Everything Is Systemic

Systems language has become central to development work. Organisations talk about systems strengthening, system transformation, system reform and systemic change because social problems rarely exist in isolation.

The language can be useful. But it can also become a way of making simple ideas sound more sophisticated. Adding the word system does not automatically make an intervention more strategic.

A good systems approach should help people see relationships, incentives and structures more clearly. If the terminology makes the work harder to understand, perhaps the system is in the language rather than the problem.