The Motivation Behind Change
In #futuregen, Jane Davidson explains how, as Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing in Wales, she proposed the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015—the first piece of legislation on Earth to place regenerative and sustainable practice at the heart of government. Unparalleled in its scope and vision, the Act connects environmental and social health and looks to solve complex issues such as poverty, education and unemployment.
The following is an excerpt from #futuregen by Jane Davidson. It has been adapted for the web.
It would be wonderful to say that I emerged fully formed as a dedicated campaigner for a more sustainable future from my early childhood. But that was not the case. What would be true to say is that my own experience has always influenced the actions I wanted to take as a politician! Time and again, I emphasise the importance of personal experience as a driver of action. We are all campaigners in our souls! Think for a moment about what motivates you in your own life. I became a local councillor because I felt that ‘something must be done’. In my role as a young mother, juggling childcare needs for three young children with work, I recognised the difficulties that working parents had with childcare, so, along with others, I campaigned successfully to establish a workplace nursery. Similarly, as a local councillor in an inner-city ward with poor housing conditions, I witnessed a housing crisis, particularly in the private rented sector, so we set up a housing help centre for people with housing difficulties to gain advice and support.
When I’m not working, I’m probably walking, picking up litter on the way. So for me as a walker, being given the chance later in life to create the Wales Coast Path was an absolute dream. Last year I finished walking the ‘the shape of the nation’ of Wales, including the beautiful Offa’s Dyke upland and inland path down the spine between England and Wales. What a journey – an industrial, natural journey of the history, society, nature and geography of today’s Wales. A journey that the creation of the longest circular walking opportunity in the U.K. has given to all, connecting the coast with its adjacent communities. Unlike many other countries, the coastline of Wales is mostly accessible to the public rather than serving as expensive real estate.
A hater of single-use plastic, I’m particularly proud that we were first in the U.K. to put a charge on carrier bags – a proposal that came from a member of the public. I was determined that we in the Welsh Government would lead action on this. Just think of the satisfaction that I now feel, 11 years on, that the statutory municipal recycling targets we introduced in 2009 (with hefty financial penalties) now mean that Wales is up with the very best in the world.
As a smallholder with stewardship responsibility for two fields and a woodland, growing as much of our own food as we can, I am acutely aware that those who never see the countryside, who experience food in plastic wrappings, separated from its origin, need to be reconnected to that land as the absolute foundation of human survival and well-being. Making this opportunity available to others through One Planet Developments, which is helping young people in particular to buy land for low-impact development that is zero-carbon in construction and use, is for me a way of offering apprenticeships in sustainable living.
I started my working life as a teacher so, when given the opportunity as Minister of Education to reform the curriculum and make it more relevant, I seized it. My early piloting of a new curriculum for three- to-seven-year-olds, based on areas of learning rather than subjects, is the basis of the new Welsh statutory curriculum for all ages by 2022.
The motivation for all of this stemmed from particular passions, people, times and places. Our formative experiences drive our actions, and that became my approach to policy making. If you feel that your own life, as well as other people’s, can become fairer by an action you take – then you are super motivated to do it.
It was much later that I realised that what I believed needed to be done was all part of my conviction that we had to live differently – more lightly on this single planet of ours, more harmoniously and less wastefully. Without an overarching framework, each initiative’s impact remains small. But if every government minister and every public service were striving to deliver a new world order, nothing would be impossible. We can all dream; what most people don’t get the chance to do is to take their lives’ passions – if that is not too grand a term – and turn them into national policies or laws.
Most of what I’ve described so far is related to my upbringing and experience and the choices I made therein as I grew into my beliefs – and it is absolutely true that we are all formed from that potent pot to a greater or lesser extent. However, looking back with the benefit of that old friend, hindsight, I can see clearly the two key moments that were to have the most profound influence in my life, both from 1992 – although I didn’t discover either of them till later. The first was the Earth Summit and its ensuing Agenda 21 programme; the second was a book by Donella Meadows, Beyond the Limits co-written with Dennis Meadows and Jorgen Randers.
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