Collaboration and the Dawn of the Third Sector

When Austerity spotlighted the failures, the social cost of Inequality in 2008-18, we were awakened, but it was not until those social deficiencies were brutally exposed by Covid-19 in 2020 for all to see that reality hit home, and as we awaited yet another challenge in form of post-Brexit 2021. That was not the Ireland of our origins. Of course, it was the Rural Villages that suffered most from that decade of Austerity in the end. Rural jobs were Private Sector jobs, while the Public Sector workers were primarily based in the Cities, and felt the Austerity least in lost Jobs, Pension deficits, Emigration, Income cutbacks and closed Shops. These facts are supported by Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) reports dating back as far as 2015, as reported by The Journal. I.E. on 6th June, 2015: “Firstly, Public Sector workers on permanent contracts did not lose their jobs even when the State went bankrupt and had to get an IMF bailout. That is gold plated, copper-fastened, unsinkable job security. (Consequently) There’s a reason why Banks ask if you’re a Public or Private Sector worker when considering handing out a loan; the Public Sector workers get a ‘defined-benefit Pension’ when the rest of the sane world has switched to sustainable ‘defined-contribution Pensions’; while many Private Sector workers on defined-benefit pensions have seen their pension funds wiped out in the Recession. Meanwhile, (although) the Irish State went about as bankrupt as a State gets without defaulting on loans; and Public Sector pensions continue to be paid.” A new approach is urgently required if we are to maintain social stability and progress economically in Ireland and across the European Union, now numbering 27 Countries in 2020.

It is apparent that regardless of the arguments about Public and Private Sector value, values or virtues, neither have been able to deliver the equality of opportunity or rewards that Society needs today, not in any sense of fairness and justice. So why, despite its obvious potential, does a Social Economy of the Third Sector remain virtually untried and untested, at least on a scale that could ever hope to solve the gross injustice of Inequality we observe today? What could it do in ways the Private and Public Sectors could not already do? How can it expect to fix Inequality, given the abject failures demonstrated by powerful Private and Public Sectors Economies to date? The Idea of building such a scalable Social Economy of the Third Sector has been a captivating one for many socially-minded organisations, social innovators and social entrepreneurs alike for more than two decades now. The conditions never seemed just right, not until now, that is. It remained on a grandiose wish list until the dramatic and unexpected health-scare and economic-fallout presented by the sudden arrival of Covid-19 on our shores. It caused the unthinkable to happen, a once-in-a-lifetime shutdown of the Irish and Global Economies – that simultaneous actions created the exact conditions required for the development of such a Social Economy of the Third Sector, the so-called Child of Necessity, with its emphasis on social values rather than on economic value. When our Irish Economy has fully reopened, and reality sets in, there may be as many as hundreds of thousands of the Irish 2019 workforce who will be Unemployed or Under-employed, either temporarily or even permanently in 2020/21 and beyond, with tens ofy thousands more surviving on Social Welfare supports. What then do we do? Ireland can no longer offer that unspoken employment safety net option that we religiously relied upon for more than 175 years, Emigration. Emigration will no longer be available as the ‘easy for Government but painful for its people’ answer upon which we always placed our political faith.

Despite that significant limitation to our traditional options, we can reliably expect that the Irish Government, spearheaded by the IDA, will continue to prioritise attracting the high profile, FDI-investing, Big Corps over and above any Third Sector initiatives. They will continue to lure them through State incentives with grant aids, tax breaks and other supports; and be rewarded with high volumes of well-paid jobs and reliable income tax collections. Irish Governments have relied for generations on such jobs and taxes to pay their Public Sector, welfore supports and additional community services, without which they could not expect to retain office for very long. The Private Economy will continue, of course, to prioritise research, development and innovation (RDI) Investment in new services and products to create those new jobs but with an exclusive focus of rewarding their stakeholders. A Social Economy of the Third Sector, by contrast, has never been seen or trusted to deliver enough comparable, scalable, reliable, dependable and well-paid new jobs to ensure the related tax takes in payback. Neither are they believed to have access to the capital or talent required to power-up the creative RDI engine as a prerequisite. What they do offer, however, is the vast growth potential and sustainability of homegrown businesses where the primary benefits remain with their Local Communities to sustain their Neighbourhoods rather than going to Stakeholders alone and in what are fleet-footed Big Corps. Being socially-minded organisations, Third Sector Orgs provide a powerful instrument too for unification of the rest of Society via social inclusion on four fronts– social, economic, financial and digital. Collaborating Third Sector Orgs could include Cooperatives, Credit Unions, Fair Trade, Associations, Diaspora Clubs, Mutual Benefit Societies, Charities, Community-based Orgs, Diaspora-based Orgs, Not-For-Profits Non-Profits Orgs and Self Help Groups as well as Social Enterprises, Social Innovators and Social Entrepreneurs in Ireland. Cooperating together in one Spirit of Community would underpin an enormous global Retail campaign in a reach out to the Global Irish Diasporas, numbering over 70 million people, as well as Ethical Shoppers everywhere. That effort demands dramatically new thinking and new ways that we have never tried in earnest before if we are to expect to achieve that glorious goal held out by A Village Vista 2020.

So, what conditions have been created by the Coronavirus that suggests it’ll spark the development of such a dynamic Third Sector Economy? A Social Economy is known as The Child of Necessity because it evolves from pressures to meet significant unsatisfied needs and address acute problems in Society, learning from the harsh lessons that past experiences have taught us. In Irish Society, these did not visibly manifest themselves during the Celtic Tiger decade but surfaced rapidly during the subsequent decade of Austerity. These shocks were not then big enough to trigger a Social Economy; it took the deep economic shock of the Coronavirus to create those conditions. These are widely acknowledged as reflected in the growing Inequality gulf that now threatens to overflow with all its implications in extreme poverty among families and especially children and in an exponentially growing but vulnerable ageing population. That is not who we are, as a people, with our globally recognised history of Caring about people first. Today’s grave deficiencies and shortages in our Community services are most evident in Elderly Care, where we see the Nursing Homes and Residential Care rapidly declining as effective health solutions in every County in Ireland. The demand has switched almost overnight back to Home Care with all its implications for working families, but for which the Social Economy is ideally suited. And that applies to all Irish as well as most other Communities, at home and abroad. A much less obvious but even more powerful argument emanates from the reconnections recorded in Tim Pat Coogan’s book entitled: “Wherever Green is Worn: The Story of the Irish Diaspora”. The conditions for rebuilding broken bridges are ready for the first time after a century and a half of social and economic separation. The Global Irish are forever bound at heart by roots and replicas, by a sense of longing & belonging and by a collective identity in the sense of shared destiny. That bond is enshrined in our native Irish language, like the legendary Famine-time goodbye phrase, As Gaeilge, “Go Bas in Eireannach E” (May you die in Ireland). Such phrases have survived through time but still have the power to resonate passionately with very many among our Global Irish Diasporas.

Recently, the European Union conducted a bottom-up investigation across 40 countries in a study entitled: “The Third Sector, A Renewable Resource for Europe”, to measure the impact of the Third Sector, to enhance its visibility and legitimacy and increase its contribution to Europe’s social and economic development. It found that the Third Sector’s six domains of impact were “wellbeing and quality of life, innovation, civic engagement, empowerment, advocacy and community-building, economic and human resource impacts“. Surprisingly, the report also found that the European Third Sector was the third-largest Workforce of any “Industry” in Europe with 28.3 million full-time equivalent workers (many paid but 55% volunteers), trailing only Trade and Manufacturing, but outdistancing Construction and Transportation by 2:1 and Financial Services by 5:1. In its further critical findings it acknowledges: “Indeed, the Third Sector and volunteering represent a unique ‘renewable resource’ for social and economic problem-solving and civic engagement in Europe. At this time of social and economic distress and enormous pressure on government budgets, this resource is needed more than ever – not as an alternative to the Government but as a fully-fledged partner in the effort to promote European progress. But Europe cannot take full advantage of this resource unless it develops a clearer understanding of the Third Sector’s scope and scale, its existing and potential impacts, and the barriers that are impeding its full contributions to the continent’s common welfare.” It concluded that while Europe’s Third Sector is well developed and remarkable in terms of size and scope. It is noted that the substantial withdrawal of State funding supports during Austerity in post-2008 financial Crash hade driven it to depend on other sources of funding, led by Corporate Social Responsibility, which has the effect of tugging it from its Volunteerism roots.

But that E.U. Report was followed immediately by the drastic social and economic consequences of the Coronavirus 2020, setting down the exact conditions for the Social Economy of the Third Sector to finally take its rightful and long-awaited place alongside the Private and Public Sectors. Yes! That road ahead to the Third Sector’s Economy carries with it the inherent ability to attract scaleable Social Investment, given its ability to access the Global Remittances marketplace and also attract vast new resources through Credit Union funds, Foundations, Social Investors, Philanthropists, Community Bonds, and Government Social funds. At the same time, it can capture the lions share of the currently Unbanked & Untaxed funds of the huge Unregulated Economy – in short; it can access all the resources necessary to underpin that far-reaching goal. The emergent leaders will be the avalanche of existing Third Sector Orgs combined with Ethical Movement initiatives as spearheaded by social innovators, social entrepreneurs and local champions at home and abroad. That Emergent Ireland is primed to serve as a Social Economy of the Third Sector rolemodel; one carved from its origins as an Emigrant Nation, from lessons learned in the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger and from the explosion of Caring that lay often dormant in our genes until resurfacing to ward off the worst affects of the Coronavirus in 2020.

To create better Lives and Livelihoods in the Village needs a release of that famed Irish Spirit of Community, born during centuries of suppression, intertwined with the latent attitude of Meitheal that lies mostly dormant the Irish psyche. In that environment, Villagers don’t rely on nor expect others to do it for them, but put themselves on the line instead, join in the mix if they hope to reap the rewards in local progress. Life teaches us that while we live life forward, we only learn through time the true meaning of our lives looking back; when joining up the dots of our life experiences; then we see it’s not what happened to us in life but what we did with what happened to us. It brought us to this point, as a People, in 2020. The rubber will soon hit the road in Ireland 2021 as significant job losses, and job shortages unfold as a direct consequence of the post-COVID and the post Brexit era. These will hit Hospitality, Tourism, Retail and other customer-facing sectors hard, combined with the fallout from paradigm shift towards Home-working and Online Shopping. Added to that, Ireland has always depended on Emigration as a safety net to fill in the shortages gaps in past economic downturns, but that is no longer an option for our people in 2020 in a world afflicted by the COVID pandemic. A Social Economy of the Third Sector is known as a child of necessity for a reason, where if the need is big enough, then all the motivation required will soon surface. And the warning of such a demand has never been more prescient. If it takes a Village to rear a child, it will take 1,000 Villages United to create the new LiveliHoods in the NeighbourHoods that we will increasingly need to depend upon in the decade ahead. There is a life in every Village that has remained in hibernation for generations since the Exodus, disconnected from the past by an economic Emigration brain drain that we have been unable to reverse, having left broken social bridges and denuded Communities behind in their quest for a better life. The resultant archived history and heritage we inherited is the very fuel we need to enable the provision of the new services and products required by the now vast Global Irish Diaspora which that same Emigration has rooted and blossomed.

In the end, we are but a unique set of memories and a story. That story is our Truth to Tell, to leave behind as our legacy for our Community and Society in general to share. Collectively, each Village story to tell is a collage of those legacies. While, to date, it mainly encompassed the rich and famous from our past, present or projected into the future – in this era post-Wikipedia it now also includes the artists, authors, poets, songwriters, and performers of stadium, stage and screen. Every Village Story is in the gift of their Storytellers, the custodians of their Social Memory; stories that are usually found nesting in silence among their Ageing Population. There is great power enshrined in every Village, in the Place and among the People where ambitions are rooted, dreams are fulfilled, meaningful jobs created and where School leavers can discover alternative paths to fulfilment. Villages can end the brain drain of Emigration and the Outflow to the Cities, when the resultant brain gain will ensure that local enterprises can flourish again. It can be the Place to which Emigrants can return and where economic value can be exchanged for community values once more. The Village needs all of our Voices so it can find its Voice. The Voice of The Village, it matters. We can make it count. We can be part of it, together.

Collaboration apart, A Village Vista 2020 requires Three Elements to make it happen- a Gaelic Community Brand, a Global Cooperative Chaord and Ethical Retail Outlets:

1. Build a Gaelic Culture Brand as a Community Brand role model, one Country at a time, one County chapter at a time, one Village branch at a time. Add momentum by collaborating with existing committed organisations, fellow-travellers who are already on the road to building a Social Economy of the Third Sector – including but not limited to Cooperatives, Credit Unions, Fair Trade, Social Enterprises, NGOs, Community based Orgs, Diaspora based Orgs, Non-Profits, Not For Profit, Trading Clubs and Culture-based Associations.
2. Form a participant-led Community-owned Cooperative Chaord, a borderless next-generation nd services-focused Cooperative of the Villages. It takes just one Village to start the engine. Add 1,000 Villages across 32 Counties, one Village at a time, one champion in every Village. Build a powerful Community-owned Ethical Brand, with universal appeal, and co-create better Livelihoods in the Neighbourhoods. Become the Voice of the Villages.
3. Finally, Open access to Ethical Retail Outlets that connect in a meaningful way with Social Tourists, Ethical or Conscious Shoppers and reachout across borders to the Diasporas. Empower the entire process with significant funding in the form of the underutilised Community Bond instruments and linked matching funds.  Strengthen that social bond to spearhead an Ethical Retail revolution, with retailing of services and products to satisfy the collective needs of those Social Tourists, Ethical Shoppers and Global Irish Diasporas alike.