· In the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a new global architecture is needed to enshrine international cooperation, overcome rising social polarization and protect the environment
· Call made for a new social contract between governments and citizens that goes beyond social safety nets and targets affordable and scalable access to education and mobility of work and workers
· For more about the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils 2018 visit: https://wef.ch/gfc18
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 12 November 2018 – The world needs a new global architecture capable of supporting a “new deal for nature”, tackling social polarization and providing people with the means to access the education and skills needed to ensure mobility and prosperity in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This was the message delivered at the close of the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Champions 2018 in Dubai today.
“Over the last two days we have heard your calls for a new narrative for global governance that joins together issues which have become too fragmented. One that weaves together action on climate change, oceans and biodiversity and promote tolerances and dialogue,” said Børge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum.
“As the Fourth Industrial Revolution accelerates the rate of skills obsolescence, we need new social contracts that go beyond social-safety nets, and target affordable and scalable access to education as well as mobility of work and workers, plus a new economic models that combine the narratives of wealth creation and wealth distribution. Finally, we need our governing institutions to become agile, informed by real time data which can maximize transparency and build legitimacy,” Brende continued.
Also speaking in the closing plenary, His Excellency Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future of the UAE said: “The future is happening very fast; we live in an amazing time. From this year’s meeting three initiatives came out which our government will seek to implement over the next year. These are: a Future Possibility Report, highlighting promising emerging ideas that bring an opportunity for growth, a Future Possibility Index ranking these possibilities by the level of advancement and a Future Possibility Department, whose task will be to make possible the impossible.
During the meeting, the World Economic Forum published the inaugural Future Frontier Survey, a look at those areas of scientific research that have the most potential, as well as the greatest concern, for humankind in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The Forum also published a paper Data Policy in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Insights on Personal Data with the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future aimed at helping governments develop data policy capable of regulating use of personal data while adapting to the rapid technological changes in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Lastly, the Forum published Regional Risks for Doing Business, a survey of more than 12,000 business leaders, highlighting the major threats facing the private sector around the world in 2018.
Ideas likely to be developed and taken forward to the Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters in January include:
· The Global Future Council for biodiversity and the bioeconomy creates a practical “nature action agenda” that will mobilize wider business, innovation and public-private efforts to complement the Convention on Biological Diversity COP 15 in Beijing 2020, and beyond.
· A plan to develop a digital platform for entrepreneurs, investors and other stakeholders to collaborate and develop, pooling the resources of the Inter-American Development Bank’s IDB Lab and the Forum’s UpLink global entrepreneurship platform.
· Developing guidelines governing global opt-in regarding receiving diverse digital content based on Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
· Building a platform to promote media literacy and combat visual mis- or disinformation with the view of a pilot being ready in advance of the European Union elections in 2019.
· To build a personal data privacy dashboard in the style of a credit report where consumers can see their various data trails from across the internet and potentially revoke any permissions on the spot.
Notes to Editors
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