Beyond Boundaries: Keynote Speech.

Thank you, Martin. Thank you, Martin, for your kind introduction, and good evening to you all, dear friends. It’s such a privilege for me to be standing here, and I hope I will do justice to what is expected for me. But I have peace because what is expected for me is what comes from my heart. So, I don’t know if you have counted how many times the verb connect and interconnected have been used by Luea (Ritter) and Linard (Bardill).

But I will try to showcase of how real it is. You know, they say that, good fences make good neighbors. Right? But if you stand within your fences while you are building nothing with your neighbor anyway. And if you consider that nowadays, we all aim to be connected, Wi Fi and you name it.

But I want to show you that we are more connected than what Wi Fi can ever do. Sometimes you have to restart it to relaunch it, and sometimes you have to look for someone to help you do that. But in fact, we are naturally connected and interconnected. What I want to explain, and I hope that the logic of my keynote will do justice to that, is that we are part of a giant puzzle. And each one of us is a specific, precious piece of it.

But we do not make sense on our own unless we strive to find our place in that giant puzzle. So the title of my keynote is indeed beyond boundaries, whatever name the boundaries have, being nation, being culture, being religion, we are interconnected in our raison d’être. And to start with, when I was reflecting on this, I was reminded by a quote from Maya Angelou. I like it very much, and I will share it with you.

She said, „your legacy is everyone, every heart you have touched“. And if it is true that we all strive to leave some lasting legacy, then the heart of change is what will help us continue in everyday, everywhere, touching hearts. I will build my keynote on the amazing, the remarkable legacy of Yacouba Sawadogo. Yacouba is a farmer. Some of us have come to know him.

Those working with, the World Future Council have actually met him, and those who have been at the Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (CDLS) have also met him. He has been nicknamed, through a BBC documentary, „The Man Who Stopped The Desert“. It is this is an award winning documentary that has been released in 2010. And he won the Right Livelihood Award which is also called or referred to as The Alternative Nobel Prize. He won it in 2018.

In 2011, despite the concern of my UN team as I wanted to invite him to be the keynote speaker at a a high level gathering of ministers, my colleague were concerned that I wanted to invite a seemingly illiterate farmer from a remote country called Burkina Faso to be the keynote speaker to high level people ministers and, well, you name it. Well, I told them the risk is mine. So I proceeded, and we had we have had Yacouba Sawadogo as our keynote speaker. And what happened and what truly struck me is not just the story of his success. And this has been, you know, overwhelming for everyone who was in the room.

But it was the first question of the Q&A. He was asked by the executive of, a very a major European Development Assistance organization. How can we help you? Ladies and gentlemen, here is the answer of Yacouba Sawadogo. Yacouba replied with humility.

Quote, „thank you, sir, for your kindness. I know that the droughts destroying my land are not caused by my people’s way of life. But I strongly believe that each if each of us took responsibility for nature and acted with greater care for the common good, the earth will be a much better place for us and for the generation to come“, unquote. And there was silence in the room. A deep silence!

And then everybody stood up and there was a a standing operation for Yacouba Sawadogo. In essence, Yacouba reminded us that the true support we owe each other lies in caring for nature and working for the common good. People have asked, give me some money because I need this, I need that, I wanted to secure my land because he was asked to provide a title deed of his land. He hadn’t asked for that. He said, The care you owe me and that I owe you is that together we care for nature and for common good.

So maybe one of the things that we need to take from here when you are asked, „how can you, how can I help you?“ Maybe the answer could be, „How many times do you have to hear me talk to you about my potential, what I have, what I yearn for, the potential that I have within me that I could bring forth with you.“ Because Yacouba was perceived as a mere farmer, but his keynote was the best I’ve ever heard. I can’t count how many conferences I have attended. And if I want to capture it in one sentence, then I will use an an African proverb that says, „if you think that you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito. And you will see who will make the difference.“

So this has led me to revisit the definition we have of sustainability development. Personally, I have been struggling from day 1 back to 1992 then. Because the definition was grounded on „needs“. It reads, development that meet the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own. It was a needs-based approach.

And the more we use it, the more we have forgotten the pyramid of Maslow, where there is an hierarchy of needs from the basic need to the aspirational needs. We have continued talking about the needs as lack, and we have pursued needs. And instead of sustainable development generating some more consumer and production responsible patterns, it has generated more consumerism. So as I reflect on it, and I have noticed at the time I spent discussing with those who are natural change-makers like young people, indigenous communities, or even entrepreneurs trying to bring the decision to make sense to them, it is tough. I don’t know if I’ve tried hard.

I have tried. It’s only when I just say, well, we are in a world where we are connected any way we want it or not. And your potential matters for me. What you have for you that is within you is not for you anymore. It’s for you to take it out, to make it work for a common good and vice versa.

And that potential approach to the explanation when I use it especially for with the youth, you can see light coming from their eyes. The idea, they say, oh, then I have something to do here. It also connected with what I used to share with youth, especially in Africa when nowadays, they are in some challenging, situation, no job, no opportunity. And when you discuss with them about what are you telling me about? They will tell you: „well, don’t mind my dream because the problem is…“ and I will tell them, what if you do this? The value of a coin is never on both sides. So when you consider your problem, consider it as a coin and flip it.

You may see the opportunity on the other side. As Bina was telling me, I think it was yesterday, yes, don’t call it problem, call it the opportunity. And that’s the way you bring, you know, those who have that potential within themselves to to feel like, yes, I can do something. I can even at least be the mosquito in the room. At least, I can be the mosquito in the room.

So instead of focusing on need because needs are circumstantial and potential are for life. Needs can vary across time, geography, and context. They are often reactive, driven by the immediate demands of a situation. So when we concentrate on need alone, we reduce individual to their needs. At least for me, it’s like an insult to an individual a person when you see the person only by her lack or his lack because we are not our needs.

So instead, I propose that we shift from the focus on need to that on potential. This shift from need-based to potential-based approach is more than a change of terminology. It represents a fundamental paradigm shift in how we view togetherness and development and the role that we can play within it. By focusing on potential, we empower individuals, we empower communities. Our role therefore is not to do for them, is not like we said yesterday in our group, is not to have project for people, which is a kind of power play where I think for you and I do for you, rather it’s about how I come in listening to you and my role is to help you unleash the potential that is within you and become the master of your destiny in connection with others.

And now comes maybe the question that you may ask me.

What about the 3 tragedies of sustainability?

We know we have been we’re striving and even striving about 3 strategies. The tragedy of the commons, the tragedy of the free rider, and the tragedy of the horizon.

You know, about the tragedy of the commons occurs when individuals acting in their self interest, deplete shared resources, and compromise the common good.

The tragedy of the free rider is someone who describe, someone rather who just gets in reaping what he has not sown. And that of the horizon has been coined by a former Bank of England executive, is our tendency to believe that, yes, we can afford to prioritize for short term and still leave the, you know, the medium even in the long term to the generation to come because the election is not coming or the budget is not enough, and then let’s prioritize for the short term. These challenges reveal the flow of a needs-based approach, which often addresses symptoms rather than the root causes. So how does the needs-based approach play in what I call the interconnectedness of in the individual in collective purpose? I told you we are all part of a giant puzzle.

And it is when we understand that that we can live a purposeful life. Now, what do I mean by interconnectedness? It’s not my word, but I use it here anyway. To fully grasp the importance of shifting from a needs-based to a potential-based approach is to understand the interconnectedness of the individual with collective purpose. Here is how I explain interconnectedness.

It refers to the complex and often subtle ways in which individual communities and ecosystems are linked. It is the recognition that our actions, no matter how small, can have far-reaching impact. Like Yacouba Sawadogo in the nineties, he has the option to flee or to withstand the drought and do whatever he can with the knowledge at his reach to restore his land. And when he managed to do that, then he reached out to his neighbor to tell them, come and see how I have been doing it. And he joined them to do the same on their land. It is out of the understanding of the interconnectedness that he did that.

And in our world nowadays, where we face conundrum like climate change, biodiversity, inequalities, they are all connected. You try to address one, if you address it in silo, the other will just bump up and make it even worse. Now what about the raison d’être,  that’s the French word. One of very few French words that have been taken as they are in English. Raison d’être, I like it.

It is your way of being. It’s what makes you unique. It’s your life purpose. It’s about understanding who you are, why do you do or why do we do what we do the way we do it?

I have been in position where I like going to the field, taking scientists to the field.

I gave only two instructions. When we get to the field, to the community, please do this: You lock this (your mouth). You open this wide (your eyes), to understand why people are doing what they are doing the way they are doing it.

It’s only then that your knowledge, your expertise, and your science can be of any help for them. If not, they will listen to you politely, and then when you have left, they will go back to their business as usual. So when our life purpose is aligned with the broader need of society, it becomes a powerful force for positive transformation. So what are the philosophical grounds for it? Well, you know what the when Descartes said: „Cogito ergo sum“. I think therefore I am.

Which has sometims sled us to say that therefore we must speak from the I. It is right! We can’t speak speak if not from the I first, reflect from the I and speak from the I. But if you just stick to that, then you will continue fueling, you know, anthropocentrism. You will continue fueling individualism, and you will not be able to connect to the broader sense that you like it or not is the vessel of your life. By contrast, there is another way of saying „I am“.

It is the one that we are used to in Africa that is coined by the the word „Ubuntu“. „I am because you are“. And I am because you are is something that is grounded in most of the African culture. Whereby, of course, you are welcome to think from the I. But if you want to voice your thought, make sure that whatever you have thought for about from the I makes sense for the WE.

Because you are not, if the others are not. The only way for you to be, because you are a relational being, is for others to be. And this may sound very, like, you know, a thought in the air. It is not. When I became the executive secretary of the UNCCD, it was back to 2007 as Martin said.

I was given a process that was about the convention, which title is the Convention to Combat the Desertification. So it was a fight against it. But naturally, I don’t like fighting against. Because when you fight against, you don’t or at least you mobilize and you speak to only those who are against the thing. But if you work to flip what you are fighting against and call people to work for its opposite, „for“.

So my idea was to bring the whole process. And remember in the UN, this is a convention that has been negotiated in 1992 signed in Paris 1994 with 194 countries who have ratified it and want to change the wording. You’re doomed. Unless you find a way out, and the way out was, let us reword the strategy of the convention to shift from the fight against desertification to the fight for sustainable land management, that is the cure for desertification.

And believe me, it has taken 5 years to work on it and eventually to succeed in Rio plus 20, in Rio 2012 to have it reflected in the outcome of that conference, „The future we want“. It is in there. „We must strive to build a land-degradation neutral world“. I won’t tell you here why it is thrive and not commit. This is a whole story.

So the potential based approach enables each generation to realize its full potential and satisfy its needs within the planet boundaries. Remember the puzzle. Why avoiding to compromise the ability of future generation to do the same? That is my personal definition of sustainable development. Well, I shared with you and I welcome your feedback.

Human potential is inherently linked to nature’s boundaries. Your potential is connected to the boundaries of nature. You have to come up to the understanding of it. But to do that, you have to know who you are and what you have. No one is resourceless.

So, of course, if I sense that I can help you apprehend your potential, I should do that. It is my it is a kind of being enriched if I do that. So there is therefore a potential-based leadership that is needed to bring this to the fore. And I call it potential-based leadership or Ubuntu. This is really about ensuring that when we say I, before going any further, ask yourself, is my sentence or the way I will frame my thought and voice it and move on to take action, is it relevant for the WE I’m part of anyway?

That is the starting point of moving towards a potential-based approach. And the steps that we need to take are steps that start with a search within the I: introspection. Be aware of what makes you special. Last year, I was in a teaching course in Rennes in France teaching a group of, students, of Sciences Po, and suddenly, there were just a small group of 20. One of the students asked me, but why are you so enthusiastic sharing your mind with us?

I wasn’t expecting a question like that. That’s not a question you expect from a student. So I I asked her well, okay, how many billions of people have been on planet earth since homo sapiens became sapiens? One of them said 30 billions. And another one said we don’t know. And I said yes, we don’t know.

How many are we now on the planet Earth? They said 8 billions. I said yes. How many billion will through this planet before we end up destroying it in the sense of making it unable to hold life?

They say we don’t know. I say, well, that one thing we know is that you have no copy in the past, nor in the present, nor in the future. And there’s a reason why. The reason is what is within you. If you apprehend it, you know it’s not for you.

It’s meant for you to take it out as a service to others. And what is making me here enthusiastic in talking to you, I was concluding my answer is that what is in me, I owe to you and how to bring it out to the best of my ability.

So, friends, once we identify our potential, the next step is to actively seek opportunities to apply it in ways that benefit others. Remember, service is not a burden, it’s a privilege. It’s an opportunity to contribute to something greater than ourselves.

Therefore, I will conclude where I started from with the word of Maya Angelou: „Your legacy is every life you have touched“.

Let’s ensure that our legacy is one of meaningful purpose, deep interconnectedness and lasting impact on future generations. And remember, never speak from the I, If it’s not relevant for the WE.

Thank you.