Driving Change

Michael Spence (MS): The economic outlook is a little grim and tough in the short to medium run. There are two things going on. One is the pandemic, which forced us to conduct experiments in the economy that we normally would have conducted at a much slower pace. And some of those experiments are going to result in learning that changes the whole pattern of work - maybe more working from home, may...

What an extraordinary year it has been, with a once-in-100-years pandemic, an historic US presidential election, the long-drawn-out saga of Brexit in Europe, and a host of other lesser-spotted occurrences. But have you been paying attention? Take our quiz to discover if you are top of the public policy pops or whether the finer details have somehow passed you by.

Oliver Cromwell once described English land law as “an ungodly jumble”. More than 350 years later, Dag Detter has a similar view of the way cities and countries value what they own. Their property and assets represent two times global GDP – almost twice the size of equity capital markets. Grouped in public wealth funds, they could release capital equal to 3% of annual GDP – $600bn in the US – for...

Ndidi Nwuneli (NN): We have 10 years to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goal 2, zero hunger, yet it is 2020 and we have actually seen almost a doubling of food insecurity around the world. Instead of getting better, our indices are getting worse, not only around malnutrition, but obesity, and all the related diseases. Our focus is on the role of private sector as the engine of growth and change...

During the pandemic, WilliamHaseltine has been a trusted guide for many people to the intricacies of Covid-19 science and the public policy response. This contribution has included writing an invaluable book of advice for parents of younger children, “A COVID Back To School Guide”. A pioneering academic scientist, serial biotech entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of the NGO, ACCESS Health In...

Giving Tuesday was launched in 2012 on the Tuesday after American Thanksgiving, as an annual celebration of generosity in all its forms. It has grown rapidly into a global grass roots movement, drawing together people around the world who share a love of serving their fellow humans with their time, expertise and money. Asha Curran has been involved in Giving Tuesday from the start, helping her the...

It is 20 years since Jack Sim founded the World Toilet Organization, to campaign for better sanitation and hygiene. In 2013, the United Nations designated November 19th as an annual World Toilet Day. When he talked recently with Driving Change, we began by asking Mr Toilet, as Sim is affectionately known, about how he first got interested in sanitation, and about an influential meeting he had with...

Arturo Condo is the president of EARTH University in Costa Rica, an innovative global university which trains students for futures in sustainable development, particularly in rural parts of the world. Prior to his work at EARTH University, Condo was the president and professor of strategy and competitiveness at INCAE Business school. In total, he has committed over 24 years of his career to teachi...

Rosanne Haggerty is one of the most influential voices on homelessness in America and around the world. She is the president of Community Solutions, a nonprofit working to make a lasting end to homelessness. Haggerty uses her expertise in real estate, finance, management, and strategic planning to create innovative housing solutions for disadvantaged urban residents. Prior to COVID-19, Haggerty re...

Michael Spence is a Canadian-American economist and a recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. He is the Phillip H. Knight Professor Emeritus at and former dean of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a William R. Berkley Professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Spence is also the author of The Next...

Since 2014, Gavin Schmidt has been director of the influential NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, located in New York's Columbia University. One of the institute's key objectives is predicting atmospheric and climate changes in the 21st Century - and Schmidt is one of the world's most trusted guides to the latest data on the impact of rising temperatures and advocate for urgent action to li...

Mark Campanale (MC): COVID changed a lot. What it’s done is forced a huge contraction in the global economy. And that contraction has worked its way into energy demand. If we think of climate change as perhaps the big existential problem of our age, and certainly for the coming century, [Covid has] meant that people are looking at where energy is generated and the burning of fossil fuels which con...

Vikas Pota (VP): You are right to say that COVID, as a phenomenon, has absolutely turned everything upside down. What’s really interesting about it is that it’s affected people from what you would call the Global South as much as it has the Global North. Therein lies, I think, a huge number of opportunities to look at how change can happen in education systems.    This has been a rare opportunity...