Annual Curators Meeting 2016 of the Global Shapers

Professor Schwab,
Dear Curators,
Ladies and gentlemen:

A warm welcome to the Palais des Nations. In this historic building, countless agreements on issues such as economic development, human rights, health or humanitarian aid, to mention just a few, have been elaborated and agreed upon in the past decades.

The Palais des Nations is the natural place for you – the Curators of the Global Shapers – to come together, to be inspired and to inspire others. As young leaders, you are part of a generation of change-makers that drive progress in communities everywhere. And through the network of the World Economic Forum and its partners, your efforts are connected across the globe. By welcoming you at the United Nations, I hope that we can further integrate our shared efforts for a sustainable, peaceful and prosperous future.

These are not just empty, polite words. We really are at a crossroads in history. The world needs individuals with a sense of shared responsibility. We need people who take initiatives while being aware of the bigger picture. Individuals today have more power than ever before, in large part due to the technological advancements which Professor Schwab has so ably described as part of the fourth industrial revolution. Education and new communication technologies, with7.3 billion mobile phones world-wide, for example, have emboldened and empowered individuals to hold governments and institutions at all levels to account. But this development has not yet been accompanied by the necessary policy adjustments towards a people-centred global governance system. Instead, we are today witnessing increasing fragmentation that all too often leads to polarization and conflicts.

Several interconnected trends are challenging our current institutions and governance structures. Inequality in income and opportunity are on the rise worldwide. Mechanisms of accountability and justice are circumvented and a widespread trust deficit towards the ‘authorities’ at all governance levels is emerging. As a result, populist, isolationist and protest movements are on the rise as individuals desperately look for alternative ways of making their voice heard.

Along with these changes in the relationship between individuals and institutions, the relationships between different institutions are also changing at local, regional and global levels. As an effect of increasing urbanization for example, city administrations are playing an increasingly important role. Our global institutions need to adapt to this new and growing reality by, among other things, increasing interaction across different governance levels.

There are also changes on a more personal level. Our increasing individual mobility changes identities, alliances and allegiances – and as a result, our priorities. The perceptions of “north” and “south” and “east” and “west” are being realigned as people move and economies develop.

With an increasing number of actors and sub-structures in the sphere of multilateral governance, the categories that we have been using to describe the world have been overtaken by events. Challenges can no longer be neatly separated and labelled as either “security” or “economic” for example. Security threats cut across borders, in the form of terrorism, criminal networks or flows of arms, challenging the traditional distinction between inter-State and intra-State conflicts.

These trends have emerged over many years. So why are we at a crossroads now? The fact is that hardly any of us realized the deep transformative nature of these changes and the extent of their implications. Several recent events and developments have served as “eye-openers”: the global refugee crisis and the inability of the international community to find a humane and efficient way of managing it is an example. But there is a much more positive reason why I am convinced that we – and importantly, you as young and energetic innovators – need to come together to turn this tide now.

In 2015, the world agreed on a set of new policy frameworks, the scope of which are so comprehensive, that they have the potential capacity to respond to the deep-rooted transformations and challenges we face. A new agreement on Disaster Risk Reduction, the so called Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development, the Paris Climate Agreement and of course the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development together yield the most comprehensive set of shared goals that the international community has ever set for itself. This is our collective road-map for action.

With 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the 2030 Agenda is the glue that will hold these different action plans together. This will, however, require a much more collaborative approach across the board. All of us, including the private and public sectors, academia, civil society and other stakeholders, will need to work in a much more integrated, horizontal manner across issues, across organizations and definitely across generations.

For some of you these frameworks and goals may seem like an academic exercise, far-removed from the local contexts in which you work. This would be a mistake. The Sustainable Development Goals are already changing the way in which organizations and businesses operate. They are transformative reference points for programmatic and strategic planning and actions, and will help us align efforts across sectors. Those who don’t join in, risk to be left behind.

Your start-up company may struggle to get access to markets if it does not apply environmental or health standards in line with the SDGs. Your NGO may fail to get those grants it relies on for funding if proposals are not guided by the SDGs. Your research may be outdated before it is published if you do not consider how it contributes to sustainable development. Your group is so diverse that I could extend this list for many other sectors in which you work and contribute, but I think my point is clear: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development matters for everyone and we need your active collective engagement, to make sure that we leave no one behind.
This is not just about incentives to grow your business, win an award for your community project or get the promotion you are hoping for. It is about being part of a global movement for change. The Millennium Development Goals have shown that this approach works: globally, the number of people living in extreme poverty has declined by more than half since 1990. Women now make up 41 per cent of paid workers outside the agricultural sector, an increase from 35 per cent in 1990. And there are many more examples. But we still have a long way to go to eradicate extreme poverty, to achieve gender equality and to make progress across the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. And we need to move fast to counter the challenges that threaten to undermine the gains we have made. Climate change is a vivid example of a trend that could set humanity back significantly in the coming years unless addressed urgently.

As my colleague David Nabarro is here as well, I will leave it to him to elaborate on the 2030 Agenda and what you can do to help implement it. Nevertheless, I would like to underline the importance of Geneva in the implementation process of the 2030 Agenda. Over the last 150 years International Geneva, where many of the technical agencies and international organizations are based that will be helping implementing this Agenda, has developed an incredible ecosystem of cooperation between actors of different nature, size and origins. Further, here in Geneva – the international operational hub – is where field expertise, academia, private sector, scientific, civil society and other non-state actors contribute decisively to policies adopted by international organizations and our Member States. The horizontal and cross-sectoral cooperation between these actors will become even more important in the future, and Geneva is the natural place for multi-stakeholder processes of this nature.

I started by saying that we are at a crossroads. Perhaps for the first time in history, we are realizing that our decision is no longer about taking the right or wrong turn: it is about building connections between the different roads ahead to make sure no-body is on an isolated track. Looking around in this room makes me confident that we can achieve this. I thank you – the Global Shapers and the wider World Economic Forum – for showing once again that you are ready to join hands in this endeavor and I look forward to continuing our fruitful collaboration. You are the shapers of our future – please make sure it will be a good one.

Thank you very much.