3 Big Ideas (and 6 Quotes) on How We Can Make Global Progress

In today’s complex world that is changing every day, it’s clear that we need big ideas to solve big challenges.

Over the past two days, innovators, experts, and thinkers joined leaders from government in Dubai to discuss how governments can help address global issues and create a better future for people around the world.

As the international community works to achieve a sustainable development agenda that promotes opportunity for all, we’ll need new ideas and new ways of working together to make progress for people and the planet.

Here are three big ideas from the discussion that can help spark new thinking on how we can create a better world.

Create innovation; don’t wait for it. One of the key themes I heard at the World Government Summit was the need to look for innovation in unlikely places. “The best way to find the future is to invent it” was the advice that MIT’s Nicolas Negroponte to the group assembled in Dubai. I heard those words over and over, repeated by people we met with from all over the world.

The more inclusive you are as a government, the more legitimate you are. A panel of experts took on the question of “why governments fail.” Each of them talked about the need to bring in new voices and opinions into the decisions that governments will make over the next few years if they want to adapt to changing needs and achieve progress on areas covered by indicators such as the global goals for sustainable development.

Media has a role – and it’s a big one. There is a real tidal wave of understanding that the global community needs to work with media as this sector reinvents itself. Multiple people mentioned the outcome of the Paris climate agreement as a concrete example of a global moment when media helped drive citizen engagement in smart, more effective ways. Leaders young and old talked about the speed with which knowledge and advancements are accelerating and the role that media will play in sharing information that will build skills and understanding. Media will also serve as one of the key actors in building accountability for governments.

There were so many powerful ideas at the summit, that I can’t stop with these three. So here are six top quotes on the state of the world and what we need to do for the future.