The fifth lesson of the #daretocare campaign has been published in five languages on the United World Project website. Letizia De Torre is Italian, she was a Member of Parliament and Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education. From 2013 to 2019 she held the position of President of the Political Movement for Unity (MPPU). Melchior Nsavyimana is from Burundi, now responsible for managing donor services for the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service in South Sudan. Together, they dialogue with Lourdes Hercules to learn more about two ideas that seem important for the times in which we live: participation and co-governance.

A vaccine rush, lockdowns with no end in sight, insecurity about the future, 255 million jobs lost. And then, the alarm over bloody coups, arrests of political opponents, armed violence against minorities, wars without solutions.

The uncertainty also comes from the fact that we do not see who has the authority to govern these events in favor of the human race. What can we do? How are we to guarantee justice, dignity, freedom and equality for all? We dreamed of founding this guarantee by giving full royalty to all citizens. We called it democracy and participation. Is this the end of that dream?

Or can this crisis open us to a qualitative leap in how human communities govern and relate to each other and to the earth that is our common home?

New ideas and experiences are being advanced for a collaborative governance, which is based on the co-responsibility of all – in institutions and in all the vital spaces of society. In this form of governance the vision of leadership is not that of a boss, but the capacity of an entire city for a common vision and action.

This is exactly what #DareToCare means: to take care of our communities politically and collectively; that is, for all its aspects and with the contribution of all. It is co-governance.