As the world continues to face tremendous upheaval wrought by the global pandemic, the urgent need for policy makers, business leaders and civil society representatives to come together has perhaps never been greater. COVID-19 has accelerated and exacerbated the many underlying trends that were already impacting communities around the world and has created a period of radical uncertainty. Communities and economies around the globe have to improve their resilience to withstand and absorb shocks and to recover from them. For that, many policy areas need a realignment.

The challenges we face, among them rising inequalities, climate change or the lack of trust in and between governments, are symptomatic of a deeper root cause that was true before the pandemic and unless action is taken, will continue to be true once the current crisis has passed. The economy is no longer working for society. Every aspect of the current economic system has been intentionally designed and geared towards growing GDP rather than ensuring the wellbeing of people and the sustainability of our planet. Likewise, businesses operating in the economic system have been intentionally designed to deliver profit against shareholder expectations rather than meeting broader stakeholder needs. We have a design problem – and it is contributing to the challenges we are experiencing rather than addressing them. We need to put people and our planet back at the centre of decision making and focus on systems-level change that will enable us to arrive at coherent responses to the profound challenges shaping our future.

This session points out limitations of our current model and advocate changes that are required for a system that addresses the challenges rather than contributes to them.