PoLiCy & GoVeRNaNCe

HuMaNiZiNG PoLiCY & GoVeRNaNCe

Policy & Governance: Participating in political processes, policymaking, and public governance.

Policy and governance as a social impact approach has the powerful potential to disrupt systems of oppression and benefit the lives of full communities of people through legal and policy change. Unfortunately, too often governmental and political structures advance power and benefit for some humans at the great expense and suffering of others. Such harmful human tradeoffs are modern forms of colonization and rely on the dehumanization of communities of whom governments take advantage in order to garner support and acceptance.

An example of such policy fallout on a large scale is the devastating effect the implementation of The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had on Mexican corn farmers. This policy abolished most trade barriers between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, resulting in American corn subsidies flooding the Mexican market and putting local farmers out of business or greatly diminishing their ability to make profit. While the US and Canada monetarily benefited from an increase in access to international markets, already poor Mexican farmers became even more impoverished. This chain reaction also led to the mass migration of Mexicans to the United States, due to no longer being able to subsist through agriculture, where they would face further dehumanization in the face of racist immigration policy stances and social ostracization.

The humanization of policy and governance practice demands that all humans be viewed as equally deserving of benefit and access, rather than white Westerners constantly being favored in political strategies that generate wealth and power. It includes removing rural bias, and seeing the equally valuable humanity in farmers, lower socio-economic communities, and people of color.

One policy initiative that offers potential hope for Mexican corn farmers, and gives an example of a slightly more humanizing policy and governance approach is a political decree signed by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in December 2020. The document seeks to return autonomy to farmers, empower them to reclaim self-sufficiency, and promote food sovereignty by phasing out two of the United State’s biggest agribusiness staples in Mexico - glyphosate and genetically engineered corn - by 2024. If this decree continues to be advocated for by Mexico’s president, and is executed on through strategic and local-facing policy decisions, it will represent humanizing policy and governance, at least to the extent of better honoring the humanity of Mexican corn farmers and the importance of their quality of life.

In order to humanize policy and governance, lobbyists, policy makers, legislators, and other government officials must continue to promote initiatives that rectify past colonial and dehumanizing policy. Even further, they must support and implement new policies that redesign systems and create new systems that promote the humanity of all communities regardless of nationality, race, or other social identity. pg. 26 Policy & Governance