artnership is the new leadership, and that is exactly the kind of leadership we need today” Stefania Gianini, UNESCO Assistant Director–General for Education.
When Stefania Giannini spoke these words at UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition meeting in March, her message resonated far beyond that room. It was repeated, again and again, during this year’s United Nations General Assembly Week in New York. Maybe the reason it was so popular is that this statement clarified several emerging truths.
Firstly, there remains a growing need for large–scale interventions focused on humanity. Secondly, approaches that create one solution targeted at one problem are obsolete or ineffective. And lastly, that successful outcomes will only be achieved in a sustainable fashion by governments and NGOs working together—in unison, collaboration, and partnership.
Many institutions have been successful over recent decades in providing targeted and directed solutions to core issues. The McGovern–Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program has provided over 5.5 billion school meals to children and families over its lifetime, boosting school attendance by an estimated 14% overall, and by 17% for girls. Similarly, the World Food Programme (WFP) has been successful in supporting governments in reaching, according to the latest WFP report, close to half a million children globally.
Despite their success, such programs are increasingly under strain. Their dependence on a single core funder and narrowly defined objectives has limited their reach and resilience. In many cases, their impact remains siloed—powerful within its scope but disconnected from the wider ecosystem of social, educational, and environmental needs.
Today’s global challenges are shared challenges. Climate change, displacement, malnutrition, and inequity cross every border and sector. Addressing them requires an ecosystemic approach—one that connects education, health, employment, and purpose in an integrated web of human development.
This is not about dismantling our existing institutions. It is about reimagining them as interconnected nodes in a shared system. The ripple effects of climate stress, migration, or poor health do not stop at the edge of a town or a country; they flow through communities, families, classrooms, and workplaces alike. Likewise the issue of ill health or malnutrition does not impact only the physical health of the individual but also impacts, and is impacted by, their education, employment and employability, personal intrinsic and extrinsic sense of value and purpose, and their connections into their society.
To solve such issues we must design solutions that operate and cooperate with others. We must focus on the whole of solutions rather than targeting just their parts. We must align specific solutions that target specific issues when they address and blend within the greater ecosystem of supports. And we must also be prepared to readjust and refocus when the need wanes, changes, or grows.
No longer should we target merely an issue. No longer can we see things in isolation. We live in ecosystems and we must solve issues ecosystemically.
We must work and lead in partnership together.
a global affairs media network
Partnership is the new leadership
Photo by Natalie Pedigo on Unsplash
December 15, 2025
In a world where our challenges are increasingly not only shared but overlapping, our institutions’ siloed approaches are sadly outdated. Fixing this requires we reimagine and operate them as interconnected nodes in a shared system, writes Sean Slade.
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artnership is the new leadership, and that is exactly the kind of leadership we need today” Stefania Gianini, UNESCO Assistant Director–General for Education.
When Stefania Giannini spoke these words at UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition meeting in March, her message resonated far beyond that room. It was repeated, again and again, during this year’s United Nations General Assembly Week in New York. Maybe the reason it was so popular is that this statement clarified several emerging truths.
Firstly, there remains a growing need for large–scale interventions focused on humanity. Secondly, approaches that create one solution targeted at one problem are obsolete or ineffective. And lastly, that successful outcomes will only be achieved in a sustainable fashion by governments and NGOs working together—in unison, collaboration, and partnership.
Many institutions have been successful over recent decades in providing targeted and directed solutions to core issues. The McGovern–Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program has provided over 5.5 billion school meals to children and families over its lifetime, boosting school attendance by an estimated 14% overall, and by 17% for girls. Similarly, the World Food Programme (WFP) has been successful in supporting governments in reaching, according to the latest WFP report, close to half a million children globally.
Despite their success, such programs are increasingly under strain. Their dependence on a single core funder and narrowly defined objectives has limited their reach and resilience. In many cases, their impact remains siloed—powerful within its scope but disconnected from the wider ecosystem of social, educational, and environmental needs.
Today’s global challenges are shared challenges. Climate change, displacement, malnutrition, and inequity cross every border and sector. Addressing them requires an ecosystemic approach—one that connects education, health, employment, and purpose in an integrated web of human development.
This is not about dismantling our existing institutions. It is about reimagining them as interconnected nodes in a shared system. The ripple effects of climate stress, migration, or poor health do not stop at the edge of a town or a country; they flow through communities, families, classrooms, and workplaces alike. Likewise the issue of ill health or malnutrition does not impact only the physical health of the individual but also impacts, and is impacted by, their education, employment and employability, personal intrinsic and extrinsic sense of value and purpose, and their connections into their society.
To solve such issues we must design solutions that operate and cooperate with others. We must focus on the whole of solutions rather than targeting just their parts. We must align specific solutions that target specific issues when they address and blend within the greater ecosystem of supports. And we must also be prepared to readjust and refocus when the need wanes, changes, or grows.
No longer should we target merely an issue. No longer can we see things in isolation. We live in ecosystems and we must solve issues ecosystemically.
We must work and lead in partnership together.
