Help SHAPE a Future Worth Having

The multiple crises confronting humanity are increasingly interconnected. So must be our responses

War and mass displacement. Genocide committed with impunity. The erosion of international law. Deepening inequality. Accelerating climate change and environmental breakdown. Unregulated breakneck technological change.

These are not separate crises. Together they point to a world undergoing profound political, economic, social and ecological stress — and to structures of power and wealth unwilling or unable to respond – a world that seems devoid of an ethical compass.

This is the challenge SHAPE — Serving Humanity and Planet Earth— was created to address.

Since its establishment in 2022, SHAPE has:

• launched an international Call to Action that attracted almost 6,000 supporters
• brought together leading scholars, diplomats, former policymakers and civil society leaders
• organised international webinars and produced podcasts, public statements and commentaries on a range of critical issues
• developed a substantial online resource for informed analysis and public education.

But four years of work have convinced us that something more is needed.

Across the world, thousands of organisations are doing indispensable work for peace, human rights, environmental protection, economic justice, democratic renewal, and more. Yet the challenges we presently face increasingly cut across the boundaries separating issues, organisations, countries and cultures.

SHAPE's next phase will focus on four closely connected priorities:

• Analysis — understanding the systemic forces driving today's crises
• Education and dialogue — injecting that understanding into the public conversation
• Collaboration — connecting ideas, organisations, movements and initiatives across traditional boundaries
• New voices — engaging younger generations, women and voices from the Global South in shaping new approaches to governance and civic action.

Why we need your help now

To make this possible, SHAPE intends to:

• Prepare and make available incisive policy papers that place current conflicts, trends and events within a larger context – produced in different formats and languages to meet the needs of diverse audiences
• Produce a regular newsletter for widespread distribution, to keep supporters and interested groups regularly updated on SHAPE’S analysis and program
• Host a series of webinars, podcasts and develop a range of social media materials, including educational, promotional and engagement posts
• Initiate an innovative program of dialogues that bring together activists, public intellectuals and policy experts representing diverse generational, cultural and civilisational backgrounds.

To get things moving over the next 12 months we urgently need to employ a casual research assistant and a casual administrative/ communications assistant. Importantly, we need to engage an experienced development professional for six months to identify and approach philanthropic foundations and major donors, build new partnerships and prepare substantial grant applications.

To fund these first steps we are launching this Founding Supporters Appeal

Our modest aim is to raise US$35,000.

Your generous contribution will help build the foundation for the next phase of SHAPE's work.

An International Appeal Launched by SHAPE Co-Conveners

Richard Falk Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus, International Law at Princeton University.   

Joseph Camilleri  Professor Emeritus, Latrobe University, Melbourne                   

Chandra Muzaffar  President, International Movement for a Just World (JUST), Malaysia