“At a time when this crisis poses major new challenges to policymakers, I believe that bringing together such a rich panel in terms of diversity and experience will allow us to identify a set of pragmatic, actionable steps on major issues such as financial regulation, global governance, monetary imbalances, development and environment.  One lesson to learn from the crisis is that old recipes are not necessarily the most appropriate ones to solve new problems arising from globalization and increasing interdependence among regions. New solutions must emerge and be driven by new leaders who have demonstrated high potential in their area. I am very pleased to lead this initiative and look forward to the many discussions we will have on this occasion.”

– Fabrice Seiman, Co-President, Lutetia Capital, France.

OBJECTIVE

The Paris Initiative, placed under the High Patronage of French President Nicolas Sarkozy is being launched in order to have a structured brainstorming with young leaders in order to formulate concrete and realistic recommendations supported by civil society and likely to be endorsed by the French Presidency of the G 20 in 2011.

This task force of Young Global Leaders – composed of several ministers and former ministers, NGO founders, corporate executives, university professors and journalists – along with Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, will gather in Paris on 29-30 June, 2010.

They will launch the initiative during talks with Christine Lagarde, Minister of Economy, Industry and Employment of France, Jean-Francois Copé, Majority Leader in the French Parliament, Jean-David Levitte, Diplomatic Adviser and Sherpa to the French President as well as several French CEOs including Maurice Levy, Chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe, Lars Olafsson, CEO, Carrefour and Henri de Castries, CEO, Axa.

The initiative will initially focus its discussions and recommendations in five policy areas:

1. Financial Regulation (with initial insights provided by YGLs Liz Loyd and Pierre Gentin)
2. Global Risks (with initial insights provided by YGLs Jill Janaina Otto, Erwann-Michel Kerjan and Christopher Jahns)
3. Economic and Monetary Policies (with initial insights provided by YGLs FX de Mallmann and Silvana Koch-Mehrin)
4. International Governance (with initial insights provided by YGLs Governor Enrique Peña Nieto and Mark Leonard)
5. Development (with initial insights from YGLs Boris Nikolic, Kate Roberts and Reuben Abraham)

The participants of the initiative will relay the various ideas in their respective countries to facilitate an international consensus on these proposals. The group will organize a big event at the launch of the French Presidency of the G20.

LEADERS

Thomas Buberl, CEO of Zurich Switzerland, Zurich Insurance, Switzerland

Fabrice Seiman, Co-President, Lutetia Capital, France

Links

List of Participants

Press Release in English

Press Release in French

Background

Global Arts Leadership Initiative is one of the task forces of the Forum of Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. Global Arts Leadership Initiative provides an active platform of activity and dialogue amongst stakeholders from business, politics, science, academia, civic service, and performing and visual arts who share the common vision of establishing the Arts as an integral part of healthy communities.

Global Arts Leadership Initiative will conduct a variety of arts leadership activities worldwide, in partnership with Cultural Leaders and high-impact arts organizations, to engage them in a collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach to developing solutions to global challenges and building a system of values-based decision making.

Leaders

Katya Gorbatiouk, Erwann Michel-Kerjan, Lorenzo Mendoza

YGL Participants: Matthew Bishop, Kirill Dmitriev, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Julian Rachlin, Alvaro Rodriguez Arregui, Alberto Vollmer, Andrei Elinson, Nikolay Pryanishnikov, Kevin W. Lu, Lorna Solis, Marcel Pinas, Ngundi Githuku, Patrick Chappatte, Eva Dichand, Vuyo Jack, Pawan Patil, Maja Kuzmanovic

The Vital Role Of Arts

Global Arts Leadership Initiative will promote the role of the Arts as one of the important social tools in helping achieve solutions to a number of challenges affecting the world, such as education, poverty, crime, multicultural understanding, international cooperation, and diplomacy.

Education and Innovation
Arts education awakens and stimulates creativity, imagination, abstract cognitive abilities, problem solving and directly advances abilities in all subjects, needed to remain competitive in the global economy.

Poverty
Arts and culture have been proven to be an effective tool for individuals to want to achieve and advance in their society. The Arts provide a path to an individual to a dignified role in society. Poverty encompasses hopelessness, loneliness, sadness; the Arts are their antidote.

Crime Prevention
Arts and music have been successfully used around the world as a social tool to revitalize communities and bring meaningful content to children’s lives during critical years of development.

International Cultural Diplomacy
Arts advancement organizations have demonstrated ability to create bridges and mend relationships on the highest levels.

Multicultural Understanding
Arts, as a common language, promotes awareness, understanding and respect of cultural differences.

ARTS LEADERSHIP IN FOCUS, CARNEGIE HALL, 18 FEBRUARY 2010

On 18 February 2010, the World Economic Forum and its Forum of Young Global Leaders presented Arts Leadership in Focus, at Carnegie Hall, to highlight the transformational power of arts and the critical role of cultural institutions and arts education, particularly during times of economic difficulty.

In the morning of February 18, the World Economic Forum hosted a panel discussion at Carnegie Hall on the critical role of cultural leaders and institutions in a multi-stakeholder dialogue in the process of developing solutions to global issues.

Participating Panelists:

Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum
James D. Wolfensohn, Chairman, Wolfensohn & Company
Matthew Bishop, New York Bureau Chief, The Economist
Deborah Borda, President and CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, CEO Strategic Investment Group; Founding Chairman of The Youth Orchestra of the Americas

Moderator: Erwann Michel-Kerjan

During the evening concert, performances by world-renowned musicians, who are members of the Forum of Young Global Leaders, gave voice to the potential impact the Arts have to transform the world:
Julian Rachlin (YGL) and Joshua Bell (YGL), violins
Valery Gergiev (member of the YGL Foundation Board) and Carlos Prieto (YGL), conductors
with Youth Orchestra of the Americas
Remarks by Professor Klaus Schwab, John Hope Bryant (YGL) and Sir Clive Gillinson, Artistic and Executive Director, Carnegie Hall
Video Presentation: Arts Leadership in Focus – spotlight on the efforts of YGL artists:
Gustavo Dudamel (El Sistema)
Midori (Midori & Friends)
Lang Lang (Lang Lang Foundation)
Carlos Miguel Prieto (Youth Orchestra of the Americas).
The results of these efforts underscore the long-term value of supporting cultural endeavors and arts education regardless of economic conditions.

Global Arts Leadership Initiative was co-founded by Katya Gorbatiouk and Rafael DeStella.

Please join us at www.artsglobe.org

Sustainable Fashion: the movement. from Greta Eagan on Vimeo.

Idea submitted by Gretchen Eagan

Background

What is sustainable fashion? Why should we care about it? Is it just a trend? How are brands, designers and retailers practicing and developing sustainable fashion?

…And, can a blueprint be created to act as a guideline for fashion retailers to clearly identify an area or all areas to engage in sustainability?

Over the past 5 months, with intensive literature review, attendance of numerous conferences and one-to-one interviews with industry leaders in fashion and sustainability, I can finally answer all of the above questions- including the last one.

Born from the aforementioned research, the Sustainable Fashion Blueprint is a newly suggested model which provides an overview of six areas in which sustainable practices can be implemented. This clear layout allows brands, retailers and designers to easily identify areas where they can engage in sustainability practices- focusing on one area or incorporating all of the areas to create a complete sustainability loop.

Watch this short film, constructed from the research of this project, to better understand what sustainable fashion is and how the Sustainable Fashion Blueprint can assist in bringing eco-fashion practices mainstream

Sustainable fashion is a movement- not a trend, and companies will fall behind if they do not actively engage in the sustainability revolution. At this point in time, there is no alternative to acting sustainably going forward, to ensure that we manage our resources in an ecological, environmental and economic way. With its propensity to change, fashion is the perfect host for such a strong and all- encompassing movement.

How we decide to participate in the movement is uncertain but crucial. What is certain, is that if we do not change the way we produce, design, source, use and discard our textiles and resources, fashion itself will cease to exist, along with the creativity, identity, expression and innovation that accompanies it.

Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” We all have the opportunity to partake in the Sustainable Movement and to shape the future we want for our future and the future of our children. Perhaps putting something like the Sustainable Fashion Blueprint into place is a first step.

As Young Global Leaders in contemplating our greatest contribution to the World Economic Forum Global Redesign Initiative, we recognized our unique access and ability to influence decision-makers and identified our potential role as a bridge to channel the voices, visions and actions of youth as part of the global process.

In the fall of 2009, we formed the Youth Task Force and launched a global campaign and created spaces for youth to participate across two mediums:

• A series of 30 town hall meetings in 20 countries around the world with over 1000 participants. The participants were from urban and rural areas, various religious and class backgrounds, and ranged in age from 8 to 25. Where possible, young people created and led the town hall meetings. In some cases, conversations were facilitated by Young Global Leaders.
• Online. Young people were invited to participate in ongoing online forums over a 6 week period on a dedicated Youth Task Force website. Over 1000 visitors to the site participated in 170 online discussions.

The voices and opinions of these diverse young people are strategically summarized and presented in this report according to the pillars of the Global Redesign Initiative. These findings have been pulled together as part of a report to be presented at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos 2010. Follow-up actions of the Youth Task Force include developing toolkits for decision-makers to more effectively engage youth as well as to mobilize resources for investing in youth-led community development projects.

Leaders

Co-Chairs: Jennifer Corriero & Nancy Lublin

Active YGL Task Force Members: Johann Olav Koss, Hon. Scott Brison, Juan Mario Laserna, Adrian Cheok, Idalia Cruz, Alvaro Rodriguez Arregui, Ganhuyag Ch. Hutagt, Aashmi Rajya Laxmi Rana, Hafsat Abiola-Costello, Penny Low, Javier Garcia Martinez, Josh Spear, David Jones, Matias De Tezanos, Amy Butte, Ed Mayo, Wilmot Allen, Osayi Oruene, Yair Goldfinger, Scott J. Freidheim

Looking for

• Decision-makers to make a commitment to developing youth as leaders within their organizations and integrating youth voices into strategic planning and policy processes.
• Financial support for the Youth Task Force to develop a toolkit for decision-makers including case studies showcasing best practices in youth engagement across business, government and civil society organizations.
• Endorsement of the 5% for the Future Campaign, to invest in youth-led development projects

As all of the six pillars of the GRI relate to ensuring human and environmental sustainability they are connected to the mission of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As next steps, we will look for ways to target specific projects which engage young people in the effort of raising awareness, delivering services or generating financial resources to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs.

Visit the Youth Task Force Website

Cities are for people

This YGL GRI develops collaborative strategies for promoting efficient urban mobility (e.g. battery standards, cross-industry collaboration, effective multi-modal transportation etc.) How would CO2 efficient urban means of transport ideally be if they were rethought systemically? How do we improve safety for all (motorized vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians) and reduce localized concentrated air and noise pollution and yet reduce congestion and travel time? Can we create powerful alternatives by cross-industry collaborative efforts, using existing technologies?

“Our cities are becoming more and more crowded. A city needs cars like a fish needs a bicycle primarily because you can’t use all that speed because of the many obstacles. (…) in 20-30 years people will not primarily use cars to get around in the cities”. Dean Kamen

Background

In January, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, United Kingdom Prime Minister and Group of 20 Chairman Gordon Brown appealed for “business to formulate with us the economic and policy conditions that will incentivize their investment and that will bring the low-carbon economy into being.” To this end, he called on the Forum to facilitate a “new business-led mission in support of an ambitious climate agreement in Copenhagen, focused on the policies that will lead to business investment in a low-carbon recovery.”

Between 1990 and 2007, transport emissions increased by a third while emissions from other sectors decreased; the share of transport in total emissions rose from 1990 to 2007. More than half the global population now lives in urban environments, by 2030 an estimated 60% and by 2050 a whopping 80%. Although this is a quick and dirty approximation it does indicate the need for rethinking Urban Mobility.

The problem is even more pressing in developing countries. With an increase in population and a steady stream of people moving into cities, there is a huge pressure on mobility infrastructure in cities which will become even more acute in the coming decades. The developing world, or „first billion‟ and their cities have evolved in a particular direction in the 20th century. It is absolutely impractical, unviable and impossible that the „next six billion‟ representing the developing world can follow a similar „car-centric‟ model. There is a crying need for integrated system thinking for the (mega) cities of the future to work out mobility requirements vis-á-vis individual, city, and environment cost.

Together cities are already bigger than any individual market or alliance.

Meanwhile, urban populations are becoming increasingly uniform, as a consequence of globalization. Already, cities have more challenges in common than countries have with each other and have less difference – no foreign policy and military and such. Inter-city governance structures are slowly forming. The need to reduce CO2 emissions, a global, urban market, and new, altered traffic habits have combined to contribute to the generation of new needs and new products, under the name of “Urban Mobility”.

Are there opportunities for private – public partnership to respectively tackle urban CO2 emissions and leveraging a new market?

Idea

The main idea is to create an Urban Mobility authority in order to connect the stakeholders within urban transport and create common standards and promote a holistic approach.
Issue

Decreases CO2 emission globally, harmful pollution locally and improves lifestyle, security and health issues in cities.

Impact

It creates an Urban Mobility authority allowing for the creation of new product typologies, systems and business models for urban transport.

Criteria

The success criteria would be to create an urban mobility authority whose initiatives spur cross- disciplinary cooperation. The ambition is to find a pilot city that would implement the policy recommendations.

Challenges

To make people within very old and stable silos communicate. No immediate authority on the subject. To overcome stakeholder‟s short sited self-interest.

Change
• We need to define urban mobility as unique field rather than a subset of ecology, urbanity, transport
• We need to prioritize the greening of cities • We need to rethink business models / incentives to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration
• We need to integrate existing infrastructure, public and private offerings and potentially smart grids
• We need to cherry pick best features from private and public transport respectively and have a place for all relevant areas of multi-modal transportation including motorized and non-motorized transportation
• We need to address distinctly different demographic needs across cities and map-out city typologies
• We need to integrate new social behavior and tools into commuting • We need to apply off the shelf technologies to spur new solution • We need to bring together distinctly different and relevant fields of expertise and industries

Leaders

Siddhartha Lal, slal@eicher.in, +91 11 41437616
Jens Martin Skibsted, jm@skibstedid.com, +45 28 14 49 18

background

The YGL-Marketplace is a web-based platform within WELCOM that will allow the YGL and WEF community to provide resources, connect social entrepreneurs and bring “trade not aid” to underdeveloped regions of the world. This platform will systematize the meeting of needs, services, goods, references, contacts and other information to facilitate and promote the various social and GRI initiatives that YGLs are leading. This is a unique opportunity to be “execution focused” and deliver results to much needed communities across the globe.

Leaders

Seraina Maag – President – Zurich
Patrick McWhinney – CEO – Insight Partners
Ashish Gadnis – CEO – Forward Hindsight Inc. & Koozala LLC.

What is the real issue this idea solves?
The YGL-Marketplace enables the creation of sustainable business models and resource allocation while driving 360 degree accountability. Traditional micro-finance, aid-based programs have failed as they don’t integrate the “bottom-of-the-pyramid” with rest of the global economy. The YGL-Marketplace solves this problem over the long-term

What is the real impact this idea will make? What are the criteria for impact that you will use to evaluate this idea?
The real impact of this portal will be on the day-to-day folks living in under-developed economies as it will give them the ability to have a sustained (we expect most trades on the marketplace to be 3 years or longer) business model and participate in trade agreements that are thousands of miles away.

What are the challenges that need to be overcome?

The top two challenges are:
Getting funding for the completion of the software development effort. While the WEF has been very kind and generous in allocation funding and resource on the WELCOM side we need YGLs to step up and provide the other half of funding. We are looking to raise $250,000.00 in the next 60 days.
Gaining commitment and action from YGLs and WEF leaders in promoting “trade not aid” by using this platform. We need to have at least 10 trades a month starting Feb 2010.

What agencies / organizations / individuals are you collaborating with?

Target Corporation
Barclays (Jitesh Gadhia)
Ecolab (Christophe Beck)
Women for Women (Zainab Salbi)
Equal World Coffee (Ward Brehm)
Zurich (Seraina Maag)
Habib Haddad (Yamli)
Yael McGuire (ThingMagic)

Contact Person:  Ashish Gadnis  

Idea Submitted by Bud Caddell

Background

In a single day, over 2,000 children are reported abducted here in the US.

That’s almost 800,000 kids a year.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, of the children abducted by strangers and murderers, 75% are killed within the first three hours.

The AMBER alert system was created to help spread the word about an abduction within that 3-hour window.

AMBER Alerts are currently distributed via commercial radio stations, satellite radio, television stations, and cable TV by the Emergency Alert System and NOAA Weather Radio, as well as via e-mail, electronic traffic-condition signs, the LED billboards which are located outside of newer Walgreens locations,[6] along with the LED/LCD signs of billboard companies such as Clear Channel Outdoor, CBS Outdoor and Lamar, and wireless device SMS text messages. (from wikipedia)

As of August 2002, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported that 17 children had been successfully recovered after an Amber alert was issued, including one case in which the abductor released the child after hearing the alert.

In all, the digital methods of alerts are all permission based. You have to sign up to receive the SMS or email. There is, as yet, no method for broadcast of these alerts on the web.

Think about all of the ad space across the web. Adwords, Banner Ads, Text ads, etc.

Think about how a banner can IP locate someone and deliver a customized message.

Think of all the remaindered advertising space across the web. Think of how much of that space is now controlled by Google through their purchase of DoubleClick.

Consider: A child gets abducted near you, and you browse the web, and banner space on your favorite site is, for a short time period (5 seconds, even), replaced with an AMBER alert with contact information.

We may be more apt to ignore that space on the site, but there is still a percentage of people that will see it and will now know of the abduction.

And that will save lives.

Looking For

We need an army of voices, comprised of brands, publishers, and committed people to persuade a company like Google to make time and screen space for this project.

Together we can save a child from danger. We can reunite parent and child, we can avert one of the darkest disasters of our society, and we can stop communities from being ripped apart.

Please help support my idea.

Background

The ocean crisis is as important and urgent as global warming. But most people are totally unaware. The ocean plays a critical role in making Earth habitable by providing essential goods and services for hundreds of millions of people, including food security, oxygen, carbon sequestration, and climate regulation. But climate change, overfishing, and pollution are creating ‘the perfect storm’ that is devastating the ability of the ocean to function. This task force aims to help restore the health and the productivity of the ocean, for the benefit of humans and life on the planet.

Ninety percent of the large ocean predators – such as sharks, tuna and cod – are gone, and at current fishing rates all fisheries will have collapsed by 2048. Twenty percent of the coral reefs of the world have disappeared, and 70% of living coral is predicted to die by 2020. There are 300 dead zones downstream of important agricultural and urban areas. And carbon emissions are turning the ocean more acidic, with potentially catastrophic consequences across the global food chain. This also impacts human health and the economy. For instance, the mismanagement of marine fisheries results in a $50 billion annual loss – equivalent to more than half the value of the global seafood trade. Large fish such as tuna and swordfish have too much mercury in their flesh. And people are losing their jobs because the fisheries that supported them are collapsing.

The good news is that there are economic solutions that are scalable and replicable so that we can restore ocean productivity within our lifetime. Therefore we propose to establish a global policy to restore ocean health and productivity. This global ocean policy should include the following steps:

Leaders

Enric Sala, National Geographic Society
Kristin Rechberger, YGL GRI Steering Committee

Looking For

• We need to build a global network of leaders and stakeholders, and everyone can be a partner in a different way. We know what the solutions are; we now need to implement them at the global scale. We look for:
• Access to business and political leaders – WEF members can become regional ocean leaders and engage key regional players
• Commitments from leaders to develop national ocean policies
• Funding for development and implementation of strategies to reduce our ocean footprint, including the creation of marine reserves for the benefit of people
• Engagement from technology leaders and new ideas on how to use technology to build a global ocean constituency and improve governance

Background

Economic development in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) faces a critical challenge in the 21st century: its youth. With 65% under the age 30, the MENA region has one the youngest populations in the world while having one of the highest youth unemployment rates of over 25%. The long term prosperity and stability of the region hinges on the opportunities afforded to this generation. This is a dire situation that requires action.

The most effective way of dealing with this challenge is to empower more youth to take control of their own destinies through entrepreneurship. However, as things stand today the MENA region lacks several key components critical for a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem. These gaps range from the lack of awareness at both the educational and professional levels, to the scarcity of mentors and early stage investors.

YallaStartup is a project that aims to foster early stage and youth entrepreneurship in the MENA region. Our goal is to address the gaps in the early stage entrepreneurial ecosystem through a variety of programs both online and offline.

Our programs will focus on the following areas:

• Building an online network of entrepreneurs, investors and service providers.
• Facilitating startup creation through pre-seed investments.
• Knowledge exchange through community building and mentorship.
• Education through classes and online content
• Awareness of startup activity through press coverage

Yalla in Arabic slang means “come on, do it” and the name YallaStartup was chosen to convey a call to action for all young innovators to become entrepreneurial and transform their ideas into businesses. Once established we hope to replicate the model in other emerging markets.

To learn more about our programs and activities please visit www.yallastartup.org

Leaders

Habib Haddad YGL, Founder & CEO Yamli
Sami Shalabi, MTS, Google.
Elie El-Khoury, Founder, Woopra

YGL Task force members:
Mina AlOraibi, Abdulsalam Haykal, Emile Cubeisy, Khaldoon Tabaza, Soraya Salti

Looking for

• Domain experts to act as hands on mentors for young entrepreneurs and startups.
• Domain experts to develop legal templates necessary for entrepreneurship in the specific countries
• Commitments from investors/funds to take part of our pre-seed investment program.
• Professionals and educators in the region to support entrepreneur development
• Media contacts to help raise the profile of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs.

Contact 

Habib Haddad

Challenge for the Future:

Step 1: Who can calculate and report on the energy requirements and mechanical specifics for boiling water using a parabolic domed dish (either top or both top & bottom, focus the sun’s rays) that is sized so that the available solar energy can boil the water in the vessel?

Step 2: Supplemental power grid (solar, gravity feed, etc., it has to work unconnected from any external power source) to power the distilled water collection to bulk containment as well as do remote descaling coordination for each vessel)

Step 3: Source funding and manufacturing; implement a field trial. Using DNA as the original thought basis for this, the overall system theme is: using thousands of “too-small” units to achieve something useful. Using biomimetics (or “cultural mimetics”) allows us to tap into the expressions of natural genius we encounter every day.

Originally described here and submitted by Matt Weilert.