Cattail Strategy Proposal to Joseph Rowntree Foundation; Section 3: Description of Team
Renilde Becqué, Lead Researcher, Netherlands
Renilde Becqué collaborates with international NGOs and funders in the field of sustainability, regeneration, and deep transition. She does this with a clear view towards tackling root causes and creating the enabling conditions for paradigm shift. Renilde is currently part of Regen10’s Landscape Hub. Regen10 is an emerging funder collaborative to support the move to a regenerative food system (from shallow to deep), using a landscape approach.
Renilde has conducted a deep inquiry (site visits to & sets of interviews with mature landscape initiatives, workshops & listening circles with indigenous communities, landscape leaders meeting at Bellagio) into the transition pathways of a diverse set of regenerative landscape initiatives on multiple continents; helped bring in the voice and views of indigenous peoples; helped expand the thinking within Regen10 on how to integrate non-material aspects into a regenerative outcomes framework. In collaboration with 1000 Landscapes Renilde co-developed a paper on integrated landscape development for COP28; and is currently starting to co-create a workstream on mental models (mindsets and worldviews) in collaboration with CoFSA, the Conscious Food Systems Alliance.
These activities feed into the emerging Regen10 value proposition around empowering and enabling regenerative landscape initiatives.
Renilde is a member of the FEST (Financing Ecosystems for Systemic Transformation) working group, and has been involved since 2022 in the development of Indigenous Commons and helped attract funding from a UK funder, known for its interest in transformational governance and place based initiatives. She sat on the R3.0 working group on Funding Governance for Systemic Transformation, and is currently a reviewer for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance.
Renilde has been supporting Laudes Foundation in several capacities, including developing its very first policy advocacy grantmaking strategy & portfolio and doing the organisational design of the Built by Nature initiative. More recently (2023) she conducted a detailed literature review in support of New Economic Thinking to support internal Board strategy. Equally she has been working with BMW Foundation on regenerative economy, including a paper for COP27 on how to embrace a regenerative mindset in light of the climate emergency, and Three Horizon assessments to understand the state of transition and state innovation (published late January 2024: Three Horizons for Nature Positive Solutions). Currently she’s supporting internal Board strategy with research on economic transformation and new economic schools of thought.
Renilde has provided support to the Club of Rome, and has a long-standing relationship with World Resources Institute. This has included developing the organisational design and value proposition of the Systems Change Lab, and conducting research (through interviews) on the role of multi-stakeholder partnerships as vehicle for transformative change, with a focus on NGOs/CSOs and their experiences, motivations, benefits and barriers to effective partnerships. Renilde also acted as the study hub facilitator for the first cohort of Capital Institute’s eight week online and intensive introductory course to Regenerative Economics, which attracted over 300 participants from NGOs, the private sector, finance community, and government.
Renilde has an extensive network across multiple continents and many ongoing exchanges with NGOs/CSOs, funders and practitioners in the systems change, regenerative, transformational economics, transformational governance, transformational finance/funding, wellbeing, consciousness, and related fields. Renilde speaks Dutch, English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Suzanne Bowles, Co-Researcher, USA, Chief Strategist at Cattail Strategy, LLC
Suzanne is the founder and Chief Strategist of Cattail Strategy, the collaboration system and administrative lead for this proposal. Cattail Strategy specialises in supporting philanthropic organisations to scale equitable systems change.
As a generosity and inner development collaboration designer, Suzanne has played a central role in the transition of more than 100 million USD to grassroots, regenerative and systems change initiatives all around the world.
Over 20 years of philanthropic collaborative design, Suzanne has supported donors and doers in the fields of economic democracy, climate justice and just transitions. She has worked with a diversity of clients, ranging from values-aligned philanthropists and foundations such as the Ford Foundation, West Africa, socially responsible businesses such as Beyond Green Construction, grassroots movements such as Andes Amazon Conservancy and multi-sectoral collaborations, such as FEST (Financing Ecosystems for Transformation) . She has forged new paths within strategic development, regenerative economies, collective liberation, and
finance innovations.
Suzanne is a post capitalist systems architect who co-creates new frameworks with her clients. Some recent applications include: Kinship Generosity: Redefining Wealth in the Collective, Measuring the Immeasurable: Describing Transformational Impact (for doers and donors); Liberatory Systems: Strengthening Structures and Processes for Equity, Inclusion and Aspiration; Strategic Retreats: Harvesting Collective Potential in the Wild, and Narrative Power Analysis for Funding Transformational Impact
Suzanne is a founding contributor of many influential just transitions and economic democracy movements including Catalyst 2030, Common Good Finance, FEST, CoFundEco and Indigenous Commons. She was a keynote speaker at the 2012 Economic Democracy Conference in Madison, Wisconsin and a respected intellectual contributor toward Indigenous Approaches to Systemic Investing.
After decades of commitment to and integrity with global south, indigenous and BIPOC movements Suzanne has a developed a reputation as a trusted ally and source of strength. She maintains a network of highly skilled practitioners and movement builders with links in the farthest reaches of the margins of the dominant system. She brings her Cattail Strategy network to the table with the addition of the cultural informants listed below.
Emily Benson, UK, Research Informant
Emily is a freelance consultant with 17 years’ experience in global and national sustainability initiatives, system change, and alternative economics. especially regenerative place based practices and the systemic challenges involved.
Emily brings a broad range of expertise including campaigning strategy and implementation; multi-stakeholder consultation and engagement; facilitation and dialogue based explorations; horizon scanning; and research and writing with a focus on qualitative research. She is able to capture and synthesize complex data in an engaging way for different audiences to develop insightful recommendations.
In the UK, Emily is embedded in a range of networks and organisations working on alternative economics and system change including the RSA, the NEON network, transition towns network, Share Action, Wellbeing Alliance, Positive Money, New Economics Foundation, Forum for the Future, NPC, and Doughnut Economics.
In recent months, Emily has tracked aspects of transformation and
transition including, just transition, intersection of social and environmental justice in UK philanthropy, intersection of climate and health, and regenerative agricultural initiatives in the UK. She is currently co-leading strategy and research projects with Publish What You Pay network based on deep dive qualitative research and the Association of Charitable Foundations involving a survey, semi-structured interviews and roundtable discussions on the intersection between climate and social issues.
Globally, Emily has collaborated with and partnered with Post-Growth Institute; UN Partnership Action for a Green Economy ; New Economy Coalition; Wellbeing Alliance; WEDO; Social Solidarity Economy Network; etc.
As the Director for Engagement at the Green Economy Coalition, Emily worked with partners across the world building alternative economic systems. These ranged from indigenous led micro economic models in the Amazon, Caribbean and Uganda, through to larger scale models in India, South Africa, Spain and the UK.
As the Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) she focused on fair and green economic development, conducting research for the OECD, UNEP, Green Growth Knowledge Platform (and others) using a range of qualitative and quantitative methods
As a skilled multi-media information technologist and data analyst, Emily has co-produced a data platform tracking how how different countries are putting in place macro-economic reform towards more green and fair economies: Green Economy Tracker
Cattail Strategy: Cultural Informants
Gwen Bridge, Indigenous Systems Informant
Gwen Bridge is a citizen of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation of Alberta, Canada and co-founder of the Indigenous Engagement Institute. She has worked with indigenous peoples in the USA, Canada and globally for over 20 years to understand and improve their relationships with government, nongovernmental and industry groups, foster economic advancement and resiliency and empower communities. She has advanced the protection of indigenous treaty and constitutional rights through land use planning, negotiation, indigenous law, research, strategy development and program management. Gwen has advised British Columbia on the land use protection modernization process and is the co-author on an updated effective practices guide for Land Use Practices by Indigenous Nations in British Columbia.
Gwen is an Ethical Space practitioner and orients from a Dual Authoritative Hierarchy model that guides government and tribal collaborations to achieve pluralistic jurisprudence and policy outcomes that integrate a historic mandate from the Crown with Native Law. Gwen will assess our methods and assumptions, and advise our approach to identify and integrate native and indigenous perspectives that may not recognize or identify with western notions of regenerative place based transformation.
Bruni Conte, Latin America & NonBinary Informant
Bruni Conte is a non-binary person based in Brazil's capital. He holds a bachelor's degree in Administration and Information Technology from PUCRS, a project management certification from PMI, a master's degree in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of London through the prestigious Chevening scholarship, and is currently pursuing a master's degree in Education, Technologies, and Communication from the University of Brasília (UnB).
Bruni is a facilitator and strategist in the fields of innovation, education, and social impact. He has worked with Indigenous Commons, Imaginable Futures, Pan American Health Organization, HP Inc, and governments.
Bruni will provide cross cultural meaning making, data presentation and graphic design. He will review and inform our early inquiries and field mapping with a geographic, cultural and gender queer lens. Bruni speaks English and Portuguese.
Tsitsi Maradze, Africa & Gender Inclusion Informant
Based in Zimbabwe, Tsitsi is a gender rights and community development specialist supporting a broad array of grassroots and cross-sectoral initiatives at the local, regional and national levels in collaboration with governments, faith based movements, civil society organisations and more.
Tsitsi has a breadth of international consulting experience with the UN and international agencies, including the World Bank. social movements, the Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria, and the private sector. She has designed, facilitated and delivered customized and diverse participatory and transformational processes across the African continent. Tsitsi will open a lens into the panorama of African-led and designed transformation and assess our early findings and final product with an eye for cultural appropriateness and gender equity. She will introduce and broker connections as needed.