In writing this report at the start of 2020, we are rapidly seeing the volatility as a direct result of COVID-19 and we know how deeply it will shake South and West Auckland. Right now is a moment when we can activate the learnings outlined in this report to demonstrate what an alternative model can achieve.

Amongst the unpredictability, we risk rebuilding an economy on business-as-usual ways of doing things. We have an opportunity to reduce inequalities and strive for radical change that balances and builds social, economic, environmental and cultural capital simultaneously. To do this, our work in 2020 will be prioritising:

• Increasing our economic development support to Māori and Pasifika businesses to enable their sustainable growth as successful businesses and outstanding employers. Māori and Pasifika enterprise are critical players for step change in South and West Auckland economies and households.
• Building on our experiences with ‘Creating Home’ to enable more post-lockdown spaces that support parents and whānau to nurture their tamarki when parenting outside the home.
• Continued innovation across the early years system to explore how the response effort from community through to central government levels can strengthen the system of support to whānau and help reduce the burden of stress.
• Nurturing the development of whānau-to-whānau approaches that support healing and strengthen protective factors, as compelling alternatives to traditional service-based approaches.
• Integration of the protection, preservation and regeneration of the natural world into our work and foregrounding indigenous principles of the flows between the economy, te taiao and responsibilities to future generations in our mahi.
• Economic thought leadership and demonstrations of what a new economy, which is just, inclusive and regenerative, would look like.

These are extraordinary times in which our ability to innovate, learn and take action within ambiguity will be needed more than ever. ...

2020

See also

The Southern Initiative