The Systems Work of Social Change by Cynthia Rayner, Senior Researcher, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, and François Bonnici, Director, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

This book combines global research and practical experience to reveal the principles of ‘systems change’ through diverse examples of key organisations working with informal workers, including NIDAN. It offers a roadmap for deep change in addressing current world crises.

The authors explore how eight remarkable organizations, including NIDAN, achieve transformational social change to foster an equitable society.

NIDAN, an organisation that advances the rights and status of informal workers by ensuring their inclusion in decision-making in political, economic and cultural spheres. The book delves into approach of NIDAN to social change. Nidan’s work focuses on empowering informal workers, particularly through initiatives like reserving seats for street vendors in Town Vending Committees (TVC) for effective implementation of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. This approach aligns with the book’s broader exploration of how to achieve social change by understanding and influencing the systems through the process of change itself. NIDAN estimates that collectivisation and socio-economic inclusion of informal workers has impacted over 1,000,000 lives and 50,000 families across the country.

The literary work encapsulates each organization’s practical frameworks and compelling experiences that offer a unique perspective on achieving sustainable systemic change. The authors illustrate that funders must shift their approach to effectively identify, evaluate, and support the ‘invisible value’ created by systems actors.

The book summarises that rather than delivering systemic ‘solutions’, the principles and practices need to focus on the process of change itself. Through rich storytelling and lucid analysis, Rayner and Bonnici show that connection, context, and power sit at the heart of the change process, ensuring broader agency for people and communities to create social systems that are responsive and representative in a rapidly changing world. Simple yet profound, this book distills a timely set of lessons for practitioners, leaders, scholars, and policymakers.