IPSP’s Core Mission:
From Insight to Impact
IPSP leverages its collective knowledge and expertise to contribute concrete solutions to the ongoing polycrises affecting human flourishing and social progress. It also works to build coalitions and pathways toward just, democratic, and sustainable outcomes.
Our Approach
We focus on three complementary areas:
Strategic insights and solutions
Producing innovative, actionable knowledge and identifying inspiring, replicable initiatives worldwide.
Coalitions for action
Sharing knowledge, strengthening capacities, and helping actors build effective coalitions for change.
Information dissemination
Spreading insights globally to reach diverse stakeholders, including media, business, policymakers, international organizations, NGOs, think tanks, academia, and philanthropy
Understanding Systems, Defining Priorities
We start by making sense of today’s complex challenges. Using case studies, briefs, and knowledge maps, we reveal how issues are connected and highlight the key drivers that can unlock systemic change.
Formulating Proposals for Systemic Transformation
Understanding root causes is just the start. From there, we craft structured, evidence-based pathways that guide reform – mapping how power structures must evolve and how transformations can be sequenced to maximize societal benefit.
Forging Fluid Coalitions of Change-Makers
Social progress demands diverse partnerships. We foster adaptable and inclusive networks – across academia, civil society, government, philanthropy, and beyond – bringing together established institutions and emerging actors to drive collective momentum.
Bringing It All Together
IPSP doesn’t stop at diagnosis – our structured approach transforms complexity into clarity, clarity into strategic proposals, and proposals into collaborative action. This integrated pipeline powers initiatives that are not just insightful, but designed to take root and scale.
A Collaborative, Inclusive, Interdisciplinary Process
IPSP’s process rests on four core principles:
- co-construction
- interdisciplinarity
- independence
- collaborative structure
Its approach emphasizes active engagement with practitioners and member-based organizations – including marginalized groups – to ensure relevance and implementation readiness. By mobilizing expertise across disciplines and sectors, IPSP gains a holistic perspective and avoids narrow, siloed thinking. Freed from partisan influence, its work is grounded in values like openness, mutual respect, and integrity. Rather than choosing the traditional think-tank model, IPSP prioritizes co-designed, accessible solutions that serve civil society change-makers as much as institutions and policymakers.
All working group coordinators and members are required to sign the IPSP Code of Ethics to ensure compliance to the highest standards of intellectual freedom, diversity, respect, integrity, and honesty. The working language is English but language diversity is encouraged in the use of original sources/ contents and in the drafting of contributions by associates.
