Women's leadership in designing social innovation: mutual learning in the Asia-Pacific
Lead Research Organisation:
Northumbria University
Department Name: Fac of Arts, Design and Social Sciences
Abstract
This follow-on project extends and reinforces impact generated through the AHRC Network grant 'Design for Social Innovation Research Network: Bridging the UK and Asia-Pacific Practices' (AH/N004736/1). Its primary aim is to deliver a leadership-focused reciprocal peer mentoring programme for 24x women [12 mentors, 12 mentees and more [x] beyond) working to deliver social impact in Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and Australia. The 15 month programme will focus on business resilience, community cohesion and social impact, through respectful, responsive and reciprocal peer-to-peer learning. A reciprocal model of peer mentoring extends the impact beyond participants as they will be supported to mentor other women in their organisations. The mentoring programme will be supported by two public events, a Roundtable Discussion online forum and a Public Symposium in Bangkok, where we will engage with policy makers, governments, NGOs and think tanks supporting the gender equality agenda. This proposal leverages close collaborations with key partners with strong track records in the region in supporting social innovation in the creative sector. AWSEN, KOGEI-Net and the British Council will assist in participation and dissemination of the outcomes.
The project builds on Designing Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific (DESIAP) network supported by an 2016 AHRC Network Fund. With this support, DESIAP has developed into a vibrant and active community of creative and social innovation practitioners across the Asia-Pacific region. Frameworks and tools for social innovation, within the Asia-Pacific and more widely, have been disseminated through well-attended events, peer-reviewed publications and a popularly-accessed website.
Insights from the previous DESIAP AHRC Network and follow-on activities identified a lack of leadership training support for women across the Asia-Pacific region. Women are often the driving force of social initiatives in communities, yet suffer most from socio-cultural and economical inequalities due to their gender. Entrenched beliefs and gender bias have led to continuing gender pay gaps and under-representation of women in leadership positions across all four countries, whether in Thailand and Malaysia, two countries undergoing economic transition, or in Japan and Australia, OECD countries where persistent gender-based and other forms of discrimination limit women's access to leadership in the creative economy and other sectors.
The UN General Assembly statement on the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development 2021, identifies the creative sectors as key drivers, particularly for developing countries, to shift towards higher-productivity and higher-income economic activity. Increasing women's participation and promoting gender equality has been identified as crucial to this shift. This proposal deepens the international impact of the DESIAP AHRC Network by offering accessible and gender-inclusive development to improve business resilience and community cohesion. It addresses two SDGs: 5. Gender Equality and 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth.
A tailored, peer-led professional development programme implementing knowledge generated through the AHRC-funded DESIAP research can accelerate participants' leadership abilities, empowering them to enable others. Planned activities centred on regionally focused mutual learning and knowledge exchange to build leadership skills, increase social capital and offer broader opportunities to deepen their impact. By empowering women working in social innovation to increase their leadership capacity through reciprocal peer-mentoring, built on and extending models developed through the DESIAP AHRC Network, the project aims to increase equity, diversity and inclusion in the creative economy of these respective countries.
The project builds on Designing Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific (DESIAP) network supported by an 2016 AHRC Network Fund. With this support, DESIAP has developed into a vibrant and active community of creative and social innovation practitioners across the Asia-Pacific region. Frameworks and tools for social innovation, within the Asia-Pacific and more widely, have been disseminated through well-attended events, peer-reviewed publications and a popularly-accessed website.
Insights from the previous DESIAP AHRC Network and follow-on activities identified a lack of leadership training support for women across the Asia-Pacific region. Women are often the driving force of social initiatives in communities, yet suffer most from socio-cultural and economical inequalities due to their gender. Entrenched beliefs and gender bias have led to continuing gender pay gaps and under-representation of women in leadership positions across all four countries, whether in Thailand and Malaysia, two countries undergoing economic transition, or in Japan and Australia, OECD countries where persistent gender-based and other forms of discrimination limit women's access to leadership in the creative economy and other sectors.
The UN General Assembly statement on the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development 2021, identifies the creative sectors as key drivers, particularly for developing countries, to shift towards higher-productivity and higher-income economic activity. Increasing women's participation and promoting gender equality has been identified as crucial to this shift. This proposal deepens the international impact of the DESIAP AHRC Network by offering accessible and gender-inclusive development to improve business resilience and community cohesion. It addresses two SDGs: 5. Gender Equality and 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth.
A tailored, peer-led professional development programme implementing knowledge generated through the AHRC-funded DESIAP research can accelerate participants' leadership abilities, empowering them to enable others. Planned activities centred on regionally focused mutual learning and knowledge exchange to build leadership skills, increase social capital and offer broader opportunities to deepen their impact. By empowering women working in social innovation to increase their leadership capacity through reciprocal peer-mentoring, built on and extending models developed through the DESIAP AHRC Network, the project aims to increase equity, diversity and inclusion in the creative economy of these respective countries.
| Description | The findings are still emergent as the funded period has just ended a few months ago. We can basically identify findings in four areas: 1. How to support women leaders through a focus on relationships 2. How to build thick relationships online that is sustainable and impactful 3. Understanding how mentoring support is a form of designing social innovation infrastructuring 4. How we communicate and use concepts such as mentoring and leadership where there are diverse culturally understood concepts and practices. |
| Exploitation Route | We are intending to publish our insights in a series of academic papers, and am currently talking to various organisations to apply this approach in various commercial and governmental context. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | The programme has delivered personal impact to the 16 project participants. Some have reported improved confidence and well-being due to their mentoring experience. Some have reported on changes in practices in how they approach future mentoring practices and programme, focusing on relational aspects. We are currently in the process of collecting post-project impact and longer-term impact. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Title | Reflective and Learning Evaluation framework for Designing Social Innovation |
| Description | This framework has been developed through the Designing Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific (DESIAP) network to support practitioners and researchers reflect and learn as part of their project impact evaluation. The framework emerged from the DESIAP gathering in Kuala Lumpur in 2017, and have subsequently been developed over the years through working externally with the Young Foundation and internally through the DESIAP Young Women Mentoring programme (2021-2023). The framework is based on 3 core principles of building trust, participatory collaboration and being grounded in place, culture and locality, and has a series of questions used to support ongoing reflective and learning cycles to support practitioners to deliver social impact. We place this framework alongside dominant and traditional models of evaluation to highlight epistemic, political and power differences between them, and reinforce the importance of diversifying evaluative approaches. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This framework has been used to support two programmes: 1. Communities Driving Change Programme by the Young Foundation, UK. 2. Women's leadership in designing social innovation: mutual learning in the Asia-Pacific (funded by the AHRC) |
| URL | https://desiap.org/insights/being-community-and-culturally-led-tensions-and-pluralities-in-evaluatin... |
| Description | ???? (SATREE): Supporting women in art, crafts and social innovation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a 2 day workshop and 1 day public symposium held as part of the AHRC funded 'Women's leadership in designing social innovation: mutual learning in the Asia-Pacific' research project. The aim of the event was twofold: 1) Enable project participants of the mentoring programme to gather together in one physical location to meet in person after having online mentoring relationships for over 6 months. The workshop for the participants was to enable group reflections and learning on issues such as mentorship, leadership, structural barriers, resilience and care. 2) The public symposium held on the 3rd day opened to the public was to enable sharing of value of women's contribution in creative sectors and also learn from their experiences in addressing challenges around equity and exclusion.The day offered insights to policy makers, researchers and practitioners working in local and national governments, community organisations and (I)NGOs, with the aim to support women's leadership in social innovation and the creative economy to deliver meaningful impact for communities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://desiap.org/events/%e0%b8%aa%e0%b8%95%e0%b8%a3%e0%b8%b5-satree-supporting-women-in-art-crafts... |
| Description | ?????? / ????? / conversations: Digital Craft Toolkit with Patcharawee Tunprawat |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This event is aimed at the project participants of the 'Women's leadership in designing social innovation: mutual learning in the Asia-Pacific': a mentoring programme for women in the creative sectors. We invited Patcharawee Tunprawat from the British Council Thailand to introduce the Digital Craft Toolkit. The toolkit is part of the British Council's Crafting Futures project, helping to expand crafting business learning opportunities through online platforms. Artists, designers, entrepreneurs or anyone else interested in crafts can freely access the toolkit. Courses are available in 12 languages including Thai and English, covering a variety of lessons such as setting business goals, overall business planning, creating design concepts, developing products, sales and marketing, as well as budget management. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://desiap.org/events/%e3%83%95%e3%83%aa%e3%83%bc%e3%83%88%e3%83%bc%e3%82%af-%e0%b8%aa%e0%b8%99%... |
| Description | ?????? / ????? / conversations: sustaining livelihood and creativity - finding the right balance |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This event is aimed at the participants of the 'Women's leadership in designing social innovation: mutual learning in the Asia-Pacific: mentoring programme for women in the creative sectors'. The talk by Lauren Tan (Deloitte, Austrlalia, and Sophie Gaur - Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at the Emily Carr University focuses how to balance ways to sustain a livelihood through or alongside creative work. This topic is a key concern for women in creative sectors who are often self-employed or work on commission in small teams, as artists, designers, writers, curators and consultants. When there is so much to do, including caring for families and others in the community, how do women sustain their energy, creativity and sources of income? What are important reflections, experiences and learning we can share to maintain work-life balance in a competitive environment? |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://desiap.org/events/%e3%83%95%e3%83%aa%e3%83%bc%e3%83%88%e3%83%bc%e3%82%af-%e0%b8%aa%e0%b8%99%... |