Understanding Systems Thinking for Sustainable Development Policy Formulation

Significant system change often comes from unleashing paradigm shift that builds consensus across boundaries to deliver the desired change. Development policy is the tool of engagement and as such the interrelationships governing the interaction become the cement toward consensus building. There is increasing interest in using systems thinking to help policy-makers facilitate interaction among people, encouraging inclusion and diversity, and making interconnectedness of things critical to policy delivery. The cycle of unintended consequences that derails policy objectives can better be managed by applying a systemic approach that builds on data, engagement, perceptual dynamics, and contextual underpinnings to engender a shared purpose. This participative consciousness can increase policy-makers' capacity to communicate, establish trust, and invariably block self-centered efforts of powerful individuals who stand to gain from policy capture. Understanding the relational dynamics (lattice of interdependence) can help to better deal with the structure of the resource system. Because the major source of uncertainty is the lack of knowledge, the structure of the resource system, its boundary and internal characteristics must be established. Systems thinking provides the tools to unravel policy problems entangled in complex social, economic, environmental, political, and institutional contexts