As delegates arrived for IEFG Together: All Systems Go!, a small sign invited us to take a chair from the stacks around the room and sit down. With uncomfortable sideways glances, we obliged, seating ourselves as far from the stage as possible. We filled the hall from the back in perfect rows facing forward – even though we had not been told how to arrange ourselves – thus began our journey into systems change. As the facilitators pointed out, despite the opportunity to do otherwise, we had reverted to known norms, creating a familiar ‘system’ in how we chose to sit.     

Over three days together we were repeatedly taken out of our comfort zone, encouraged to shift our mindsets and see things from perspectives other than our own. We sketched system issues and blockages, role-played different players within dysfunctional systems, and debated if philanthropy, as a non-democratically elected stakeholder, has the right to change systems.  

The standout learning for me was not any eureka moment, but rather the ongoing acknowledgement that our attempt at the Maitri Trust to take a systems approach is well founded. Collaboration is key to that approach, both with education funders, other funding sectors and of course the various other elements of ‘the system’. 

Having a long-term, flexible and trusting funding model is equally as important in facilitating that approach. Finally, our discussions repeatedly stressed the importance of placing our systems approach within the context of local realities in the places where we fund. This is challenging without a full-time presence in those countries but is something we will increasingly focus on.  

The reminder that not everything that is good needs to be scaled, and not everything that is embedded will be sustained, was also salient. 

It was a privilege to host IEFG members in Edinburgh. 

Our community has not met in person for over three years, and it was invigorating to reconnect and share. In a tech-savvy, post-covid, climate-conscious world, we’ll rightly meet in-person less frequently than we have done in the past. 

But the power of reconnecting was palpable and will, I am sure, last well beyond the three days we spent together. 

Luke Aspinall, CEO, Maitri Trust