the brunt of this.

The 2021Edelman Trust Barometer has revealed that there is a trust paradox that despite an era of strong economic performance and nearly full employment (over the past two decades, more than a billion people around the world have lifted themselves out of poverty), the 4 major societal institutions — government, business, NGOs and media — are not trusted at all. This has been further exacerbated by a year of unprecedented disaster and turbulence brought on by the triple crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic , the economic crisis and the resulting social crisis that has been made worse by the global outcry over systemic racism and political instability. The infodemic around covid 19 has also contributed to this failing trust ecosystem.

the role of globalisation

The trust paradox is also worsened and defined by the process of globalisation which has disrupted the social fabric that helps individuals define themselves and assess their social roles. The shifts of the 21st century as a result of globalisation have upended traditional structures of authority, relocated centres of power and allowed a flood of perspectives on how life should be lived. These shifts have unanchored lives, challenging the traditional structures and networks that guided peoples’ behaviour in society, such as learning from the teachings of our forefathers, by trial and error and following the models of others. In times of rapid social change these networks are erased or shifted to a degree that they become unrecognisable. This frantic pace has unsettled people to such an extent that they yearn for agents of constancy to provide an oasis in the shifting sands of today. This unsettling has also led to a decrease in trust in the institutions that have traditionally played that role of an agent of constancy, mainly because they have failed to keep up the pace to address (Jurgensmeyer, Griego and Soboslai 2015).:

A Search for Social Identity — the increasing mobility of people and the ease of global communications seems almost to make it possible for everyone to live everywhere. As a result, huge new multicultural populations are emerging around the world that have mixed identities- grounded in their new homelands but in touch with countries of heritage. Thus today one’s social identity is fluid and often determined by changing global circumstances and remains a paradox.

Accountability — there is a global issue of authority. As the concept of the nation-state becomes diluted with globalisation, it is no longer clear who is in charge. This phenomenon is further exacerbated by disaffected nationalist regimes and movements that claim — but have seemingly lost — moral bearings.

Security — we see mass disillusionment with the system of sovereign, secular states. National unities have been challenged by division based on religious and tribal identities and new ideologies of nationalism have emerged based on the sectarian interests of religion.

This loss of trust means that we can also lose hope in imagined realities with public belief in many core aspects of “the system” disappearing around the world. The current COVID-19 pandemic is showing a new form of this loss of trust. As people reject official sources of information, they are increasingly turning to search engines and social media to inform themselves. This rising tide of misinformation and mistrust is threatening Covid-19 recovery, as people are deeply suspicious and hesitant about the Covid-19 vaccine. In fact, among those who practice poor information hygiene — in that they do not check their sources and/or ensure credible and factual information is shared — there is substantially less willingness to get the vaccine within the year of its first availability (59 percent versus 70 percent for people with good information hygiene)

four horsemen

In the absence of accepted referees of truth, new imagined realities can easily form in the algorithmic echo chambers, that fly in the face of facts rather than building on them, sometimes based on who is shouting loudest (Mahmood 2020). The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called this global wave of mistrust one of the “four horsemen” that “endanger 21st-century progress and imperil 21st-century possibilities.” (Guterres 2020)

This trust deficit also caused by a deficit in leadership has led to a wider trust within society, with a large portion of the rhetoric of distrust being deflected to immigrants or people who appear to be the ‘Other’. In America a large portion of the distrust against the ‘other’ has led to the #BlackLivesMatter movement which has exposed the fear against the Afro Caribbean community (Kendi 2020) and the distrust that the community has in the public institutions to be fair and just. It is this distrust of the public institutions like law enforcement that reinforces a vicious cycle whereby both sides are not confident in each other.

There is an irony here as trust is often seen as something warm and fuzzy and not quantifiable. Yet trust also makes us feel safe and comfortable. So whilst trust is dismissed from the professional sphere as being something not tangible, from a leadership perspective it is still seen as a much valued trait and value. Leaders who cannot inspire trust cannot lead; there will be no followership.

The reason for there to be some much reluctance to professionally consider this whilst acknowledging its personal trait is that trust can be seen to be a leap of faith. It is based on one’s own worldview and experience that involves taking some risks, because whilst trust takes a long time to build, it can be broken very quickly. When times call for fundamental change, trust is often hard to come by. Yet it is clear that trust is essential to developing relationships with individuals. So the message is clear: To be trusted, one has to be trustworthy!!

Building trust is the essential foundation for building healthy communities. It inspires changes in individual lives and interpersonal relationships which in turn can catalyse social action and legislative changes (Corcoran 2010). Building trust has to start from the individual perspective as the most needed reforms in our communities require levels of political courage and trust based collaboration that can only be achieved by individuals who have the vision, integrity and persistence to call out the best in others and sustain deep and long term effects. Without trust, true collaboration is unattainable. From history, the likes of Mandela, Ghandi and King worked off social capital based on trust.

The Trust Quotient

In this light, it is worth exploring the ‘Trust Quotient’ which has been developed as an online self-assessment tool to measure an individual’s ability to garner ‘Trust’ (Maister, Galford and Green 2000). Whilst the tool is itself useful, what is more useful to consider are the attributes behind the ‘Trust Quotient’: credibility, reliability, intimacy and self-orientation. The equation identified below is thought provoking as it makes the concept of trust more practical and also posits the notion that the idea of trust is very much linked to the individual and dependent on the level of one’s own self-orientation.


The Trust Quotient (Maister, Galford and Green 2000) thus has one variable in the denominator and three in the numerator. The three numerator variables improve trustworthiness, whilst the denominator can reduce trustworthiness. Increasing the value of the factors in the numerator increases the value of trust. Increasing the value of the denominator — self-orientation — decreases the value of trust. The Trust Quotient provides a scientific, analytical and actionable framework for how we help organizations and individuals improve their businesses and lives. Thus, Trust is a consequence of good behaviour, not an ingredient, and while it takes decades to build it can vanish overnight based on the ego and self-orientation

Exploring the attributes in more detail, one sees that:

Credibility is about rating “what you say and how believable you are to others.” In other words, you must be and sound credible if you are asking others to follow your lead. Credibility also comes from integrating spirituality and a language of faith into what you say and do.

Reliability measures “actions, and how dependable you appear.” The actions need to follow up words. Do you ‘say what you do and do what you say’? So people need to know that you will come through for them.

Intimacy considers “how safe people feel in sharing with and being with you.” So often we are emotionally distant from others but we need to create opportunities to ensure that leaders do keep their emotional distance from their followers, but when you are presented with confidential information, you need to keep it so. It is also about keeping trust that God’s Plan for you is the best plan. That no matter if you are facing something positive or negative, it was chosen for you and you can handle it;

The fourth characteristic, self-orientation, refers to personal focus, e.g. yourself or others. What the equation shows is that too much self-focus will lower your degree of trustworthiness. It is important to demonstrate a strong ego but if your power is all about you, then few will follow. Self-Orientation refers to the focus of yourself. Self-orientation, which sits alone in the denominator, thus is the most important variable in the Trust Equation. A person with low self-orientation is free to completely and honestly focus on the other person — not for his own sake, but for the sake of the other person. Thus “Lowering self-orientation” can improve trustworthiness. When all you focus on is helping prospects, they trust you more. Ego is a common enemy that is a main impediment to learning and the cultivation of talent. With success, it can blind us to our faults and sow future problems. In failure it magnifies each blow and makes recovery more difficult. At every stage, ego holds us back (Holliday 2016).

Thus the Quotient and understanding its whole attributes may serve as a check on those of us who may think we are trustworthy, but perhaps may not be credible or reliable. Or we may be too self-absorbed to notice our deficiency. Building trust is ultimately about people.

The 4R’s

Living the four Trust Values is the best way to increase your trustworthiness. So how would one work to build those 4 trust values? How can we develop trust through building credibility, intimacy and reliability and reducing self orientation?

In my opinion, this can be done with building the 4 R’s of Trust building:

Take Responsibility

The first concept on ensuring trust and developing credibility is about taking personal responsibility and recognising that we individually need to work on, contributing towards the 4 trust attributes. The individual step will be to begin with ourselves with a values integration to model the change and be the catalyst for change we want to see. Change comes from taking courage to challenge the status quo and those that perpetuate fear and distrust. Taking responsibility is not just for the select few but for everyone (men and women) to step forward to take the lead in overcoming division.

Taking personal responsibility also means moving beyond victimhood to overcome burdens that can destroy them in order to give them a new lease of life. The concept of victimhood is extremely important for many who due to historical / colonial perspectives as well as the experiences of migrants to the west is one of being under siege (Hussain 2014).

The historian Yuval Harari has explained that the shift of human beings’ from small family social units, to nations and ideologies gathering millions owes a great deal to our ability to invent and then believe in stories (Harari 2020). In other words, having common “imagined realities” — that allow us to believe in invisible constructs as a way of organising ourselves. Hence there is a need to reconstruct the narrative of the community that is one that moves away from victimhood and takes responsibility for addressing social change to address concrete cause-and-effect relations (Harari 2018)

Build Relationships

How can we expect the people we serve to trust us, if we are not willing to trust them? How can we trust them if there is no engagement with them? The second pillar is about engagement and outreach. Studies conducted in Sri Lanka after the end of the conflict by the Asian Foundation, found that there was a lot of mistrust between the various faiths largely because there was no day to day engagement between the various members of the communities (The Asia Foundation 2011).

Thus it all starts with getting to know the other. In some cases it is about breaking bread or having a cup of tea with the other. It is about getting to know the ‘other’, lean their culture and traditions and share a meal with them. This requires the practice of humility, because it involves listening to what they have to say.

Building trust has to be about reaching out to ‘the other’ to include everyone and listen to everyone, to dispel the misinformation now infinitely magnified and exaggerated by the Internet. So we all need to do more to build those bridges and relationships with people. There is no magic formula to build those bridges rather just to be humble, with an ability to listen, build relationships with diverse communities, learn and understand from the others. Building relationships is hence about dialogue. Dialogue to understand, respect and accept has to be the intention.

Dialogue is a responsibility. Dialogue is a process of exploration and coming to know the other, as much as it is an example of clarifying one’s own positions. Therefore, when one dialogues with others, what is desired is to explore their ways of thinking, so as to correct misconceptions in our own minds and arrive at common ground. This common ground is the desideratum of all dialogue, and lays the groundwork for mutual cooperation based on the principles of faith in God and good relations with neighbours.

Ensure Respect

Building relationships is about ensuring respect for others. One of the key components of this is to ensure a space for dialogue that is safe is built where what is discussed is not only kept confidential, but more importantly that the spaces are kept welcoming. For example, if there is a need to build trust with religious leaders or representatives from other faiths, one should not shy away from integrating an intentional space for prayer or other rituals.

It means that there should be a clarity about the agenda. Respect is earned by standing firmly to our principles and not compromising.

Respect is also about doing what you say and following through. We need to be true and honest about what can be done and not done which also means following through on promises.

Always Reflect

Self-reflection and self-assessment are very important to understand where you go wrong and as well to acknowledge the past to learn from it. An Arab emperor once said ‘Take account of yourself before you are taken account of’. Acknowledging the past can only be done if a safe space is created, an outreach is done and people are treated with respect.

So where does this leave us with trust?

Living the Trust Values

Trust should not be second-best to accountability. It’s not good enough to say, “Trust us”. It’s not about corruption, political influence, paternalism and hypocrisy but there is a need to put in place the checks and balances that are visibly functioning and that give people a reason to trust you. If you want to reduce your self-interest, you need to put a check on those human and organisational tendencies. This requires self-reflection and humble correction.

It requires dialogue which can transform individuals in societies in a way that increases true social cohesion. Dialogue is important because it strengthens trust and understanding, and enables real relationships to be built across differences.

the importance of dialogue

Dialogue is an important tool in the context of outreach and gaining respect and understanding. migrant integration efforts. The two way process of mutual accommodation can only take place if both “sides” have a deeper understanding of the needs, perspectives, desires, fears, and priorities of the other. It is not just about understanding what the other is saying, but what they really mean. Hence dialogue is an effective approach to strengthen social cohesion within culturally and religiously diverse societies because it allows people to maintain their various identities while still finding common ground .

The aim of dialogue is to overcome misunderstandings and dispel stereotypes in order to gain better mutual understanding, to build trust. Rather than necessarily agreeing on a point of view, dialogue is about recognising and developing mutual respect so as to build sustainable relationships. By focusing on common needs, dialogue builds bridges and transforms human relations. It fosters deeper understanding, so that even though disagreements may persist, an appreciation for the perspectives of the other can emerge. I intend to go more deeper on dialogue in the second part of this blog

not a hotline

Trust is not a hotline. Trust is not an auxiliary, There is much to reflect on and also to take responsibility for in terms of creating safe spaces for dialogue and engagement. Whilst there is much that is outside the control of individuals to affect and that remains within a circle of concern, there is still much within the circle of influence where there can be direct impact. Thus individual responsibility is an obligation to respond proactively to the tensions of our world by working actively and methodically to ameliorate them, so as to replace instability with stability, hostility with friendship, and animosity with alliances.

These alliances are about bridging social capital between communities that are a strong enough consensual basis for trust that takes into account cultural difference (Putnam 2000). We need to develop that so-called ‘thin trust’ that binds us to those we do not know and with whom we have limited first hand dealings, to go along with the ‘thick trust’ that develops from personal familiarity. Thus there needs to be more of an opening up of physical and virtual spaces where individuals and communities can come together, free from the restraints imposed by pre-determined (and biased) agendas (Yaqin and Morey 2016). This comes from understanding that multicultural environments are key to celebrating difference in the practices of everyday life.

Trust building through shared endeavour and mutual vulnerability requires a willingness to be open to understanding the lifeworld of another. This most certainly does not mean that one needs to agree with its every detail, nor to, in some way, concede something essential in oneself. It does however need to understand where other ideas are coming from — historically and intellectually. In other words, the doors need to be kept open, not slammed shut. The history of Islamic civilisations is a testimony to this celebration of multiculturalism.

So how do we build the trust that creates the ideas and institutions that will allow us to live together as the global tribe? Using the Trust Quotient buttressed by the 4 R’s of Trustbuilding, one can create a safe space for critical self-reflection that allows one to reach out to treat the other with respect and to understand trust enables communities to move towards a common good of peaceful existence with each other.

rebuilding the shattered mirror

The famous Victorian explorer Sir Richard Burton (Among other exploits, Burton managed in 1853 to gain entry to Mecca and Median as a pilgrim, helping to communicate the complexity and richness of Islamic culture to Victorian Britain.) once wrote that ‘All Faith is false, all Faith is true: Truth is the shattered mirror strown In myriad bits; while each believes his little bit the whole to own’ (The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi). In his mind, he meant that you will find parts of the truth everywhere and the whole truth nowhere. This concept of the ‘shattered mirror concept’ enables us to see that ‘each shard reflects one part of a complex truth from its own particular angle’ (Appiah 2006).

Distrust comes from the fact that we consider that ‘our little shard can reflect the whole’ and that our little truth is the whole truth. Building trust is about understanding that for the common good, each of us (with our faith and spiritual teachings) have a bit of that shard of broken glass. These small shards of glass which, require careful positioning to create a compelling mosaic that will allow us to live together as the global tribe we have become.

Trust building starts with all of us individuals and then grows with the communities in which we live and work. This snowball effect can only come through daily practice of the Trust Quotient and being mindful of the 4 R’s of Trust Building.

A second part of this blog on dialogue will be printed soon


this originally appeared here

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Saturday, September 11, 2021

20 years: A journey of searching

 So we are 20 years from that infamous day 9/11 when lives were turned upside down all over the world. The reverberations across the world over the last two decades are simply too enormous to recount, and the tragic pictures coming out of Afghanistan in the last few weeks a testimony that 20 years on, not much has changed. The world is not any more safer than it was 20 years ago, in fact it is perhaps more unsafe. Identities are more polarised as the “us vs them” has become more institutionalised. Much is to be discussed there on how the world was reshaped that day and perhaps continues to be reshaped that day. But what about on the personal scale, what has been the personal effect of that.

what are the personal stories of 9/11?

As someone who experienced the fear of being a young Muslim in rural south England in the aftermath, delivering pizzas as a side hustle in between university and getting proper work, dealing with the public, 9/11 was a rude wake up call. A rude wake up call because on the one hand, it caused me to be more aware of my own faith, to dig deep into the traditions to see whether there was any justifications for the tragedy that had just happened. On the other hand it made me more aware of the deep cleavages within society where your colour and name automatically reflects a power imbalance and a hierarchy.

These were the cleavages that basically made you out to a suspect and the ‘other’ who was not to be trusted or worse a security risk. So when people talk of ‘those Muslims’ you know they refer to you because you can see it in their faces. When they troll you on social media, you know there is no chance of a civil conversation, because to them you are not welcome, because you look different, your name is different and you worship differently.

the “good” ones

The past 20 years has been a journey that has no destination. You quickly realise that the journey is fraught with obstacles as well as different external expectations of what the destination is. Day in and day out, you are confronted with that expectation to justify that you are one of the ‘good’ ones. You are expected to be that representative of the religion and apologise if a lone mad person attacks some innocent people some where on the other side of the world in the name of Islam and even then you know it doesn’t really make a difference. This is because everyone who has read anything they can get on the internet, has made up their mind about you and the religion you follow, even without meeting a single Muslim. Even if no one around you says anything, you quickly develop that paranoia that ‘they must be thinking it’, so you proactively act to disarm those notions, so much so that depending on the

It is a journey which doesn’t give you any favours much like those journeys in the sixties in America, that many black people used to take with only selected pitstops where you were welcome. You realise that there is a double standard where someone of another faith or community can carry out an attack on civilians but the rest of the adherents of that faith or from that community aren’t expected to apologise.

It is a journey that you know will take extra time, because you are always randomly searched in airports or you have the famous ‘SSS” on your boarding card which means you get invited to the ‘special’ room after immigration at airports. So travel always adds an additional couple of hours.


Somehow you find yourself in a car hurtling down a highway at 100mph towards a destination that you do not know, with everyone except you seeming to know the destination. Either you are with us or against us starts to resonate highly. You need to be with us, show us that you ‘adhere to our values’, that you are not them. Otherwise you are against us and with them because you don’t share those values. The problem with this black and white argument is that both sides have the same expectation on you.

Finding the moderate optimum speed on this journey becomes very hard. It is hard to offer a third way to the ‘either with us or against us’ narrative that says ‘I am not against you, I am totally against what happened to you at 9/11 but I am against the action being undertaken in response’. In offering that third way which at the heart of it defines that ‘violence does not beget violence’, you offer the chance to reflect and ponder and think about justice. Yet it is not a popular stance and it was not a popular in 2001 when we joined 1000s of others against the invasion of Afghanistan. There was another way where justice could have been obtained and perhaps thousands of innocent lives would have been spared. The incidents over the past few weeks just get me frustrated as to whether the last 20 years was worth it?

So this is a journey of searching over the last 20 years to who you are, what you stand for, how do you articulate what you stand for without it becoming a threat to the other?

hope

it has been a journey of fear, frustration but also one of hope and friendship. Because just as there are those who sought to move away from you, there have been those who have chosen to come to you in solidarity and friendship, determined to see you for you. Like the friend who I hadn’t spoken to in about 5 years suddenly calling me out of the blue on 9/11 and offering me a safe place to stay because in his words “things will get bad for you”; or the chaplain at the local hospital who reached out in compassionate offering words of comfort when he knew you were facing tough times; or those who marched in solidarity in anti war marches in London, against the invasions of Afghanistan because they knew it would result in more deaths. That hope was apparent in the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 which coincidentally I was in the US for, where I saw many communities come together in reflection of a possibility of what could be and choosing to build bridges and break walls. Yet in the last 5 years exacerbated in the last 2 with the pandemic, that hope has become thin as racist and exclusionary ideologies dominate the narrative. This has to change and be countered.

Undoubtedly the 3000 + innocent lives that were lost 20 years ago should not be forgotten, but we can not reflect adequately if we also do not reflect on the ethics and morality of

Guantanamo, the profits of military-industrial complex, surveillance and reconnaissance, white nationalism, drones, hundreds of thousands of murdered Iraqi and Afghan civilians, and corrupt alliances. If we cannot ask these questions, then we can not and should not commemorate because these are all linked.

This is the spirit of resilience and hope that needs to be part of the reflections of 9/11 20 years on, and this is part of the continual journey of searching for belonging, respect and understanding. So the question is not “where were you on 9/11?” but more “where have you been over the last 20 years since 9/11?” What has been your journey?


this originally appeared here

Sunday, August 15, 2021

When privilege trumps compassion and decency

 xx has been feeling a little frustrated. Normally every year, she and her family head out to Europe from Sri Lanka for the summer vacation. However due to covid 19 lockdowns she was unable to travel in 2020. 2021 was also looking like a washout until things seemed to open up with the vaccinations in Sri Lanka and In Europe. It seems vaccinated people will be let into some parts of Europe with minial quarantine needed. When the vaccination process started in Sri Lanka in about May, xxx was able to use her family contacts with government ministers and be one of the first to be vaccinated even before it was rolled out to front line workers. Now it seems that xxx and her family can get that summer holiday in the uk after all, by heading to Serbia for 10 days before making it to their final destination of the uk. Flights are expensive and the whole trip is triple what has been spent before but in xxx’s mind its worth it as they haven’t been abroad since 2019.

Yyy’s son is getting married. The wedding was delayed from 2020 with the covid lockdowns so he is determined do it this year. Coming from a large family and with this wedding being the first in the family, he is determined to make sure it works. Given the Sri Lankan authorities have put a 150 person limit on weddings, he decides to have three events scattered in three different hotels to ensure he is able to have the guests. As inter provincial travel is prohibited he decides to have a bigger function at his village as he is able to travel because he has a pass based on his work. Because it is a rural area, the requirements for physical distancing and event numbers are not strictly followed and so he is able to have a 1000 people attend the wedding.

Now these stories might seem far from reality, but the sad fact is that they happened in Sri Lanka and I personally know these people. And I am shocked. Not because life should cease because of the pandemic. But somehow there is a tone deaf disconnect from a reality; a reality where daily wage earners are suffering from a drop in work and income; a reality where people with no connections or influence have been queueing for hours to get vaccinated; where people are struggling to make ends meet; where they are not able to get access to private medical care or oxygen.


What shocks and saddens me is that somehow these two anecdotes (which was normal in times before covid) seems to be continuing during times of covid as if things hadn’t changed. The sadness comes from the fact that there seems to be an oblivious (in the case of xxx) and a callous (in the sense of yyy) disregard of people and their lived experience. In the sense of the former, it is just a disregard that not everyone is able to afford holidays or even think about the money to be spent. For the latter there is a callousness of irresponsibility: an irresponsibility of putting people in the rural areas who are not vaccinated at risk from the disease; an irresponsibility of putting people who attended the weddings at risk, the waiters and everyone. The irresponsibility is made worse by the utter selfishness that somehow, doing weddings is more important than saving people’s lives or keeping people safe. This selfishness that despite people suffering economically, we are able to go on ‘as normal’, has been there but somehow become more magnified during covid.


This selfishness comes from a position of privilege and power that hitertho had existed but seems to have been made worse by COVID 10 which has exacerbated inequalities and vulnerabilities. What we are seeing through these anecdotes is that whilst people have been all affected by the lockdowns, the effect of these lockdowns have varied and some have been more affected than others. Yet in that, there is still a lesson that has not been learnt and that is of compassion and the wish to treat others as you wish to be treated. Power and privilege seems to trump compassion and we have seen that. Compassion has not been there when people have looked for vaccinations and tried to compete for that. Compassion is not there when large weddings are conducted putting unvaccinated and vaccinated people at risk; compassion is not there when people choose to continue their holidays and lives oblivious of the others suffering.


Sadly this is the reality we live in and as the anecdotes I have shared have shown, privilege trumps compassion and decency. If we need to learn from what covid has taught us about the fragility of life and the interconnectedness of us all, we will have to trump privilege.



This was originally posted here

Saturday, August 14, 2021

Locally Driven Youth Action is the Need of the Hour

 This year’s International Youth Day feels a bit subdued and overwhelming because the scale of the problems to overcome have some how become even greater. It is well documented that COVID 19 has exacerbated existing inequalities across the world with respect to access to resources, information and power dynamics, and, disproportionately affected millions of children and young people worldwide, with public health restrictions and socio-economic disruptions having a devastating impact on their education, mental health, career prospects, safety and personal development. The uncertainty and fear for what the future holds is very real and is the new norm.

Due to the lockdowns, children and young people (with girls and young women in particular) have been affected, missing out on education with those without digital access and a suitable home learning environment being particularly disadvantaged. Many young people who have been in temporary or informal jobs, and in sectors worst affected by the pandemic are now suffering high levels of unemployment and future job insecurity. Lockdowns have seen an increase in gender-based and interpersonal violence and more children are living in unsafe homes with reduced access to support. This has caused even more stress on young people as research carried out by World Vision has shown that school disruption, emotional distress due to social distancing and increasing poverty have had tremendous impacts on the lives of children and young people on a massive scale. These have long term repercussions not only for young people but for communities and governments who have the responsibility to look after the interests of youth.

Despite all these challenges, young people all over the world are and have been providing support to one another and their communities in need. For those working with young people,they are considered a resource with scope and scale, and their meaningful engagement is key to building not only more resilient, adaptive, and non-violent communities, but resilient institutions too. From work done by youth organisations on the ground, we know that the untold story of Covid is of young people as the solution, not the problem. At the end of last year, a Global Youth Mobilization initiative was launched by the global Big 6 youth organisations to highlight and promote young people, their ideas, and their innovative solutions to the impact of Covid and the many community challenges that have come with it. Projects being supported by the initiative have included youth-run programmes across countries and communities addressing mental and physical health, mitigating the impact of disruption to education, training in digital skills, improving employability through support to livelihoods and financial literacy, vocational training and skills provision, vaccine awareness and other forms of Covid-19 prevention. So, what these projects show is that given a platform, agency and inter-generational accompaniment, young people can become partners in providing solutions.

On International Youth Day questions are asked as to how youth engagement can be strengthened to make use of the opportunity to overcome the covid 19 challenges. A new discussion paper released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) for international youth day aims to situate this debate around young people and COVID-19. It aims to contribute to a more holistic and intersectional understanding of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had and will have on the constituency of children,adolescents, and young adults. By placing the constituency of children, adolescents, and young adults at the centre, this discussion paper chooses to challenge thematic and programmatic silos that usually govern humanitarian and development aid. By focusing on the challenges faced by young people because of COVID-19, the discussion paper calls for transformative recommendations to scale up the engagement of young people not only as members of affected communities but to engage them within the institutions as well. Thus,there is a need to strengthen institutional capabilities to address obstacles to elevate well-being and protection. By meaningfully engaging with a youth constituency, institutions can address fractures in today’s fragmented and divided world where fear and xenophobia can flare up.

It is now, more than ever that we can see the power and agency young people have despite the challenges they face. The current pandemic will have a lasting impact on the youth of the world, which is why this is the time to take action to ensure young people are driving change rather than being impacted by it negatively. Policy makers must listen to children and young people and put them, their views, needs and experiences at the heart of the solutions. A healthy, vibrant, and further strengthened youth sector is vital to ensure that young people thrive and overcome the challenges of the future with the support of those around them. This starts at the local level with young people from local communities being given agency and taking responsibility for solving problems at their community.


Young people will help us bring humanity together, build bridges over the deep valleys of division and help us to start living in a world, where saving just one life matter. Recognition of their unique role, trust and power sharing, commitment and accountability, and action with impact are the critical ingredients of collective success and continuity.
This originally appeared here

Friday, August 13, 2021

The power of sports and life skills

 Sport is a unique and efficient tool to build resilience and enhance social inclusion of the economically, socially, and politically marginalised youth in today’s age.

Youth in crisis

15% of the world’s population – some 1.2 billion people and counting – are aged between 15 to 29. The COVID-19 lockdown has disproportionately affected people’s lives, especially millions of young people worldwide, with public health restrictions and socio-economic disruptions having a devastating impact on their education, mental health, career prospects, safety, and personal development. The pandemic has further highlighted and exacerbated the existing inequalities in our societies, with respect to access to resources, information, and power dynamics.

This has also exacerbated existing fractures in society that has led to the frightening rise in extremism, isolation, and fear. Added to this is an unprecedented 70.8 million people around the world who have been forcibly displaced from their home. Among them are nearly 25.9 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18. COVID-19 is quickly pushing us to a situation where we are losing our commitment to welcome the stranger, provide for the most vulnerable and cross lines of difference to solve shared problems.

As the world’s largest and oldest humanitarian network that is also a member of the world’s six largest youth organisations (the Big 6), collectively reaching 250 million people every year, the IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) and its 7.5 miilion youth volunteers and young changemakers are aware of the burning desire for young people to be heard, seen, and engaged in finding solutions to the world's biggest challenges. 

Using sport for development approaches to harness the talent of youth

Young people across the globe have ideas on how to solve the world’s most entrenched problems, but they are too often dismissed as victims or “the future.” Too few youths have access to the tools, mentors, and resources to turn their insights into reality. There are few safe spaces that really enable them to get engaged and co-create their engagement.

Youth engagement and participation is needed in promoting peace and preventing violent extremism. The UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on ‘Youth, Peace and Security’ recognises the important role that young people play in the prevention and resolution of conflict. The resolution creates a framework for the engagement of young people in tackling violent extremism and working for peace through participation, protection, and prevention.

Sport programs are often used as tools of crime prevention or to build social bridges. Consequently, sport programs can be seen as vital to prevent violent extremism or build peace, as it can with nurturing core life skills in young at-risk people – such as confidence, self-esteem, self-discipline and self-control, teamwork, breaking down cultural stereotypes – which are transferable to other contexts such as conflict avoidance, but are more effective when associated with other activities, such as education, training, employment, volunteering, etc. Much more work needs to be done though in this area.

The last two decades have seen a rapid increase in the use of sport for development and peace (SDP). Yet the closure of the UN Office for Sports for Development and Peace in 2017 has created a global vacuum of a reference point that provides thought leadership, raise awareness and developing tools for the use of sports and physical activity in the advancement of peace and development objectives. 

IFRC’s contribution to youth development through S4D

The Red Cross Red Crescent Movement has long recognised the potential of sport for development and peace – for example in 2011, the IFRC and the IOC proposed a pledge signed by 57 National Societies endorsing the potential of sport for value-based education seeing sports as a key tool for the innovative promotion of values education.

scoping study done in 2013 by the IFRC has emphasised on the role of sports in bringing values to life and making them accessible for many human beings in a very authentic, and sustainable way whilst offering chances for intergenerational discussions. In addition, IFRC and the Asian Football Federation have signed an MOU to advance work on social development causes whilst the IFRC and Special Olympics have been working together for the last 6 years.  Many National Societies and the ICRC have used sport for different purposes, mostly in a social inclusion context, and some (e.g. Danish Red Cross, supporting Bangladesh RC) in a humanitarian context, again often linked with psycho-social support.

In addressing the current challenges to do with youth isolation, exclusion, and violence prevention, the IFRC is spearheading a new project in partnership with The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy of Qatar 2022 (SC) – Generation Amazing (GA). The project is a unique hybrid of football for development skills (F4D) and Youth as Agents of Behavioural Change (YABC).

F4D is GA’s flagship program that empowers and educates future generations around the globe to address three priority issues-vulnerability, health and wellbeing, and environmental sustainability. YABC is the IFRC’s flagship initiative on the promotion of a culture of non-violence and peace (CNV+P), that empowers young people to take up an ethical leadership role in inspiring a positive transformation of mindsets, attitudes, and behaviors, both within themselves and their communities. It is built on three pillars – empowerment, operating from inner peace, and reaching out to the community.

The new YABC/F4D project – uniting through the power of football – consists of a hybrid curriculum that has been developed to combine the (Y)ABC methodology and F4D approaches to use football as a driver for social change. It focuses on developing youth leadership and a social entrepreneurship spirit to mobilize vulnerable young people and communities in out-of-school activities can help prevent the occurrence of violence, improve their access to education and employment, ensure better social inclusion and build resilience in excluded at-risk communities, leading to healthy lifestyles, greater engagement, fewer problems with peers, and increased pro-social behaviour.

Through the project, young people will not only experience personal transformation, but create an external ripple of change. As they navigate their leadership journey, they will learn powerful skills around discipline, healthy living, teamwork, and engage with their local networks in meaningful ways. By doing so, they will create change in their schools, neighbourhoods and the broader world by implementing solutions to some of the most challenging problems of our time from a community-based lens and with the initiator of this being the F4D methodology, combined with YABC approach and additional basic educational processes. The project will involve thousands of young people in this process and will in turn create thousands of solutions directly implemented by young people.

The project is currently being trialed with Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies in Argentina, Uganda, Myanmar and Iraq, testing outcomes identified in the multi-country project design to assess the effectiveness and impact of combining the IFRC’s (Youth as) Agents of Behavioural Change and GA’s Football for Development (F4D) initiatives. 

With the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns, much of the hybrid curriculum has had to be adopted for the online space with IFRC YABC trainers. As the project unfolds, it expects to have an impact on the improvement in the social inclusion of marginalized and excluded youth, particularly those living in at-risk communities, refugees, and internally displaced young people, as well as in host communities, by recruiting disadvantaged youth to participate in football driven leadership development programmes.

The programme puts forward a community-based model of resilience using team sports to address issues of identity and cultural isolation. It aims to prove that with the provision of life and leadership development skills, as well as learning opportunities to vulnerable and excluded community-based young people through an integrated F4D and (Y)ABC skills training programme, enhancement of local capabilities will help young people drive social change on the ground and take responsibility for those actions. This will ultimately lead to an enhanced well-being and personal resilience of vulnerable youth.

Paving the path to youth leadership

IFRC and GA believe that young people represent the single greatest untapped resource for good across the globe. They are ready to change the world. Through this project, both partners want to show that sport and life skills will equip this generation of young people with the necessary skills and mindset to change the world for the better –not someday in the future –right now. They are hungry to lead and imagine innovative approaches to make their communities healthier, safer, and more inclusive, while writing new narratives of who they are and what they are capable of.  


this originally appeared here on Sport and Dev

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Reimagining Sacrifice — how do we approach the lessons of the Hajj?

 The 20th of July 2021, for most Muslims will be the celebration of the Feast (or Eid ul Adha) symbolizing the culmination of the pilgrimage by Muslims to Mecca (the Hajj is one of the five fundamental pillars of Islam). These few days of light and love characterise prayer, reflection, symbolize meditation, a return to the Creator and prayers for peace, for happiness, for justice.

The Hajj serves as a symbol of unity in diversity as Malcolm X wrote

“…we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood…. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colours together, irrespective of their colour”.

It was on the day before the hajj, that the Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him — PBUH) gave his final sermon with an anti racist message:
“All humans are descended from Adam and Eve. There is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, or of a non-Arab over an Arab, and no superiority of a white person over a black person or of a black person over a white person, except on the basis of personal piety and righteousness.”

It is this message which creates a moral and ethical mandate for Muslims to support anti racism and it is the impetus of this day that symbolizes the sacrifice and struggle that is needed to act on that mandate.
Thus the global Muslim community will join in solidarity with the select few who have had the privilege of actually performing the Hajj, the most spiritual of journeys, answering the invitation from God to visit His sacred house, in response to the prayers of Prophet Abraham and his son Prophet Ishmael (Peace Be Upon them Both), who built the Ka’abah (the House of God) and subsequently prayed to Him that His most beloved of followers (and believers) would come. In the Qur’an, God orders Abraham (Peace Be Upon Him — PBUH) “…proclaim the pilgrimage to humankind, they will respond, coming to the sacred house on foot, riding every possible conveyance coming from every distant path.” (22:27). Those who come for the pilgrimage proclaim ‘Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik — here I am at your service O Lord, here I am’.
Invitation from God

This is singularly one of the direct relationships between God and Human. You come purely for the purpose that you are invited by God and respond to the prayer of Prophet Abraham (PBUH). In this journey you enact an inter religious experience that was initiated by Prophet Abraham (PBUH) and his family. The hajj allows us to follow in the footsteps of his family, from the running of our mother Hajar (between the mounts of Safa and Marwa) — a reminder of a noble, lone, tired, exhausted black woman living as a single mother in the desert, without family, without support, without money, without water; to the recommended act of worship of performing a sacrifice of a sheep in remembrance of the proposed sacrifice of Abraham’s son.

As the main inspiration and father of the lines of Prophets that brought the three world religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Eid ul Adha is not only significant for Muslims but is symbolic for Christians and Jews as well. The common grounds and the commonalities of the stories of ‘the leader of all mankind’ as God describes him in the Qur’an (2:124). Abraham (PBUH) was not only a ‘nation’ (16:120) by his own right, with his descendants including Isaac, Moses and Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Them All), he was also the ‘friend’ of God (4:125) due to his qualities of sacrifice, extraordinary faith, an uncompromising commitment to upholding the oneness of God and righteousness. This is in essence the core of the three Abrahamic religions that derive their ethics and qualities from these attributes that not only lays the foundation for inter-faith dialogue but for multi-faith action as the Qur’an says “Who could be of better faith than the one who surrenders utterly to God and is a doer of good and follows that faith of Abraham, the upright one?…” (4:125)

Abraham (PBUH) teaches us belief in the Divine, the one God, and urges the leading of an upright life. He fought against the idols of the day, the symbols that sought to destroy society and its natural inclination to God and Justice and when the time came was willing to sacrifice his son (who in the Islamic teachings consented after being consulted by his father) in a joint act of submission to God. The spirit of the sacrifice is what is discussed here and not the form. Whilst there is a dispute in the different Abrahamic teachings about the identity of the son who was supposed to be sacrificed (and how things actually transpired), there is a more fundamental lesson for us to learn and that is in the willingness to give up that which is dearest and closest to us; it is whether we have the resolve and willpower necessary to achieve the higher spiritual goals deemed of us, to make that sacrifice for something greater, to understand our journey back to the beginning, to understand the common and ancient origin of our human roots which is about the worship of the One Creator and the same reality of what this life means, what we have to do and where we will end up.

Equally the story of Hajjar should not be forgotten, of the single mother, cast aside or seeking to sacrifice familial ties for the sake of the protection of her baby, running here and there, searching to provide for her baby and having trust in God. This is a story to reflect on and ponder in the current age and speaks well to the lived experiences of many today and a reminder for us all to celebrate and contemplate.
How does it relate today?

In today’s context these lessons are even more poignant. Faced with the need to physically distance with COVID-19, we have learnt to ‘sacrifice’ those things that are close to us to survive. In many sad cases, we have had to sacrifice people for others. COVID-19 really has brought to reality the importance of the delicate balance that is necessary in human relationships to ensure respect, understanding and acceptance. The Abrahamic story of Sacrifice reminds us of this delicate balance and responsibility. It also reminds us of the need for mutual respect and sharing the burden of others, something that the pandemic has forced us to understand. We have been forced to re-evaluate what is important and who is important in our lives.
The story of the Sacrifice is about understanding that to achieve justice there is a price to pay. It tells us that through showing the ultimate sacrifice of a parent’s closest and beloved possession for the sake of the One to whom you will eventually return, we are taught that whatever we own and are close to, pales in comparison to the ultimate possession that we have: Our relationship with The One Most High. This is the lesson from the pandemic as well. This sacrifice coming at the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca is the very essence of the celebration. There is no gain without some pain, a poignant message in these times of easy satisfaction in 280 characters.

We are and need to be reminded to not only be thankful for all the blessings that we have, but to be content with them. We are asked to keep in check our greed as whatever excess; we share with those who deserve special attention — the poor and needy people, as well as the orphans. This is the true meaning of the sacrifice that we make so that those in need will benefit.

Thus, the Hajj represents a humbling spiritual journey; answering the invitation from God; that asks for God’s forgiveness, as the human being is stripped to its core representing the destruction of the inner demons and an equalization with one’s peers. It is a journey that represents the chance to be ‘reborn’, cleansed of the challenges of life, re-energized. It is a journey that takes one back to the essence of what creation and consequently life is about. It is about understanding the purpose of life’s journey and reorienting one’s compass.
Go; travel the world, look for the truth and the secret of life

The ultimate and most difficult lesson to learn on this journey is to understand our destination. For those of you who have read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, the understanding of this destination is very simple: ‘Go; travel the world, look for the truth and the secret of life — every road will lead you to this sense of initiation: the secret is hidden in the place from which you set out’.
This is the apparent paradox of spiritual experience whereby the constant effort that we make to purify, to control and liberate our hearts is in the end, reconciliation with the deepest level of our being and the spark that the Creator breathed into our heart which is the spark (the fitra) of humility, the awareness of fragility, the consciousness of limitation, the shoulder of responsibility. The responsibility to live justly and fairly. It is a responsibility that connects to the ‘other’ as God reminds us that he ‘has made us into tribes and nations so that we may know each other’ (qur’an 49:13)

The hajj, and its symbolic teachings, should help us to identify with others in different ways which is important in our role of living in society. It should help us remember that we are much more than a label, that our plurality and diversity are not divisive elements but are a cause for celebration but within that celebration is an understanding of common humanity and universal principles. This is the call for unity of the Muslim community and wider society that is made during this blessed journey.

The Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) said “You shall not enter Paradise until you have faith, and you cannot have faith until you love one another. Have compassion on those you can see, and He Whom you cannot see will have compassion on you”. This is the Prophetic vision, fed down from Abraham (PBUH) which demonstrates how we must work, together, with others, with our neighbours. So, a world which makes sense, is a world in which we connect with other people, beyond our immediate communities and experience, and show them compassion and love.

Through Abraham’s progeny we are united by familial ties and the deep connection of our kinship. This shared human experience gives us the opportunity to remember our original spiritual substance and to realign our moral compass. We can either fight about our differences or remember that we are united in the singular conviction that Abraham (PBUH) held.

This is the shared message we share with our brothers and sisters of Abraham’s progeny and that is the message of the Hajj through the principle of the sacrifice: ‘to serve humanity, those in need; those without… To awaken your conscience in the proximity of the wounds and the injustices people face…To move away from your heart, your bad thoughts…To distance yourself from the darkest dimensions of your being, your violence, your jealousies, your superficialities’

Yet We have forgotten what the sacrifice is supposed to symbolize. The story and lesson of Prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, and Hajjar (Peace Be Upon Them) deserves to be shared, remembered, and celebrated. The conversation between father and son and of the single mother on this most hardest of scenarios bears serious contemplation. In the height of challenging circumstance, the consultation of a parent with his child and the firm but soft acceptance of a parent’s wish by a child highlights a dying relationship in the world today

In an age of commercialism, these lessons of the Hajj are lost amongst Muslims who settle more for the rituals and practices. Custom has transformed into duty and practice descend into commercialization and waste: waste of money; waste of meat; waste of food. A symbolic and recommended act of worship in remembrance of the Prophet Ibrahim’s (Peace be upon him) sacrifice becomes a literal obligation of animal sacrifice, so that the blood flows deep and the distribution of meat becomes the anchor for the duty. Yes, the poor, vulnerable and needy do not have meat, but no one stops to ask whether giving them meat for a day would help improve their lives or doing something else is needed. In today’s circumstances of poverty and need, and climate change, these questions of need and fit for purpose become ever more important In the essence of rushing to seek that instant satisfaction of redemption, we trivialize the essence of the need on the ground. Therein lies the problem. The closure of the space for reasoning, debate and rational thinking about faith, spirituality, and practice. By not allowing space for discussion to examine these ideas and principles, we negate the very concept of our heritage and teachings.

At the heart of our consumer society, where materialism and individualism drive our daily lives, the question of the sacrifice reinforces our personal effort and commitment and invites us towards the deep horizons of introspection and meaning. This in effect is the current analogy of what Abraham (PBUH) and Hajjar (PBUH) faced in terms of their fights. We have a fight against modern and post modern consumerism and narcissism that does not take into account the beauty of human nature or the crushing debt and poverty faced by millions around the world and we must be prepared to sacrifice all that is dear to us in order to fight it. The lessons of the covid-19 lockdown has reinforced that sense of going back to understanding what is really important for us.

The blessed feast of Eid ul Adha thus should not become a feast of food as it is now commonly practised but a feast of the faith of fraternal atmosphere that is shared with all brothers and sisters in faith and humanity. It should as we follow in the footsteps of Abraham (PBUH) become a rallying point to bring all members of his progeny together. Unfortunately, over the last decades, the concept of a fraternal atmosphere has been denigrated to a single notion within the mindset of the Muslim community, who have gradually entrenched themselves into an ideological box. This ideological comfort zone is an intellectual arrogance leading to an isolationist mentality and cultural ghetto, which world over, Muslim communities; especially those that live under minority situations, place themselves in. This isolationist mentality imbibes an ‘us’ vs ‘them’ attitude and has meant that the Muslim community has always been worried about ‘us’ rather than taking an all encompassing ‘we’. This assumption of singularity is the weapon of sectarian activists who want people to ignore all affiliation and loyalties in support of one specific identity. This is deeply delusive, divisive and is one that leads to social tension and violence for there is a sense of injustice and intolerance that is created from potential misunderstandings and misperceptions.
Thus there is a need to reimagine this concept and understanding of the sacrifice. To really understand that meaning of profound spirituality requires humans to acquire a force of being and doing, rather than to undergo despotic relentlessness of a life reduced to mere instinct. The concept of understanding sacrifice is to marry the purpose of our existence with the purpose of our subsistence.

That purpose is to follow Abraham’s footsteps and serve humanity, those in need; those without! That purpose is to awaken our conscience in the proximity of the wounds and the injustices people face! That purpose is to move away from selfishness / greed and waste; to distance ourselves from the darkest dimensions of our being, our violence, our jealousies, our superficialities. That purpose is to face our responsibilities with confidence and assurance.

To truly bask in the legacy of Abraham (PBUH), it is imperative not to lose our way by being driven blindly by traditional practices or by commercialization, and to come back to the very essence of the message of the respective faiths: respect and love of human beings (especially those who are vulnerable and have been unjustly treated) is a manifestation of the love for the Almighty..
So, let us come back to the essential. Let us remember that this celebration and feast, more than anything is a feast of fraternal atmosphere that is shared by all and thus in reaching out to address the true objective of spirituality through prayers and good deeds, let us remember the right that the poor have on us. Let us avoid the waste and more importantly the wasted sacrifices. Let us remember how to reach out to the ‘other’ from our shared heritage.

May the Almighty, who loves you, guide and protect you. May there be peace and respite for all those who are suffering. May you spend time with your loved ones in an atmosphere of happiness;
Eid Mubarak!!

this was originally published here