$5m available for ideas that reshape global cooperation
Melanie May | 1 December 2016 | News
The Global Challenges Foundation has launched a $5m competition to find ideas for facilitating international cooperation on global challenges such as climate change and conflict.
The Global Challenges Prize 2017: A New Shape is based on the premise that the current system of global governance is no longer equipped to deal with this century’s biggest issues.
It 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. The prize is open to anyone, individuals, groups and organisations, anywhere in the world.
The Foundation has said that it is 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 24th May 2017, and entries will be evaluated by a panel of academic experts before the best proposals are then judged by a high level international jury. Final awards will be made in November 2017.
The Global Challenges Foundation hopes to stimulate high level global debate about how the world community manages global risks and to contribute to the re-shaping of global governance in order to safeguard future generations. As such, it has said it will promote the winning ideas following their announcement to generate debate around how they could be implemented and to support promising entrants to develop their ideas where appropriate.
Global Challenges Foundation founder Laszlo Szombatfalvy said:
“Today’s risks are so dangerous and so global in their nature they’ve outrun the international system’s ability to deal with them. We’re 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.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.