Dear Members of the Forum Network,
Over the past few months since we created this online space to provide you with the opportunity to continue to build on and engage around the questions, ideas, issues, proposals and calls to action that emerged offline at the Forum this summer, we have been listening to you. We’ve discovered new insights into issues we’re familiar with and been exposed to fresh new horizons. It’s been an exciting and thought-provoking process, thanks to you and your contributions.
As we prepare for next year’s OECD Forum, on 29-30 May 2018, in Paris, we would like you to help us co-create the agenda.
Building on last year’s theme, Bridging Divides, we suggest OECD Forum 2018 focuses on exploring What Unites Us, moving from diagnosis to action, and shaping solutions to build the much-needed bridges:
- We welcome your ideas to help address inequalities of income and wealth, to help improve diversity, promote gender equality, ensure migrants’ integration, foster intergenerational equity, and stimulate entrepreneurship.
- What are the key policies and initiatives you feel could contribute to ensuring better access to education, employment, healthcare and housing?
To bridge the gap between most policy frameworks designed in an analogue world and the era of digitalisation:
- How do you think we should address the impact of digitalisation on society and politics?
- What are the key issues we should address with respect to privacy, cyber-security, trust, and consumer policy?
- As the OECD develops a new strategy on the future of work and jobs, how can we address the ramifications of the platform and gig economy and the emergence of a start-up age?
- What are the key issues we should consider with respect to the implications of artificial intelligence for society and human progress?
In reimagining International Co-operation for the 21st century, we plan to explore the importance of multi-stakeholder processes to create the momentum needed to address global challenges, and how they can be fully and properly integrated into reformed structures of international co-operation:
- Should we formally integrate the implementing actors of International Co-operation processes alongside standard-setters or traditional State actors? And if so, how best to do so?
- How can all actors join forces to address inherently global issues in relation to digitalisation, development and climate change?
- How can such coalitions of the willing consolidate international standards on taxation, responsible business conduct and anti-bribery compliance?
The Forum will also be a space to reflect on the complexity of making and shaping policy in a post-truth world, and identify opportunities for civic engagement and co-creation with citizens:
- Which issues do you feel will shape citizen engagement in the digital age?
- What can institutions like the OECD do to help rebuild citizens’ trust in a post-truth era?
With the Forum Network your knowledge and ideas can go further. Help us define the contours of a compelling OECD Forum 2018 agenda and be part of an exciting global community, where interaction, sharing and co-creating better policies are our raison d’être.
Thank you for helping us shape ideas, shape policy, and shape the future.
Join the Forum Network and please comment in the box below!
Please sign in or register for FREE
If you are a registered user on The OECD Forum Network, please sign in
People powered private public projects - promoting peace, prosperity and planet
Thanks. To the point! HNY.
The advancement of the digital age has paid an efficiency dividend and created new jobs while displacing others. The dark cloud on the horizon is automation and Artificial Intelligence. Humans in some sectors fear losing their jobs to robots and software even as re-shoring gathers pace and outsourcing slows. In the blur of technological advancement the law of diminishing returns is revealing itself in some sectors, particularly health. There is a limit to the benefits of increased numbers MRI scanners in the population. It is time to examine how processes such as Lean and new and emerging knowledge based professions such as chiropractic can be bring efficiency and improved health outcomes.
Health forms 10-18% of advanced economies and is a major employer in a sector dear to people. Prevention is a core plank of health policy - but OECD data shows that, depending on the measure, barely a fraction of healthcare spending is on prevention. It is time to look at how a focus on knowledge based professions can return to centre stage, and how new and emerging health professions can enrich the health workforce skill set in areas such as prevention and performance to face the demographic challenge of an age-ing population.
An idea for the OECD Forum agenda item is to examine how the health economic sector can shift its focus towards new and emerging knowledge based professions, with hands-on skills, competence in areas of prevention and health promotion, particularly in un-exotic areas such as the care and prevention of musculoskeletal disorders such as low back pain - ranked as top causes of disability by the Global Burden of Disease. An examination of the workforce sector would look at barriers to entry, regulation, competition and other issues touched upon in the OECD document, Enhancing Beneficial Competition in Health Professions.
Another area to examine is how best practice and knowledge from other economic sectors such as Lean processes can be translated to the health sector. Error rates accepted in the health sector would be considered scandalous in other sectors.
Many thanks Baiju
Let me try to take up one of your challenges:
"What can institutions like the OECD do to help rebuild citizens’ trust in a post-truth era?"
The issue
This issue is rooted in the rise of populism on the right and the mistrust of the financial system on the left. Les extrèmes se touchent. The "occupy Wall Street" movement, with its offshoot in other cities, notable Frankfurt, has more in common with populism than with mainstream politics. Both movements are not about how to do things, but about how to change them. Radically. Both reject vested interests, whether they are those of the "financial products" salesman or those of the mainstream politician. Almost as an extension of those thoughts, both mistrust science, research and accepted knowledge. Both address real problems, the rise of the salesman over the administrator in the financial sector and the decreasing trust in the future and the future of the children of traditional lower middle-income families.
This state of mind creates a closed system. As long as one believes (in a religious sense) in all the basic rules, the other rules follow logically. This is not different from other closed systems. Closed systems are not necessarily useless. Mathematics is a very useful closed system. However, if one violates one of its basic rules, e.g. by dividing by zero, the whole system collapses. Thereby, the system creates its own, unassailable logic for true believers, while that same logic seems utterly ridiculous to non-believers. The system also creates its own world, where true believers interpret facts and events from their particular point of view, reaching conclusions that are logical for the true believers and nonsense to non-believers. Therefore, true believers do not accept the facts, interpretations and conclusions of non-believers and vice versa. The realities of true believers and non-believers drift apart.
Re-building trust
The classical way to build trust is to have facts stated by experts in such a way that the target group understands the facts and their consequences. This method will still work with agnostics, those who seek facts with an open mind. In the present political climate, this has become an endangered group. Another group, the committed, seeks opinions that resonate with their own opinions. They will drift outside the realm of their convictions, but are more likely to reject interpretations that do not conform with their opinions than accept them. This group is vital for rebuilding trust. A third group consists of true believers. Their opinions have hardened into convictions. They are not interested in anything that does not conform to the rules and conclusions within their own world. They will reject expertise out of hand. They cannot be reached by arguments, they expect to be ridiculed, yet isolating them will only drive them further away from reality and change their attitude.
To re-build trust, expertise has to win over the middle group. In order to do this, expertise needs to understand the motives of this group, rather than what they are saying. By changing the factors that drive the thinking of the middle group, expertise can convince the group to accept change in their reasoning and conclusions.
It seems reasonable to accept as hypothesis that the principal motivation for distrust of experts include:
• Perception of hopelessness in the face of stagnating income and unemployment while business recovers
• Expectation that children will be worse off than parents
• Banks retreating from social tasks, including cash distribution, mortgages and omnipresent branch offices
• Destructive and abusive behaviour of some financial institutions laid bare by the 2008 crisis
• Bail-out of financial institutions by tax payers
The underlying reason for these motivations can be summed up as short-termism (promoting profits over stability; sales over risk management) and an increasingly skewed distribution of income.
The role of the OECD
OECD is part of expertise and knowledge. Therefore it is suspect in the eyes of the committed. Its role as inter-governmental institution makes it a natural ally of the agnostics. In that role, it cannot help rebuild trust, though. If indeed the OECD wants to help rebuild trust, it must aim at the committed instead and work to make OECD member governments aware of the basic reasons for the lack of trust. A few action items come to mind immediately. One class promotes long-term investing. Since governments are active players on the demand side of long-term capital markets, they have direct side benefits for OCD member governments.
• Advising on measures against publication and use of quarterly business results
• Advocating bonuses calculated over a number of years
• Investigating ways to reward long-term shareholding
• Criticising supervision rules that inhibit long-term investing
• Criticising supervision calculations that inhibit investing in illiquid assets
• Adding a mandate to protect market quality to supervisory institutions’ instructions
Another class of action items would promote a better division of income. Re-distributing income is a classical role of the government. It is easy to show mathematically that such action would favour economic growth, even taking into account that this runs counter to some political dogmas. Moreover, this sort of action can be underpinned by the gist of Thomas Pikkety’s influential book Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013). Advice and action could cover:
• At a minimum, not worsening tax progression
• Identifying and mitigating financial regression e.g. in pensions and bonuses
• Action on the cost of education
• (Re-)introduction of deductibility of the cost of credit on the same footing as income from investment
• Building up financial advice capacity at a moderate price
• Modernising systems that combat poverty and cover medical cost
• A web page on the Gini curves and ratios and tax progression of OECD members analogous to the OECD’s “better life index”
Peter: thanks for these thoughtful comments. Pushing for an emphasis on long-term investment has been an issue of priority for OECD since we began to learn the lessons of the Global Financial Crisis beginning in 2008. We have worked hard on this issue in the context of the G20 process. But looking carefully at what has really changed is necessary.
We take good note of your comments on income distribution which is an important though not exclusive plank of the push for Inclusive Growth.
Dear Mr. Anthony Gooch,
I think that will be the moment when the OECD by your Leadership and Mr. Gurria too, make a more "agressive" stimulus to all the OECD members in order to open the doors to the innovation process with "Sense of Urgency" , because the "Geopolitics" can defeat the "Geoeconomics" and with more inclusive management to empower womens who have been showing an example of loyalty and ought but at every moment they need the "strategical leadership" of a men who support them. If we take in consideration the founder principles of our cultural civilization -no religiuos- Occidental vision had been construct around the family. The "sexeconomics" will be erradicated.
More inclusive devolopment only can be support with education, and the IT plataforms still the way, but we know how difficult have been this change, more even in generations who suffering the "social pain" and today more and more people suffer "technological stress". -The uncertainity promotes more stress and affect Decision-Making process, according to the next sources, will be act now :
The Economist Intelligence Unit special report : Industries 2018 The global economy in 2018 :
"The global economy in 2018 :The global economy has been at its healthiest
■ The non-OECD world will manage to grow by 4.4%, while the expansion among OECD countries will slow gently to 2%."for some time in 2017, but thiswill prove a fleeting state.
Inflation will pick up and central banks will begin
to tighten somewhat more aggressively. The European Central Bank (ECB)
will start to taper its quantitative easing in 2018. Moreover, political risk
is at its highest level for years: there is long-term policy uncertainty in the
US, little clarity on Brexit negotiations in the EU, and North Korea is flexing
its muscles. Global GDP growth will thus tail off slightly in 2018, to 2.7% at
market exchange rates.
European Strategy and Police Analysis System:
"Three structural `revolutions’ that are forging a more complex and insecure world - economic
and technological, social and democratic, and geopolitical - that the authors believe these trends may bring about, as well as the challenges that they may imply for the European Union.
1) Three revolutions forging a more complex and insecure world
■ An economic and technological revolution: the convergence
of technologies and the proliferation of tools
available to large multitudes will transform economies
and societies. Huge opportunities will result in terms of
productivity, welfare gains and individual empowerment.
However, societal disruptions may include a further rise of
unemployment, increasing inequalities and the impoverishment
of the middle classes in developed countries,
including in Europe.
■ A social and democratic revolution: More empowered
and better connected individuals will be more creative,
more dynamic and less wedded to life-time jobs, but they
will also be more demanding and critical. Evolution such
as this could allow countries to fundamentally rejuvenate
their ‘social contracts’ and to invent new forms of
governance. But it will make it more difficult to design
collective agreements and to shape common approaches
through the traditional structures, such as political parties
or trade unions. Anti-establishment feeling may rise
further, as well as recourse to less traditional and more
local initiatives. Pressure will increase for greater accountability
and transparency at the different levels of
governance.
■ A geopolitical revolution: Asia’s rise looks set to continue
and the roughly two centuries of global dominance by the
European continent and the United States are drawing to
a close. Together with the emergence of other powers in
Africa and Latin America, this will lead to an increasingly
multi-polar world. Globalisation will continue but will be
increasingly driven by new actors with different values.
More confrontational modes between key actors may result."
I will considering the integration of North-America as one region, would be a succesful model of Co-operation beetwen 3 OECD members, but if we take Mexico case, a Country with a tremendous disparity and inequiality, with a lack of skilled workers, with the lower rate of productivity and years of education, also a fragmented healthcare system despite the fact that Science and Technology still lost in corruption, the digitalisation process can be the bridge to the change, because Mexico isn´t a poor country. paradojical richer in ignorance towards a wealthy middle-class but without the human capital (under25 years) to make a critic mass, and Demography is destine, but can be the opportunity for young and educated people of Centro-America, India....
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Paradox of Progress :
"The North American region will be tested by growing social and political pressures in the next five years, especially if economic growth remains lackluster and fails to generate broader prosperity. With economies ranging from the United States to Dominica, conditions and dynamics vary dramatically, but governments across the region are finding it harder to manage rising public demands for greater economic and social stability at a time when budget constraints and debts are limiting options. Public frustration is high throughout much of the region, because uncertainty about economic conditions and social changes is rising at the same time that trust in most governments is declining.
The health of the US economy will remain the prime variable for the region, given its large size and close links. The US recovery from the 2008 financial crisis has been slower and harder than after previous downturns, and most forecasts expect US economic growth to be modest—probably not strong enough to boost growth across the region—for the next several years. Economists are divided, however, over how long the current recovery might continue. Some, focusing on the current recovery’s seven-year span, warn the US economy already is “overdue” for another recession based on historical averages, while others observe that periods of expansion have been longer—up to 10 years—in recent decades. Whenever the next US recession hits, it will reverberate through the region by reducing US demand for goods and the massive southward flow of remittances.
Even in an increasingly diversified country like Mexico, remittances from the United States, still account for around 2 percent of GDP, and they comprise as much as 20 percent of the economy in Haiti. Central America would be particularly vulnerable, with already struggling economies in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua deriving 10 to 20 percent of their GDP from remittances.
A US economic downturn would also further close a traditional safety valve for desperate people who seek work in the United States as well as reduce the flow of remittances from the United States. The state of the US economy historically also has had a significant impact on Canadian growth patterns because of the large volume of bilateral trade.
Mexico’s economic and social reforms also will probably have muted political impact within the country and region. President Pena Nieto has enacted wide-ranging reforms in key industries—such as oil, communications, and finance—as well as education in an effort to enhance Mexico’s competitiveness, but growth has not increased significantly so far, and public support has soured amid corruption allegations, persistent violence, a weakening peso, and domestic crises such as the disappearance of 43 students at a demonstration in 2014. Major reforms, such as opening Mexico’s oil industry to foreign investment, take time to bear fruit, but antigovernment protests could escalate if the disappointments remain more apparent than the benefits in the next several years.
With presidential elections in 2018 and Pena Nieto limited to one term, voters may lean toward a more leftist opposition that pushes to roll back reforms and trade deals if reforms do not reduce Mexico’s stark economic divide.
Moreover, the success or failure of Mexico’s high-profile reforms might affect the willingness of other countries in the region to take similar political risks"
Thanks very much for this Forum Network: that will be a source of change under your leadership. Because I am sure that We are more people like me, who have not fear to the impossible. An the only way to things happen are making happen.
ALL THE BEST,
With regard to the very wording of "What Unites Us", I believe there must be some better ways to express the very idea------because a singular form is used here instead of a plural one. I believe the significance is not only limited to the linguistic expression. I have the following three reasons.
First, the influence of OECD is widely spread, not just confined to its member countries. English is not my mother tongue, and not the official language for some OECD member countries as well. The very wording gives the impression that only one dominant force is out there dominating the landscape and dictating the course of direction and it is supposed to be our job now to figure out the ONE, describe the ONE and eventually get together around the ONE. (To this part, the credit should go to late Professor Edward W. Said, his sense of "Us" versus "the Other", inclusive versus exclusive.)
Second, the notion of diversity is important and can never be overemphasized. Even though structurally the U.S. is seating on the very top of the pyramid economically, financially, militarily, and so on, yet its promulgated policies are the outcome of a balanced approach presumably having brought under consideration all the relevant factors and elements (under the catch-all term of diversity), such as the rivaling EU, rising China and confronting Russia. After all, In Varietate Concordia. So, diversity matters.
Third, it should be the natural continuation of last year's theme, Bridging Divides. Since there are many forces that divided us, as in 2017, there must be more than one force to unite us in 2018, a sort of synergy of a united front. A wall is made up with bricks, and in order to tear down the wall, we need do it brick by brick, eventually all the bricks, with collective efforts against an accumulation of stuffs------a game of to do and undo. I believe that is the reason why we are here to discuss the process and figure out how.
Thank you.
I appreciate what you wrote and feel you put your finger on the fact that there are many ways we can be united, not just one. Thank you for that insight.
I agree. I felt like the title was confining and you hit the nail on the head.
Hello everyone. As an academic (professor at a Business School) I am concerned with the adequate training of the young people who will be the business leaders of tomorrow. University somehow has been accused of being de-linked with social problems. How we can show those students that outside the University's walls there are vulnerable people with concerns, living with difficulties. On the other side social entities and small firms does not trust on University to solve their problems because they consider it to have a theoretic approach.
Since 5 years ago, I am luckily (and I hope successfully) chairing a service learning initiative where business administration students help social entities with their managerial challenges. I consider it as a good example of "what unites us". therefore My proposal is to work on appropriate and innovative training methodologies (as e.g. service learning) at universities
The smaller breakaway panels in between the major addresses were often more practical in how policies and practices succeeded or failed. Its too bad there isn't a way to tape and cull these for inclusion into a latter closing session presentation. To be sort of "a view from the ground up" roundup for each of those breakaway sessions. Their quotes could be literally posted on screens with their names and organizations. Or, use the brief anecdotal video commentaries snatched from I-Phone/I-pad shot coverage of that Q&A breakout session colloquy.
SCIENCE WITH CONSCIOUSNESS
There are two major challenges where teachers and educators today have a preponderant role: the challenge of Demography and the challenge of Technology.
As for the former it is not enough to live long, it is necessary to live with quality. Therefore, we need policies of active aging, because those born today will have a life expectancy of 90 years.
As for the technology challenge, three examples:
1 - In Synthetic Biology there are new species created by science and within a few years we will have nonhuman people;
2 - Cryogenic suspension: there are many people cryo-preserved indefinitely, at a cost of 150 thousand dollars;
3 - We are one step away from being able to transplant a head from one body to another for the first time.
These challenges raise very complex ethical and bioethical problems. Science has no limit, but we have to do it first with Ethical Thinking and then with legal norms to create some order.
Freedom is not debauchery - neither in school nor in science. Scientific integrity is decisive because we realize that in this world of commerce, in this wild globalization, there are no rules other than capital and financing.
There are at present no serious rules in the Ethics of World Science. But we need a Science with consciousness - which is not happening. It is very serious that some countries and regions in Europe and in the world are now appealing to their memory and to reviving racial myths.
Science is not an end in itself. For a Plural Ethics and Security we need the efforts of all societies, with a very special emphasis on the role of teachers and educators in this changing world.
Joaquim Santos
FNE – UGT-P
Portugal
Discussing divides in society necessitates to build a classification of (a) possible areas of work engagement that may be affected by lack of digitalized skills (b) social groups that are possibly more vulnerable to lack of digital skills and (c) possible push / pull factors affecting the acquisition of such skills.
The Oecd should focus on prevention health care.
Programs to strengthen the week parts of society should have an emphasis on shifting health care from hospital to community base centers and allow the ptocess of continuation to be full.
The subject of social
Media and digital era is a must and that train has left the station but let’s accompany the digital time with ethics standards. Apps can help patients in measuring signs and monitor health.
Patients should be encouraged to adhere and level up compliance to treatment and health promotion
Adreesing aging population and building patients involvment of care is essential.
Issues such as post partum depprasion and domestic violence are cardinal as well as harassment .
Mother and child development.
I suggest adress gender medicine and genetics as well as fertility for equality
Google's director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil, predicts that in the 2030s humans will become hybrids because "our brain will be able to connect directly to the cloud, where there will be thousands of computers and those computers will increase our existing intelligence .
"The brain will connect through nanobots, tiny robots made of strands of DNA. Our thinking will then be a hybrid of biological and non-biological thinking. "
Kurzweil spoke on this topic last Wednesday at the Exponential Finance conference (New York) and also pointed out that by the end of 2040, human thought will be predominantly biological, even humans of that decade will be able to "back up" the information found in the brain.
We are witnessing, in this context, an effervescence of digital technology in the world of education. At the beginning the blogs entered without knocking on the door, then the websites, computers in class, the first applications, digital whiteboards, ipads, pilot centers ...
And we hear affirmations like: "In 20 years the students will not go to school", "The best book is a good computer", "The teacher now takes a secondary role", etc. Given this, the gurus ignore the fact that Silicon Valley managers are taking their children to "traditional schools."
The scheme that I learned in my first years of parent teachers-students has been replaced by iPad-wifi-students. We are facing the dehumanization of education. Our mouths are filled with the fact that our crisis is a crisis of values and we are not only shocked by this reality, but we encourage it.
Our schools have to be leaders in new technologies. But, please, the role of the true teacher, of the accompaniment in the emotional growth of the student, is irreplaceable. Our teenagers are hungry for coherent references. Do not take them off. Combining the two fields today is a miracle. My school has achieved it and that is why I work there.
There is a great affective orphanage among the young people of our days. Not only because more than half of the couples break up, but because the affection in our homes is not expressed, it does not manifest itself and our young people are nostalgic, wandering; They lack something and do not know what it is. I hope they do not end up as the protagonist of the movie HER, falling in love with a computer; We are making it very easy for you.
The great professor D. Juan Luis Lorda says: "the word to educate, to educate, means to draw from within. But it is not removed mechanically as the coal is extracted from the mines. It is taken out by stimulating and guiding, because what wakes up - there is the wonder - is a free being, an autonomous and creative subject by itself; although it still can not be at all, because his wings have taken off.
"The most beautiful thing about the art of educating is to reach the mysterious core of consciousness, the inner harp, get it to come into resonance, vibrate with the values of culture. In this way, each of the spiritual and mysterious dimensions of human persons is developed. "
Therefore, after reading Professor Lorda I propose some actions to play the harp of every human being, or means for the END that we all want:
1. Read Dostoyevsky. 2 Listen to Mozart. 3 Do sport three times during the week. 4 Do not sleep less than eight hours a day. 5 Grow a hobby on a daily basis. 6 Pray. 7 Check the press daily. 8 Listen to the good radio. 9 If you love your work you are privileged, if not, propose it. 10 Travel to a different country every year. 11 Read thirty books a year. 12 He goes to the cinema twenty times a year. 13 There are only two or three real friends, "brothers", forever. Take care of them. 14 Try not to hate anyone. "Cardiological Hygiene". 15 Marry your "partner for life", not with a "physical". 16 Immerse yourself in the landscapes of Turner. 17 Never despise a sunset, the smell of wet earth or the enraged sea: embobate. 18 Volunteer according to your circumstances.
It seems that the new current will lead us to a mechanized and less human relationship. Little by little we will be moving away from our means and end that we confuse so many times and that is essential to every human being: to be happy.
There are as many roads as there are human beings, but remember we all have to be human. Let's not lose our essence because we will extinguish our existence. The great geniuses have come to her, each in her own way: Einstein: "If you want to live a happy life".
A Perfect Case Scenario of An Analogue World Versus the Era of Digitalisation
Plastic pollution is not new in "the analogue world". However, plastic pollution in the digitalised era is not only new but also with a devastating consequence, almost to the point of no-return. E-commerce is
currently an global trend, with an impact never seen before, and on-line shopping is an exciting and new mode of living. As a leading country of e-commerce, China is producing unprecedented quantity of plastic waste, notably from the packing materials, daily. The problem is not just confined to a specific geographical location, but rather worldwide. Such a pollution seems unstoppable both in scale and depth due to its momentum built over past few decades. All the major players, countries, international organizations and the businesses alike should face this problem seriously before it is too late because of the very nature of global interdependency and connectivity in terms of eco-system. An earlier study estimated that there would be more plastic than fish in the oceans in 2050 (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35562253). Also, if unrestrained, microplastics would penetrate even deeper into our body (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics). So, collective efforts are called to deal with the problem, both on the policy making level and the pragmatic level. There is a twist that China was the largest plastic waste importer until last year and its ban on importing foreign plastic wastes necessates a new outlet for waste disposal, after all, no business as usual any more. Therefore new approaches and strategies should be developed in handling the issue.
No doubt, the oceans have already had enough as a dumping place!
Why not talking about the possibility of implementing Labs in different public and private entities, including brand new careers as biology, electric engineering, industrial design, together with Hackers and Makers? Added to that, many of them can be Millennials or younger.
Maybe, in order to develop a real change, what unites us is the creation of spaces with people from different ages, genres, origin, background and mindset, so everyone can share ideas, feelings and opportunities.
For example in Peru, we are developing a Creativity and Innovation Lab in a public entity, and what we are planning to do in order to develop 21st Century Skills in public workers is to transform what we already have: spaces, tools and mindset.
I am pretty sure more countries have Labs (and lots of stories to tell related to challenges, risks, failures, etc.) so maybe that could be an interesting topic/ingredient for OECD Forum 2018.
Here´s an interesting story of what we did by building bridges and not walls.
What are the key policies and initiatives you feel could contribute to ensuring better access to education, employment, healthcare and housing?
In the past, we focused on developing innovative products and entered into partnerships that would help make them affordable and accessible to the people who needed them most. Or we worked with partners to train healthcare workers in specific areas to help improve health. But we now know that a more comprehensive approach is needed to make an even greater, long-term impact. And that means you have to take an end-to-end approach and look at what more we can do to deliver better health outcomes for patients. We commit to galvanising partners, mobilising employees, and engaging communities to profoundly improve the course of human health. For this reason, we are dedicating our expertise, ideas, and ingenuity to catalyse efforts to achieve SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being, which is at the heart of the SDGs and the core of our business. Our efforts intend to exemplify the importance of Goal 5: Gender Equality, and will be founded in the principles of Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals. While the world continues to face ongoing challenges with HIV & TB, and many unknown and emerging threats, there is also an increasing shift in burden of disease toward Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and mental health.
For example: There are now about 10 million HIV patients receiving traditional treatment in Africa. But about 10-15% of them, maybe even more, will become resistant to that treatment and won’t respond anymore. We are now developing a combination of two second-line HIV drugs in one pill. Our hope is that once we get the necessary regulatory approvals, we can make this combination very affordable to these patients in Africa. But because of a lack of affordable and easy-to-use diagnostic tests to identify those HIV patients who are resistant to the current treatment, we’re working with diagnostics companies to ensure that very simple, affordable point-of-care viral-load testing is available in these regions when we get approval for the new drug combination. We also have to work more closely with local healthcare professionals, as well as do outreach within the community to address such issues as the stigma that many people with HIV who are really sick face—they are literally pushed out of society. So the goal is not just to produce the drug combination, but to also build expertise on the ground in conjunction with local governments and NGOs to help us bring all these different elements together until we have measurably better health outcomes. We pledge to do our part to achieve a world where innovations and holistic health solutions prevent, control and eliminate global disease challenges and epidemics.
[Source: Johnson & Johnson Launches a New Global Public Health Strategy in Africa, 6 April, 2016]
We welcome your ideas to help improve diversity, promote gender equality…
By caring for women in our global community, we will continue to fuel innovation in human health. Johnson & Johnson supports and champions people on the frontlines of delivering care and promotes the role of women and girls as leaders in their communities.
The identification of sustainable solutions to global challenges cannot disregard the role played by women and girls. Women are not only caregivers and mothers; they are also scientists, technologists, innovators, mentors, business leaders and community champions.
But while having women participate in the workforce is vital, participation alone isn’t enough. We need to provide future female international leaders with lifelong mentors, top-notch professional skills and new inspiration they can take back to their companies and communities is a way to improve diversity and promote gender equality.
Women leaders are critical—and urgently needed. According to UN Women, the representation of women in both private and public sector leadership remains at unacceptably low levels. Only 18% of appointed cabinet ministers are women. Less than 4% of CEOs in the world’s largest corporations are women. [Why Johnson & Johnson Is Committed to Helping Develop Women Leaders in Our Changing World, 12 March 2017] Changing these figures for the long haul will require a deliberate choice to equip women to lead, at all levels, in society. They are the driving force behind the health of our future world. By caring for women in our global community and promoting them as leaders in their communities, we will continue to fuel innovation in human health.
Shifting the approach to diversity to make sure there’s an equal focus on the inclusion is crucial. In the workplace it is important to track and improve diversity metrics to make sure the workforce reflects the population they serve. [Fortune 100 Executive, Valerie Love, Chats Leadership, Wellness, And Inclusion, 15 May, 2017]
Increasing the number of female students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and math has become a business imperative. Young girls, female college students and professional women must have access to the resources and opportunities they need to excel in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Gender diversity in STEM can accelerate innovation efforts and be the catalyst of a change that will benefit society as whole. [How Johnson & Johnson Is Supporting Women in STEM Around the World]
How can all actors join forces to address inherently global issues in relation to digitalisation, development and climate change?
Digitalisation: Mobile health (mHealth) apps and telemedicine have the potential to lower costs and improve patient care by allowing closer collaboration between patients and healthcare providers. The increasing adoption of health apps and other tools means not only healthier, more informed patients, but a more robust market: mHealth technology is expected to grow to $60 billion in 2020—an increase of 33%. [Is Digital Health Making an Impact on Healthcare? 29 November, 2017]. MomConnect, a mobile service supported by Johnson & Johnson aims to help every pregnant woman in South Africa gain critical information about pregnancy on a mobile phone. In the year since it began, the service has gained 500,000 users, 98% of whom say the messages have helped them. It is the largest program of its kind ever implemented by a government. [How J&J Is Empowering Women Through mHealth Programs, 16 December 2015]. Digitalisation has transformed every aspects of our society and every industry has had to reinvent itself digitally. Digital healthcare is one of the most exciting new frontiers, meeting society and patients demands for better quality of care, improving customer and patients experiences. However, the full potential of this digital transformation can only be achieved if all actor’s society join forces in an integrated effort to re-invent themselves digitally.
Development: The World Health Organization estimates that there is a shortage of at least 1 million health care professionals in the world’s poorest countries. Therefore, collaborating with community-based organizations, non-government organizations and multinational coalitions globally to develop a new generation of frontline health workers (FLHW) such as nurses, mid-wives, pharmacists and community health workers to fill that gap is critical for development. Bringing care and information to families to strengthen health systems globally include training mothers to be health mentors, educating microcredit loan officers to be health educators, and enhancing leadership and supervision within the health workforce. [Frontline Health Workforce, JnJ.com]
Climate Change: The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared climate change to be one of the greatest threats to global health in the 21st century. The organization estimates that one in four premature deaths worldwide are caused by environmental factors, and 3 million deaths each year are linked to exposure to air pollution. And we believe that connecting human health, air quality and climate change will unlock mainstream behavior and policy change at the pace and scale we need, that is why programs that will link climate action with the benefits to air quality and human health are so important. As a Company, we are leveraging our resources and commitment to environmental health to implement climate actions that improve air quality and public health benefits and gain political and financial buy-in to drive greater action. [Caring for the Planet Like Our Health Depends on It: Johnson & Johnson Partners with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, 21 December 2016]
Re-invent! We have made ourselves into health-technology innovators by building a flexible but secure digital IT organization to support faster development of smart healthcare products and to improve customer and patient experiences with the company. True digital transformation touches every part of the organization—from core IT all the way back into the supply chain. So, in our view, it has to be an integrated effort rather than a separate one. You’re going to run into trouble at some point, for instance, if you’re implementing user-centered development and design thinking on the front end, but you haven’t digitized your business processes on the back end. We brought everyone together and said we’re going to take an end-to-end view of digitization—from the way we consume electricity in the data center to the way we interact with customers. And we invited everyone in the company to look at what we were doing—at any point—to see what sort of progress we were making.
What are the key issues we should consider with respect to the implications of artificial intelligence for society and human progress?
Artificial intelligence (AI) poses unlimited opportunity for us to make a transformative impact on patients. Whether it be through new drug combinations, improved medical diagnostics, better accuracy in personalized medicine, or many other benefits - AI could save scientists valuable research time and bring new treatments to patients more quickly.
One of the challenges AI faces in healthcare is widespread clinical adoption. To realize the value of AI, the healthcare industry needs to create a workforce that is knowledgeable about AI so they are comfortable using AI technologies thereby enabling the AI technologies to “learn” and grow smarter.
Another challenge is training doctors and patients to use AI. Learning how to use technology may be a challenge for some. Likewise, not everyone is open to information given by a “robot.” In other words, accepting AI technology is a challenge that needs to be addressed through education.
Complying with regulations is also a challenge for AI in the healthcare industry. For one, there is the need for approvals from regulatory agencies before an AI device or application is applied to health care. This is especially true because AI is at a nascent stage and not a technology that is fully known or understood. Moreover, the existing approval process deals more with AI hardware and not about data. Therefore, data from AI poses a new regulatory challenge for regulatory agencies and may need to be validated more thoroughly. [The Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, 24 August, 2017]
Empowering women is a constant speech of the policy makers, over the last 30 years, sometimes just for electoral reasons. But still so little real things are done. Women leadership is often considered just a feminist issue, not societal one, despite the huge contribution of women to the economy, education of the society;
Committing to diversity is a core modern value fundamental for an inclusive and prosperous society. In this vein, diversity consultants/experts should be an integral element in a talent hiring process related to business or entrepreneurial activity, project, etc. Focus on education and employment of such specialists.
Mariela Baeva
named in the first Global Diversity List for top 50 figures in public life
After the financial problems for the world economy commenced in 2007 there were countless jobs lost across the globe.Subsequently there were conflicting numbers on the total lost forthcoming from the IMF, ILO amongst other multilateral organisations.There was talk of the "lost decade" and here we are in 2018.What were the final numbers of jobs lost and how many has the world economy replaced in the 10 years following the crash?
Many of the issues we are witnessing in the OECD and beyond could be solved if there was a concerted effort to re imagine the world economy taking account of climate change,the need for a circular and recyclable city environments, and a sustainable food chain.New work would result from this which would help alleviate the political upheavals we are currently witnessing.
The real issues at hand are the need to find something for people to do in our rapidly changing world of work.Indeed will all those eligible and wanting to work be able to find something to do as we reach peak population estimates of 10 billion people on the planet by 2050?
Making development more inclusive by ensuring that people on the margins are heard and their ideas too taken into account will remain a fundamental challenge. Citizen co-creation should find a way to accommodate and amplify the muted voices of digital have-nots also.
Geography is what unites us. I have never attended the Forum, but our global community is working on many of the topics listed, particularly as we tackle health and environmental resilience and sustainability using Earth observations to provide insights and inform decision making. The OECD is an Observer to our activities. This is an example of one of my recent keynote/plenary addresses in Mexico city to engage countries to consider better use of crowdscourced information and citizen science, as well as the inputs from civil society and the need to consider the interactions between the sustainable development goals and responding to multiple goals at the same time.
https://www.slideshare.net/Ramages/s-ramage-geo-unggim-hlf-mexico-nov-2017
In order to achieve co-creation, re-imagine international
cooperation and shape citizen/multi-stakeholder engagement, we need to move
beyond destructive notions of intergenerational conflict that foster and fuel
divisions within society.
Co-creation requires recognising all parties as having something
equally valid and useful to contribute. Curiously, both youth and older people
face similar challenges that undermine their ability to participate
fully in this process – a person is judged unfairly and discriminated against
on the basis of their age at both of these points in their life.
Where older people are concerned, ageism and age discrimination
is common across almost all societies. When we reach ‘a certain age’, we are no
longer perceived as having something valid to offer. This is
embedded in our economic categories: in later life, a person arbitrarily moves
from being an ‘active’ contributor to society, a producer and net contributor,
to being perceived as ‘dependent’, a recipient or just a consumer.
This is not about pitting older people against youth, but of
ensuring that any individual is treated with dignity and respect across their
life, at any age. The Forum must actively seek to create spaces in which
a lifecourse perspective is brought to bear on the challenges ahead.
It would be interesting to consider how governments could effectively measure Social Capital. I believe we live in a data driven society, while data provides a point in time picture of the state of things, stories (the narrative behind the data) of those affected, both adversely and in a positive sense can inform policy makers and analysts to improve the effectiveness of policy decisions.
Empowering women in a digital economy would be a good topic. In years, the access of women to technical studies was limited, the jobs in that area were "naturally" for men. Cooking, cleaning, nursing, selling, sometimes educating were the "natural" occupations for women. Paradoxally enough, the situation is the worst in the most developped countries.
We need a real shift in the policies as digitalisation of everything is a reality. And women represent 50% of the planet population, governements cannot left them behind.
What unites us? What common factor should bring us together? I would propose the biological process of ageing. Everyone is ageing and in most OECD countries most people are living longer.
Whilst everyone is ageing, not everyone will be old in the same way. The inequalities experienced through the life course are magnified in old age.
We should be discussing the many policy areas that will promote ageing that will result in an older population that has equal opportunities.
I think the interrelationship between digitisation, urbanisation and globalisation it is a good topic for the OECD given current priorities.
Data driven strategies to reduce urban violence in all its forms would help cities to unlock their full economic and social potential. How can we build tools that measure criminal, political and social violence in ways that provide cities with a comprehensive picture? That comprehensive picture is a key element of identifying actual (rather than assumed) problems of urban violence, and also links directly to developing proactive strategies to contain and reduce urban violence.
Education, education, education. At all levels, in all countries, for all people.
The abolition of fake news. It divides us so we need to banish it to have a chance to be united.
Caring for our children, their lives and well being, and their future.
It is also impossible to discuss what unites us without addressing our dependence on the environment and how we are destroying it at a rapid pace. Positively said, more laws on the books, internationally/regionally/nationally/etc to protect the rights of nature must be enacted, supported, embraced by us all.
I look forward to the forum!
Liz Musch
Could not agree more!
Great to be part of this network and look forward to sharing contributions
Digital education as a support for economic gender inclusion (girls and women)
Building focused programs on digital education, with a gender perspective, and encourage more countries to develop programs that affect the inclusion of girls and women in the use of ICT.
Supporting the education of girls and women in the ICT sector is also consistent with the objectives of sustainable development, in order to promote gender equality and empowerment of women. Not only jobs in the ICT sector bring to women poverty, a sector with greater gender balance gets racing medium and high level can be covered, and allows women of talent catapulted to the top of the career ladder. This is good for everyone. As the ExSecretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon said: "Equality for women and girls is not only a basic human right, but a social and economic imperative When women are educated and power, economies are more productive and strong, when women are fully represented, societies are more peaceful and stable”.
Promoting access to women, to labor sources that allow them to generate incomes.
The main role of institutions, academia, organizations and governments is to create the conditions for societies to be empowered through ICT, in this way they can achieve Information and Knowledge Societies, inclusive, equitable and socially effective.
Develop and implement projects based on digital literacy as a first step, to instruct in a friendly way through video tutorials on the use and management of mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and even desktop.
Digital technologies can cheapen, considerably faster and easier routine tasks requiring numerous transactions. Therefore, in a second stage, be designed again video tutorials that include creating an email, the use of platforms searches for information on the Internet, creating files, use parcel Windows and the use of technology for communication distance and Skype among others. We must promote skills that will enable women to take full advantage of digital opportunities. Training activities well designed online help workers improve their skills.
Parallel to those women who have mastered the use of mobile devices, and Internet, on an elementary basis, in collaboration with academia and the private sector, alliances can be sought to develop content applications related to personal security, privacy, work and health online, among others.
Consider working with member states, regions and institutions for the creation of a Citizens Policy Forum, a la various Citizens Science forums, at the local project or event level. The idea would be to take a range of OECD initiatives, identify the ones which address between 5-10 of the global disconnects of, for example, inequality, climate change, technological disempowerment, race and gender equality, and create Citizens forums to address these issues and, crucially find local solutions to local issues reflecting these big disconnects. Promote local dialogue and knowledge exchange but also co-create instruments and institutions of change, such as those of entrepreneurship (as a social movement and not just creating new firms), social innovation Follow that up by leveraging the OECD's international connectivity power base to facilitate global exchange among people who are generally not represented at OECD events. It is important to accommodate counter narratives of people and the diversity of class, gender and race.
It would be great if the OECD could harness pro-active minds and hearts to create such a platform, and form there, to foster the creation of a Citizen Science, Citizen Entrepreneurship, Citizen Technology, Citizen Research, Citizen Climate Change , etc. forums, according to priorities of the regions..
Why not consider a session at your May event, if possible. I'd be happy to work with you to develop this tangible idea.
Jay Mitra
Cybersecurity
Digitization is one of the great phenomena of recent years. The ability to translate everything into bits, transforms the way we interact with the world.
At present, we have migrated from a consumer Internet to one of consumption and production. The previous decade had brought us an Internet of information; we are currently witnessing the emergence of an Internet of value.
Society is gradually becoming a culture of services, based on the information it provides. For this reason, electronic ICT networks and digital services are vital for the functioning of governments, companies and societies. Considering this scenario in which our economy is based on the use, treatment and flow of information, it becomes of vital importance to maintain it, as well as the users that generate it, in a healthy environment and controlled risks.
While the public sector, the economy, the business community and citizens benefit from the services of the global network, the digital society contains inherent vulnerabilities that can generate security risks for users, companies or the vital functions of society. . For this reason, it is imperative that both the public and private sectors balance and prioritize the resources available to meet the challenges of existing and future cybersecurity. The risks of cybersecurity have become increasingly common. Those that were once considered improbable now appear more regularly. The growing impact of cyberattacks requires new, creative and innovative solutions to mitigate risks.
Therefore, it is necessary for the forum to address and discuss the issue of cybersecurity and beyond, talk about the formation of a governance of cybersecurity, which implies, from a multistakeholder approach (government, business sector, institutions, academic, private and technological sector), define and facilitate the performance of roles and responsibilities for all. Discussing this topic and inviting countries to allocate resources for research and innovation, as well as forming alliances in this area, is a need in order to achieve the security and development of societies and countries.
Trying to solve localized problems without addressing the general phenomenon is a conceptual error. To face the problems of difficult settlement or solution in the world, science–policy interface should overcome conventional public policies, segmented academic formats, market-place interests and mass-media headlines, which accommodate people to the prevailing order, instead of preparing them to carry meaning, purpose and life-enhancing values (relational and ontological), to the individual and collective projects of life.
Anthropogenic views do not distinguish between the whole of the human beings and the destructive action on nature and culture of the political-economic establishment; power asymmetries should be considered, that confer to a small and privileged part of the world population the decisions about the destiny of the entire mankind. Offsetting proposals only mitigate a situation here and there, but do not address the causes of the problems continuously re-created within the system (like corruption that involves state capture).
Instead of taking current prospects for granted and project them into the future (exploratory forecast), the definition of desirable goals and the exploration of new paths to reach them (normative forecast) is posited in view of a set of values, norms and policies that prioritizes socio-ecological objectives and human well-being, the quality of natural and built environments and the aesthetic and ethical values linked to a moral and cultural meaning of the existence.
Given the dynamic field of events encompassing the forms of being in the world, the transition to an ecosystem model of culture encompasses heterogeneous attributes, behaviours and interactions of individuals and the dynamics of the systems in which they live (institutions, populations, political, economic, cultural and ecological background), that could add positive or negative value to the environment, equity and the interactions between people and ecosystems.
An analytical, ecosystemic framework to identify and deal with the problems of difficult settlement or solution in the world is posited in the publication below (please see link), in view of a transformative change of the current paradigms of development, growth, power, wealth, work and freedom embedded at institutional, cultural, economic and political level, encompassing four interwoven dimensions of being in the world (intimate, interactive, social and biophysical).
The proposal extends to environmental problems, quality of life and the state of the world a larger conceptual framework that includes ontological and epistemological issues, in view of the isomorphy and transfers of concepts, laws and models in various fields, enabling groups and individuals in the socio-cultural learning niches to develop new action pathways, empowering people to explore new scenarios and information relevant to achieve new outcomes.
Ref.: PILON, A. F., Governance, Science-Policy Interfaces, Societal Organisation and the Transition to an Ecosystemic Model of Culture, University Library of Munich, MPRA Paper No. 84373, 2018 [on line]: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/84373/9/MPRA_paper_84373.pdf
I suggest that we include a discussion of women's wealth. This post makes the case for addressing the gulf between women's wealth and men's wealth. This is a topic that unites us because increasing women's wealth and ensuring parity with men will not only empower women, but it will decrease their dependence and help them weather financially employment breaks such as for childbirth and care for dependents. There has been relatively more attention to barriers to employment, pay equity, and other issues affecting women's income. Even with the notable attention on specific instruments such as micro loans, the issue of women's lack of wealth is appropriate for this year's forum.
In their forthcoming book, Money Talk: A Financial Guide for Women (Plant and Life Sciences Publishing, Ithaca, NY, April 2018), Patricia Q. Brennan and Barbara M. O'Neill preface their publication by saying that women have a unique set of financial needs: By and and large, they live longer; earn less; have gaps in employment that affect their retirements; frequently rely on a spouse for income; and lack financial experience.
Research has shown that women's wealth (assets minus debt) are only about a third (36%) of men, even as earnings or pay has risen to 78% of men's. The reasons for this phenomenon are socially structured, including the differential rewards for part-time work, how parental leave is or is not compensated, and family leave policies. (Mariko Chang, Shortchanged: Why Women Have Less Wealth and What Can Be Done About It. Oxford University Press, 2011)
In developing countries, in particular, laws governing inheritance and ownership put women at more of a disadvantage. In general, the lack of economic resources constrains women's choices compared to men's. (Anne Mikkola, Role of Gender Equality in Development -- A Literature Review. Discussion paper No. 84, Nov. 2005)
Minority women are extremely disadvantaged wealth-wise. According to Connie E. Evans ("The Intersection of Gender, Race, and Culture as Influencers on African American Women's Financial Stress, Asset Accumulation, and Wealth Attainment", Monograph, University of Michigan, Center for the Education of Women, 2006), there are "government opportunities" (i.e., policies) that can improve this dire situation. These include revamping employer retirement savings plans, providing for more favorable (or "fairer") tax treatment for documented financial support of extended family members, and requiring elementary and secondary consumer education for schools receiving public funds.
Wealth has been called "one of the most central indicators of financial well-being and security", but the disparities are extreme. (Lisa A. Keister and Stephanie Moller, "Wealth Inequality in the United States," Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 26 (2000), p. 76)
Wealth and empowerment, while not interchangeable, are inextricably intertwined. Esther Duflo found a weak relationship between women's empowerment and economic development and concluded that "continuous policy commitments to equality for its own sake may be needed to bring about equality between men and women. ("Women Empowerment and Economic Development", Journal of Economic Literature, 2012, 50 (4), 1051-1079) In other words, even if one cannot demonstrate societal development benefits to narrowing the wealth gap between women and men, it is the right thing to do nonetheless for its own sake.
Very Good Initiative, Dear Anthony, and we Wish you the Best !
Interestingly, it looks a bit like a Similar Project that we are Trying to Stimulate in the European/Paneuropean area + Institutions of EU/CoE during 20 Years (i.e. almost since the Beginning of the Web : 1997-2018), and Mainly during the Latest 12 Years (+2006-2018), initially called "EIW/Europe in the World", and afterwards "EuroFora", for Debates Before Decisions, (Independently from -and in Addition to- the "News" aspect), which might, eventually, Cooperate adequately with OECD's Web Forum Network, if possible, in the foreseable Future.
A Suggestion, for now : Do you think that People might Dream at a Future Extension of OECD's Forum Web Network in order to Cover, well Beyond the Annual Forum/Summit events, also similar Web Debates Before all Other Important Decisions/Events during OECD Activities, all the way through the entire, full year ?
If Yes, then, this would, naturally, imply also an updatable Link to OECD's main Agenda, for obvious Practical reasons.
It may usefully Contribute also to Stimulate further and/or Help generate a Wider impact for interesting/Topical Press "News" around OECD's activities, for all Stakeholders.
Our organisation is called Development Reimagined for exactly the reasons the OECD has decided to hold and co-create this forum.
We are based in China (and are, in fact, the first Kenyan wholly foreign owned enterprise in China) and we specialise in "bridging the gap" between China and poorer countries, especially in Africa. We specialise in this area because we believe it is one of the most important opportunities and challenges for the future of global development, especially given China's commitment to delivering the "Belt and Road Initiative".
We therefore would like to offer our support to the OECD in co-creating a panel or other type of session focused on stimulating and supporting either: south-south cooperation, trilateral cooperation, or even more specifically International cooperation along the Belt and Road OR Africa-China cooperation (Note: The latter could be justified as this year in September will be the 7th Forum on China Africa Cooperation, in Beijing, marking 18 years of its existence).
We can promise a very innovative approach to ensuring such a session is lively, practical and results focused. We look forward to hearing from you. Please explore our work at: www.developmentreimagined.com.
I am not part of the OECD but I believe that your South-South cooperation is an amazing initiative!
Hello dear Anthony, dear OECD Forum network,
I am a professional in strategy and management consulting in France and studying in parallel Geopolitics mainly focusing on areas such as Africa and the Middle East.
I would like to raise a key topic on this upcoming OECD Forum Network, discussing the "sense of emergency" of preparing the transition to War Refugees.
1. How are OECD countries involved into the welcoming of refugees for the next 5 years?
2. What is their commitment?
3. Does the OECD countries aware on the fact that not welcomed and uneducated refugees could be a risk for them but also for OECD countries?
4. Should we be able to demonstrate by figures and statement that refugees could be a chance instead of growing as a risk for them and for their home / host countries?
I think that war refugees should on the top of the agenda and believe that this issue has a "sense of emergency" within the OECD and its people is key.
Do you think that this topic could be raised proving with (i) facts and (ii) figures the long-term positive impact on educating / welcoming refugees?
My best regards,
Meryem
I would be interested to see how we can leverage public-private partnerships to get more employers/the private sector engaged on Future of Work initiatives to create more skills that businesses need and jobs for people. As an example of what our member companies are doing to provide training in the age of AI, please see our article on the WEF Agenda here:https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/apprenticeships-young-people-artificial-intelligence/
First of all, Thank You Sir for that Idea of communication with participant's community, I think it is important, as Prof. Sunstein explained to us last year, to have our voices heard by organizers. It is also, of course, the microcosm for whole communities today, who are raising their voice of concern and feel ignored by authorities. So I have few suggestions for workshops/panel discussions during this year Forum, which I hope to attend once again:
Inter-values debate: political divides between conservatives and liberals are now the wider in the generation. Pew Research Centre published a report before the 2016 US Presidential Elections, which said that almost 50% of voters on both side are afraid of the other party in power. The tensions between ordinary people with different opinions and values are also now the highest in our generation. I myself feel sometimes quite alone as a conservative voice during the Forum, so I would like to explore the topic: how to ease a tension and treat seriously concerns and opinions of people with completely different values? Do we have a right to offend and be offended, as a tool to develop our character and opinion or should we have a right to stay in our "safe spaces" forever?
I would be delighted for any opinions,
Thanks in advance,
Marcel Lesik
How do you think we should address the impact of digitalisation on society and politics?
The speed and scale of technological developments in the fourth industrial revolution is putting enormous pressure on regulatory frameworks. Current public policy systems evolved in an age when decision-makers had time to study specific issues and develop appropriate regulation, which is no longer feasible. There is an urgent need for adaptive, human-centred, inclusive and sustainable policy-making, which acknowledges that policy development is no longer limited to governments, but rather is an increasingly multistakeholder effort.
There is a growing understanding of the importance of the need for more agility in governance and the OECD can promote this and share best practice. The organization can reach the hand to new stakeholders that can influence governance (citizens and private sector) to co-create new forms of governance for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.