Welcome to the FDSD newsletter archive
We produce a regular bulletin for our network—bringing together rigorous thinking and practical examples in partnership with others, to help inform and create change. Please get in touch at info@fdsd.org if you or your organisation would like to work with us, share inspirational examples, or write reports or provocations. A list of our newsletter editions can be found below. Subscribe to our bulletin via Mailchimp.
Celebrating St David’s Day | Spring Newsletter, 2024
This newsletter is the second in a series exploring how sustainable development, future generations and wellbeing are being incorporated into democracy and public policy around the UK.
Scotland in Focus | Autumn Newsletter, 2023
From national to local level, Scotland is rethinking how its policy, and participation practices, can better reflect sustainable development, wellbeing, and the needs of future generations. This FDSD newsletter showcases some of the activities that are happening, or are being considered.
Deliberative democracy and the just transition: from one-off activities to embedded participation | Winter Newsletter, 2022
FDSD has been quiet during COVID, but not inactive. We have been rethinking how we can best contribute to the profound challenges facing democracies today. We are planning an event in 2023 to bring together the diverse and fragmented discussions on the future of democracy, and ensure they incorporate sustainability and just transition. If you wish to be involved, please contact us at info@fdsd.org.
Taking the long view | February 2019
In this issue, we focus on the loudening call for citizens to lead a new approach to decision making that can steer our democracies towards a greener, fairer future. Through a new essay and an interview, celebrated sustainability campaigner Sara Parkin underscores just how broken the status quo is, shining a light on the inequality and malevolent interventions in our democratic processes that are pushing us further and further away from sustainability. The answer, according to a growing number of thinkers and influencers, is to embark on a different sort of politics that brings the informed views of citizens into political decision making through innovations like citizens’ assemblies. The stories that follow showcase some of the different perspectives on why the time is ripe for a citizen-led approach and what that might look like in practice.
Taking the long view | April 2018
The first new look bulletin, replacing our quarterly newsletter. We introduce a new All-Party Parliamentary Group for Future Generations, and tell you about FDSD’s proposal for a Committee for Future Generations in the House of Lords, which is backed by more than 30 peers. And we report on the Welsh Future Generations Commissioner’s commitments to promote partnership and participation for long-term thinking.
Future Generations Commissioners: from Wales to the UK? | FDSD Newsletter July 2017
The Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales has recently celebrated its first anniversary. This newsletter is marking this important milestone.
Improving Water Governance: to avoid conflict and increase sustainability
Water is arguably our most essential resource, but its availability and quality is increasingly at risk, with the related danger of international conflict. This newsletter, informed and inspired by the Budapest Water Summit 2016, explores how water can become an ‘enabler and connector’ between sustainability goals, and how it raises profound questions about Where, How, and With Whom we make decisions.
Autumn Newsletter: Breaking the power of short-term economics
Our theme for autumn is how greater participation is necessary to achieve sustainable development, particularly to break open previously closed economic policy, or to counter short-termism and vested interests. Our two new trustees, Peter Davies, Wales’ first Sustainable Futures Commissioner and Dr Sándor Fülöp, previously Hungary’s Ombudsman for Future Generations reflect on their roles, and highlight the importance of community participation in decision-making.
Summer Newsletter: What will Brexit mean for Democracy in the UK?
If, one month later, the shock of Brexit has subsided, the confusion that now defines our politics shows little sign of abating. In this edition of the FDSD newsletter, we submit a number of certainties.
Spring Newsletter: Disasters and Democracy
The focus in this collection is on disasters and democracy, and with particular attention to the importance of youth engagement. Contributors draw on experiences in the field after earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand (Bronwyn Hayward); Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, USA (Lori Peek); the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan (Nanami Akiko); and the 2013-14 winter storms in the UK (Marion Walker).
Winter Newsletter: Democracy and Climate Politics
How can democratic systems deal with climate change – and how might climate change shape our democratic practices? While international attention has focused on the agreements made at Paris COP21 in December 2015, it is necessary to address these fundamental questions – otherwise it may be impossible to achieve the targets that have been set. We offer some fresh thinking through new FDSD reports, publications and blogs. Also, one of our longest serving Trustees, János Zlinszky, reflects on the relationship between the Paris COP and the Sustainable Development Goals. ..more
Autumn Newsletter
In the wake of September’s adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, this second edition of the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development’s quarterly newsletter focuses on SDG 16, which aims to “ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels”, among other targets. Read on to find out how SDG 16 could act as the node of transformative potential in the SDG framework; how the UK’s Westminster Government is (or isn’t) responding; the particular role of open data in monitoring – and achieving – the SDGs more broadly; as well as FDSD’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s consultation on the UK Government’s approach to sustainable development. We also round up relevant news and ideas from around the web, with stories and examples from Latin America, Africa and more.
Summer Newsletter
Unless we address some of the shortcomings of our democracies, such as short-termism, we will only have a slim chance of creating a truly sustainable development that benefits everyone today and meets the needs of future generations. That’s why FDSD relaunched in June with new streams of work, and a website that sets out the nature of these challenges alongside briefings, reports and provocations on how we can begin to better understand and tackle them. As well as new publications, you can explore the rich source of materials, insights and knowledge that was built up in the first phase of our work, led by Halina Ward, from 2009 to 2013. There’s also a round-up of relevant news, events and comment.
