Davos. A city situated in the Swiss Alps at over 5,000 feet from sea level, it is the highest city in Europe. For 40 years over 2000 global leaders from all walks of life and from all corners of the world have been gathering at Davos at the beginning of a year to assess the state of the world in the past year and develop visions, strategies and initiatives at the global level for the year ahead. The World Economic Forum Annual Summit took on yet another momentous task for 2010 – developing strategies for global systemic redesign in light of recent economic crisis. This article focuses on two themes that bring out the ‘flavor’ of topics and ideas that emerged in Davos this year, followed by a discussion on how this is relevant for Bangladesh.
REDESIGNING GLOBALIZATION
If the economic crisis taught us one thing, it is that we live in a highly interconnected world. The crisis has helped to partially correct global economic imbalances, but the danger is that imbalances will reassert if surplus and deficit countries return to pre-crisis dynamics. To move forward, the world needs new rules and mechanisms for the governance of globalization. The international community must rebuild global systems based on new networks and forms of collaboration; what is needed is a kind of “institutional reboot” to move the world from talking to doing.
To do so, we need to consider “variable geometry” or pluralist solutions, public-private partnerships (PPPs) and smaller-scale region- or city-driven initiatives, moving away from single undertaking, one-size-must-fit-all arrangements that require unanimity among all countries in redesigning and rebuilding institutions and mechanisms of global governance. New metrics that integrate social goals and values are required.
EMBRACING DESIGN-LED THINKING
Design thinking is fundamentally based on judiciously embracing risks: it uniquely combines conscious risk taking with structured risk mitigation strategies. Design is increasingly seen as an integral part of innovation, and a very potent tool in realizing change. At present, the potential of design is underrated in public policy and society at large. Education systems tend to focus on fact-based learning rather than on creativity and play. However, the advent of interconnected communication technologies and biotechnology will bring about a new demand for design to manage and enhance the human impact of these developments.
Design could help policy-makers create better policy instruments to address global challenges, in particular by helping to design an economic system which values meaning, participation and experience. Design-led thinking can enable humans to reconnect with the processes of trial and error, creativity and empirical, which they all experienced as children. The result could be a tidal wave of innovation.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN FOR BANGLADESH?
Bangladesh can leverage a lot from the directions set and initiatives launched at Davos. With regards to globalization, Bangladesh can leverage the new forms of collaboration to take an active part in the redesign. We can adopt the proposed “variable geometry” strategies to encourage multi-stakeholder partnerships, including PPPs, in many areas of our economic activities, such as health care, education, and research & development to name a few. In addition to learning from what the world has to offer, we can contribute to collective lessons from Bangladesh. The successes of micro-credit programs, advances in gender parity, and achievements in non-formal education at home are all examples of areas where we can share our experiences with the broader world audience to help with the “institutional reboot”. Moreover, Bangladesh has the opportunity to ‘export’ its value-based development mindset to the world. Our people and organizations embody a deep sense of emotional value system that enables us to take long-term views on issues. Our parents don’t ask their children to leave home when they turn 18 and our organizations don’t lay off employees en masse at the first sign of economic downturns. There is an element of caring and nurturing in what we do. Many experts feel that had the global organizations taken a more long-term and nurturing approach to their decisions, the world may have been able to avoid the crisis, or at least have undergone a softer downturn. As the world now architects new governance frameworks, Bangladesh can document and share its nurturing approach.
With regards to design-led thinking, Bangladesh truly has a lot to learn. The limited presence of critical thinking and analytical skills in our education system has inhibited our ability to critically analyze a given situation and devise creative solutions. Design-led thinking weds form and function to significantly influence solution identification and adaptation. From introducing new household products and improved health care services, to more efficiently dispensing public services such as traffic management, design-led thinking can help by focusing on simplicity, cost effectiveness and, above all, end-user experience with a product or service. Greater public discourse on design as a critical component of solution formulation and implementation is required to stimulate much-needed innovation in Bangladesh.
This article was written in 2010.
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