2023

What role can local government play in making our food systems more sustainable and accessible?

This report outlines different examples throughout the country including The Southern Initiative’s work in south Auckland.

2022

Pasifika wealth is significantly lower than for any other ethnic group. How might we grow intergenerational wealth and wellbeing? And for the many who are stuck in low-paid jobs, what will it take to transition Pasifika workers, quickly, into higher paid roles in sunrise industries?

In this report we describe what we’ve learned about the importance of adult learning in these transitions for ‘aiga.

2022

Pasifika peoples are disproportionately over-represented in low paid and sunset industries. What does it take to transition Pasifika workers to higher paid, sunrise industries?

Read about how our learning can be scaled through policy, commissioning, mental models, and existing programme delivery.

2022

Tāmaki Makaurau spent twice as long in hard lockdown due to Covid-19 than anywhere else in the country. With significant disruption to young people’s schooling, many didn’t return, leaving school to work as families experienced tough economic times. From our previous research on Youth in the South, we knew that completing Year 13 is a significant protective factor for young south Aucklanders. We also had valuable insights and connections from our Youth Economy work.

This is the story of our collaboration with Manurewa High School to test a flexible learning experience in response to these complexities. The prototype then matured into the design lab, Te Taiwhanga Rangatahi, focused on understanding rangatahi through rangatahi themselves.

2022

Aotearoa/New Zealand continues to have some of the highest rates of family harm in the OECD. As well as being violations of human and women’s rights, this harm undermines our efforts in cultural, economic and social wellbeing and in realising Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Integrated community-led responses will require a significant shift from the current system which is largely reliant on formal service-based approaches and prescribed tauiwi and government-led interventions.

This report on visualising the shift to a different response was a collaboration with Te Puna Aonui (formerly the Joint Venture on Family Violence and Sexual Violence) with the generous support of whānau, community and government partners.

2022

is continuing to produce inequitable outcomes particularly for Māori and Pasifika and isn't necessarily working well for ‘all New Zealanders’ either.

This report was commissioned by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet as an input into the Review of the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. It describes why we need the shift to locally led responses that are centrally enabled and how it can happen.

2022

This report draws together insights from ongoing innovation work within local government and describes the untapped potential of local government as an activator and champion of wellbeing. The full potential of local government is only unlocked, however, when it operates beyond a transactional use of existing levers focused on short term savings, and towards valuing multiple and longer-term wellbeing outcomes.

This report was commissioned by the Review into the Future for Local Government to support their draft interim report He mata whāriki, he matawhānui.

2022

How can we make our food systems more sustainable and accessible?

Find out more about our Healthy Families work, the difference these initiatives have made and what we learned along the way.

2021

Economic inequality is the slow violence relentlessly undermining south Auckland’s prospects. Undoubtedly, this will be exacerbated by the economic shocks from Covid-19 and others still to come. What could a massive mobilisation of investment look like?

Off the back of the Prosperity South and West report, we homed in on Māori and Pasifika businesses and workers pioneering a circular economy like nowhere else in the world.

Read more about our ambitious vision.

2021

When Covid-19 hit, we knew that the economic shock would hit south and west Aucklanders first, hardest, and longest, as happens with every economic shock.

Joining forces with Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, we developed a bold vision on how we could disrupt the viscous cycle of inequity and turn the crisis into an opportunity for transformational change.

2021

Since emerging as an idea in 2017, the Papatoetoe Food Hub in south Auckland has been growing a community-based approach to providing good and affordable food.

In this report we describe the journey and our learnings.

2020

A precursor to Te Taiwhanga Rangatahi youth lab, this collaboration between the Ministry of Education, The Southern Initiative, Co-design Lab and Middlemore Foundation provides insights gained from lived experiences and observations of the education system. We sought rangatahi, whānau and school perspectives on supporting attendance, engagement and wellbeing.

Read more about what we discovered with Manurewa students, including from Manurewa High School, and how we might scale innovations within the education system to improve rangatahi experiences in secondary schools.

2020

This national report across Healthy Families sites provides five key insights on the impact of the first Covid-19 lockdown on food systems. Read here about what happened in south Auckland.

2020

The first 1,000 days of a baby’s life plays a significant role in the trajectory for their future. Using longitudinal data from the Having a Baby in South Auckland project, The Southern Initiative and the Social Wellbeing Agency brought together this significant data with real-life experiences.

This report paints a vivid picture about the stresses whānau experience on and around the birth of a child.

2019

This report is a big data collaboration between Waikato-Tainui, The Southern Initiative, Tokona te Raki: Māori Futures Collective of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and BERL. We look at how rangatahi experience pathways from the education system to the labour market across three different geographical areas of Aotearoa.

Read more about how we can do better for rangatahi and why we need to act with urgency.

2018

Most labour market analyses in poor areas like south and west Auckland tend to focus on unemployment. Whilst important, it’s not the most pressing issue – most Pasifika people are employed but they are disproportionately stuck in low paid occupations and industries and their underutilisation and unexplainable pay gaps seldom get attention.

In this report, we ask: how might we change the employment landscape for Pasifika workers?

Find out here where our journey to Uptempo originally began.

2018

Quality early childhood education helps to buffer disadvantages experienced by children, particularly those from low-income, vulnerable families. In collaboration with the South Auckland Social Wellbeing Board, we worked with parents and early childhood education providers to understand what excellence looks like for parents in Māngere and how we can get there. Read about our journey here.

2017

In collaboration with ‘hard to reach’ mums and a range of central government and NGO partners, we learnt what we and others can do to create positive transformations in young lives. This report outlines the systems change needed to make those transformational shifts in south Auckland and was the genesis of our Tamariki Wellbeing programme.