Looking at the news these days, with the wars, famines and aid cuts (and let’s not forget the unprecedented soul-searching taking place about the problems in our development sector), you would be forgiven for wanting to bury your head in a pillow and sob until it’s all over. But if you did, you would be missing something quite wondrous which has started to emerge over the past few years. People and groups are starting to talk about changing the ‘system’ and many are launching initiatives that attempt to take a systems approach to the mess and complexity we see in the world.

As with so many terms and jargon, we nod appreciatively without stopping to ask ourselves what the terms really mean. What do we really mean when we talk about systems change, and why is it so important?