Let’s innovate even more in the new year

Let us be innovative this festive season and make it more impactful

We are officially in the festive season throughout this week and part of early next week as we usher in the new year 2024. 

First, Aristotle the Greek philosopher, in Metaphysics, argued that “there must be some eternal and imperishable substance, otherwise all substance would be perishable, and then everything in the world would be perishable” and that “this eternal actual substance must be a single prime mover, which, while the source of all process and change, is not itself subject to process or change. This substance does what the highest form of life ought to do, namely to think. The God of the philosophers, perhaps”.

Secondly, let us put others first by dedicating some of the time in the season to visit the less fortunate, donate food, books which support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4 on quality education, and other materials including which can support livelihoods past the festive season.

This is because sustainable lives require that people have access to food, clothing and shelter and not only food as we have been accustomed to doing. There is a need to think of sustainable ways of supporting others so that next season, they are able to stand on their own and help others too.

Address missing links

People in authority are in the festive season, too, and can use their time to address the missing links in one or two aspects of development. Those in authority and Kenyans, in general, should use the festive season to understand the inequality issues in our communities and come up with innovative solutions to address them.

We can lend a hand through volunteering and joining and/or convening funds-drives that eradicate some of these issues. They can take time to get a feel of what needs to be done as the year begins—on matters infrastructure, education, housing, land issues, water and sustainable development.

Thirdly, celebrate the festive season by promoting inclusion and respect for others, which will help in attaining the aspirations of the SDG16 on “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”.

There is a need to support the local institutions—be they public or traditional ones—that can address issues of governance, gender issues, conflicts, reduction of crimes/combating terrorism, consensus building and more so using the time to learn one or two things about others, be it their religion, culture, development approaches and ways of doing things which is away from what we have been used to for the years we have lived.

Dr Giti, PhD, is an urban management, public-private partnerships (PPP) and environment specialist. [email protected]. @danielgiti