Pope Francis' 'Laudato Si' encyclical has gained a considerable amount of attention over the past few weeks. Not a single international conference on climate change or development has gone without referencing the Pope’s landmark piece. Be it by Angel Gurria, the Secretary General of OECD, Jeffrey Sachs during last month's UN Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, or Johan Rockström during the Our Common Future Under Climate Change Conference in Paris the week before, many have commented and commended the Pope for writing such a piece.
Discussion about climate change and the state of the world’s future has picked up, and environmental sustainability is back on the global agenda.
Having been involved in the early stages and genesis of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), when I first read this encyclical, I was struck to see how close it was to our program's vision:
“Efforts to promote a sustainable use of natural resources are not a waste of money, but rather an investment capable of providing other economic benefits in the medium term. If we look at the larger picture, we can see that more diversified and innovative forms of production which impact less on the environment can prove very profitable. It is a matter of openness to different possibilities which do not involve stifling human creativity and its ideals of progress, but rather directing that energy along new channels.” (No. 191)
Since the last CGIAR Reform, WLE has been challenged to convince a large number of researchers and CGIAR traditional donors on the value of putting ecosystems first in agriculture. Now we have the added value of Pope Francis’ encyclical, backing our choice to look at agriculture and ecosystems holistically as we work towards changing the course of development and living sustainably.
A closer look
Let's read further and consider what is at stake. What Pope Francis is inviting men and women of good will (and not only Roman Catholics) to do is nothing short of redefining progress: “It is not enough to balance, in the medium term, the protection of nature with financial gain, or the preservation of the environment with progress. Halfway measures simply delay the inevitable disaster. Put simply, it is a matter of redefining our notion of progress. A technological and economic development which does not leave in its wake a better world and an integrally higher quality of life cannot be considered progress.” (No. 194)
WLE’s theory of change relates closely to the Pope’s message and provides a committed pathway to “redefining progress” on water, land, ecosystems and agriculture. For example WLE focuses on identifying the trade-offs between different development activities that balance, development, sustainable development and ensuring the poorest are not left behind. WLE’s agenda also begins to focus less on productivity and more on enhancing ecosystems services.
Going one step further, WLE's value proposition has to balance conservation, development and people. As the Pope’s encyclical invites us:
“We are always capable of going out of ourselves towards the other. Unless we do this, other creatures will not be recognized for their true worth; we are unconcerned about caring for things for the sake of others; we fail to set limits on ourselves in order to avoid the suffering of others or the deterioration of our surroundings.” (No. 208)
I recently read in WLE’s Phase 2 pre-proposal that its tagline is ‘Sustainable Solutions for people and societies”. This will be important for the second phase so that ecosystems encompass water, land and soils, and people big or small, irrespective of color or creed, care for each other and “our common home.”
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