This meeting brought together participants from six continents, all of whom were working, as either practitioners or policymakers, with marginalised and vulnerable groups of people in their societies.
The purpose of the conference was to identify innovative practices and policies and the key actions needed to address the problems of social marginalisation.
These marginalised groups included those whose physical and mental differences set them apart from mainstream society, as well as those excluded by generations of prejudice such as dalits (untouchables) in India, the Gypsy and Roma people of Europe and indigenous people in Australia, Canada and India. Other groups are the street homeless, refugees and migrants, older homeless people and those made vulnerable by the breakdown of the communist system in Eastern Europe.
Discussions focussed initially on the sharing of challenges faced in the respective contexts. Since those working with marginalised groups are typically highly isolated in both policy and practice terms, these discussions were both illuminating and energising, enabling the participants to appreciate and learn from both the commonalities and differences of their situations.
Having identified the challenges faced, participants focussed on how to address them, with a view to bringing about more effective policy and practice. Among the key ideas to emerge from the meeting are:
The current policy focus on delivering services to marginalised groups should be reframed to one of facilitating ‘a life of participation and contribution’, a key element of which is the sense of ‘belonging’. A key theme was mutuality and incorporating socially marginalized people in housing and communities.
The social enterprise route has proven itself among marginalised people, enabling them to rebuild homes, lives and have a place in their communities and recognises that people can be the resource for change, rather than recipients of services.
The key elements of scaling up are impact, durability and spread; the experience of the private sector in promoting and delivering their products is a source to be learned from and engaged. Interventions that are taken to scale should be careful to maintain their intrinsic and recognized value to the end users, be proven to work, and be evaluated on an ongoing basis to ensure that they are needed and remain effective. Scaling up can be accomplished either by replication of programs that are faithful to the original model; or by establishing key programme elements and outcomes and providing the "fertile ground" (funding, policy infrastructure, etc.) in which these can be achieved in various ways at the local level.
While the private and voluntary sectors have a key role to play in innovation and implementation, government has the responsibility to support innovation, set standards, and financially support the meeting of people's basic needs and the achievement of their human rights.
The arts can be used to communicate and accomplish things that more conventional strategies have been unable to achieve.
A detailed report on the discussions will be produced in early 2010. Please contact us at
bshf@bshf.org if you would like to receive a copy of this.
Our sincere appreciation is expressed to the Rockefeller Foundation whose generous support and hospitality made this possible.
