Values‐Based Global Governance: The YMCA Story (So Far)
| Published date | 01 May 2011 |
| Author | Mark Harrod,Sandra Dodgson |
| Date | 01 May 2011 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00078.x |
Values-Based Global Governance:
The YMCA Story (So Far)
Mark Harrod
YMCA
Sandra Dodgson
Alchemica
cc
Across the globe we face significant shared challenges,
such as securing sustainable development, reducing con-
flict and redressing the gaps in wealth and health. Living
in the west, our perspective is that of growing frustra-
tion at the ‘disconnect’ between the person on the
street and the institutions – local, national and transna-
tional – whose decisions in addressing such challenges
affect our lives, a ‘disconnect’ exacerbated by the global
financial crisis. These institutions, whose primary function
should be to secure collective action and sustain the
common good,
1
have proven themselves untrustworthy
and incapable of fulfilling this role and have therefore
failed the vast majority of the global population. Such
failure has been met, not by outbreaks of anger and a
collective call for greater accountability, but with greater
cynicism and disillusion. Yet, it does not have to be this
way.
In 2004, Fernando Henrique Cardoso raised concerns
about the wellbeing of future generations, which he
embodied in the notion of ‘our common future’. He
described this as ‘another powerful expression of this
commitment to universal values to be preserved not
only across space but also across time’ (Cardoso, 2004).
More recently, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and
other institutions have engaged in developing ‘values
frameworks’ to improve governance processes. These are
often beautifully crafted statements with procedures for
engaging the global populace and robust Key Perfor-
mance Indicators (KPIs) for measuring progress, but what
value do they add for local people? Can such ‘values
frameworks’ enable people to feel connected, to trust
that those engaged in addressing global challenges are
interested in them? It would be naive to believe that
everyone in the world will one day work towards the
common good, hence the importance of governance
structures that channel individual and national behaviour
towards this end.
What role can shared values play in governing global
decisions? In preparing this article, we explored this
question with senior colleagues across the global Young
Men’s ChristianAssociation (YMCA) movement and external
leaders experienced in governing in a global context. In
all some 25 people were involved. We share here three
ways that values contribute to governance in the
YMCA, supporting leaders in: fostering interconnectedness
and trust; holding paradox (opposites can coexist); and
addressing the challenges of legitimacy.
Values-based governance and the YMCA
The YMCA has evolved from its first local organisation
by St Paul’s churchyard, London in 1844 to become a
movement of over 45 million members in 124 countries
with thousands of independent YMCAs. As each local
association develops, it does so in response to the per-
ceived needs of the people in that area, with their
detailed form and function shaped by the local context.
National and international structures have developed to
add value to the YMCA’s local work, where a collective
approach was needed. These too reflect the culture and
context within which they operate. For example, the
Canadian YMCA’s deliberately humanist expression of its
mission appears to reflect the very personal nature of
faith within Canadian society and has seen it delivering
more of the YMCA’s original vision than if the faith base
had been explicit.
The first World Alliance of YMCAs met in 1855 and
continues today, as a manifestation of the movement
globally, to explore developments in delivery, resourcing
and effective representation of its diverse membership in
key global political forums (e.g. observer status at the
UN). These structures continue to evolve in response to
external changes, clearly not something unique to the
YMCA. External interviewees also reported responding to
the shifting power base between nation states and a
need to better integrate their work to provide a coher-
ent presence to shareholders, donors and nations. For
the YMCA, as one of the ‘the world’s least homogenised
brands’, the value base seems to hold together its
uniquely divergent identities.
Global Policy Volume 2 . Issue 2 . May 2011
ª2011 London School of Economics and Political Science and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Global Policy (2011) 2:2 doi: 10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00078.x
Practitioner Commentary
226
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