$5million prize open
to anyone in the region to help re-shape global cooperation and tackle risks to
humanity
• US$5
million offered to entrants from the region and the world, for bold ideas to
re-model global governance for 21st century
• Global
Challenges Foundation hopes to stimulate urgent global debate about how the
world community manages global risks – such climate change, violent conflict
and extreme poverty
• Entries
should look at ways to contribute to the re-shaping of global governance in
order to safeguard future generations
• Open
to individuals from all fields including academia, politics, business and civil
society
A US$5 million prize
competition has been launched by the Global Challenges Foundation – an
independent Swedish organisation- to seek innovative solutions - to
identify new models of global co-operation capable of handling the most serious
threats to humanity including climate change, violent conflict and extreme
poverty. The competition is open to
individuals, groups and organisations in the region - and across the world.
The Global
Challenges Prize 2017: A New Shape was launched by the Stockholm-based
Global Challenges Foundation, set up in 2012 with the aim of deepening
understanding of global risks and galvanizing more effective responses to them.
The prize
competition is based on the premise that human innovation can help us rise to
the challenge of 21st century risks that transcend national borders and can
affect populations all around the world.
“Today’s risks are
so global and so urgent that they require novel thinking to help eradicate
them,” said Global Challenges Foundation founder Laszlo Szombatfalvy, an
investor, author and philanthropist who built his career in Sweden through the
successful analysis of financial risk. “The world is trying to solve today’s
problems with yesterday’s tools. We believe a new shape of collaboration is
needed to address the most critical challenges in our globalised world.”
The New Shape Prize
will ask entrants to design frameworks for international decision-making
equipped to address today’s global challenges with a focus on climate change,
major environmental damage, violent conflict (including nuclear and other
weapons of mass destruction) and extreme poverty. Entrants are also asked to
consider the implications of a rising world population, forecast by the United
Nations to reach 11bn by 2100. The prize is open to anyone – individuals,
groups and organisations – anywhere in the world.
“We believe that the
human ingenuity that has allowed us to eradicate diseases, bring down poverty
levels and stabilize the hole in the ozone layer, can, if properly channeled,
play a role in averting the greatest risks to our survival,” said Mr Szombatfalvy.
“If we can tap this creativity and apply it to designing a better
decision-making system for the world community, then we will have a chance of
preserving our world for future generations.”
The Global
Challenges Foundation is publicizing its New Shape Prize worldwide, partnering
with respected institutions on multiple continents in an effort to reach the
brightest minds and most visionary thinkers whether they come from academia,
policy-making, civil society, business, technology or law. This outreach effort
includes collaborating closely with experts and practitioners currently working
within existing global governance institutions such as the United Nations.
The Global
Challenges Foundation emphasized that the prize competition was not seeking
solutions to the individual risks in question, but for the global
decision-making structures that would allow the world community to tackle them
more effectively.
The competition is
open until May 24, 2017. Entries will be evaluated by a panel of academic
experts. The best proposals will then be judged by a high level international
jury comprised of respected figures of global stature. Final awards will be
made in November 2017.
The Global
Challenges Foundation said it was committed to promoting the winning ideas
following their announcement in order to generate debate around how they could
be implemented and will look to support promising entrants to develop their
ideas where appropriate.
Through its New
Shape Prize, the Global Challenges Foundation hopes to stimulate urgent global
debate at the highest levels about how the world community manages global risks
and to contribute to the re-shaping of global governance in order to safeguard future
generations.
For more information
about The Global Challenges Prize 2017: A New Shape, see: http://www.globalchallenges.org/
Peter Dickinson
Independent International Zoo Consultant        |
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