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Part D. Resources

D-4. Mind Shifts that enable Systems Change​

At the foundation of systems change based on the Six Conditions of Systems Change lie the change of mental models or mind shifts, tailored to Life-Links.57

1. From managing risks to adapting to risks​

Countries and companies focus on more immediate priorities and still underinvest in climate adaptation. Three reasons to do things differently.

  • Current strategies are insufficient to face the extreme climate change now and in the decades ahead.
  • They ignore our dependence on various materials and products from few locations – think about coffee, cocoa or copper.
  • We are aggravating the loss of livelihoods of local communities, financial burden of companies, and the cost of living for consumers.

Life-Links looks to complement current risk management strategies with adaptation measures. It is feasible and beneficial to act now and prevent and manage supply chain disruptions.

2. From fragmented perspectives to a shared resilience objective​

Countries, companies and local communities look at supply chains and impacts from disruptions from their own perspectives, such as costs, the economy, livelihoods. As a result, measures and responses tend to be isolated and provide only partial protection. Examples of organizations that try to help them mirror these perspectives:

  • A development bank prepares an infrastructure loans for governments as their client
  • A service provider may assess supply chain risks for locations important to their corporate customer
  • An NGO might look at development and rights of local communities they serve.

Life-Links puts supply chains at the center, recognizes that actors need each other by making shared resilience as the common objective and by extension looks to deliver benefits for all stakeholders.

3. From power imbalance to local community empowerment​

Big businesses have the resources, knowledge and expertise, or are able to access these through service providers, to assess risks from supply chain disruptions, develop response strategies and influence policies and resource flows in their favor. Local communities and very often also governments, especially in the Global South, usually lack all of this.

Life-Links helps address this power imbalance by making supply chain risk assessments and action measures inclusive of all stakeholders. Instead of positioning local communities and Global South countries mainly as vulnerable and in need of protection, our starting point is that without them our supply chains would not exist. Therefore we should seek ways to include and empower them when strengthening supply chains to make these truly resilient, so we will all benefit.

4. From corporate social responsibility to a business case​

Many businesses consider supply chains a transactional instead of a strategic part of their business. Life-Links acknowledges the ethical responsibility to look after local communities, workers and producers, while putting the emphasis on redefining the system by presenting the business case to companies and unlock finance from the real economy.

  • A common approach to risk assessment allows businesses to fill the supply chain blind spots (that are often also out of their control), while their own action measures can be supplemented by unique and different action measures from peers and other stakeholders.
  • Different models work in business’ favour. In a pain-to-gain model, for example, in the network of agricultural commodities, investments made in physical infrastructure like bridges, roads and ‘intangible’ assets like workshops or frameworks, can bring benefits across a business’ relevant supply chain stakeholders. In a gain-togain model, the savings earned by a business due to investments or partnerships in their logistics activities can be translated into an increase of their own profits, while bringing earnings to e.g. farmers as well (monetary profits, development in their own communities.)
  • In case of (inevitable) disruptions, the country’s national disaster risk management office (NDMO) takes change and may request international and humanitarian aid, also to get business operations back up. The speed of response is higher and costs are lower evidenced by “one dollar spent in preparedness activities within the humanitarian logistics sector is equivalent to saving 7 dollars in logistics cost while attending an emergency”.