7 October 2016: The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) Second Committee held a joint meeting on ‘The changing political economy of globalization: Multilateral institutions and the 2030 Agenda,’ featuring a keynote address by Thomas Friedman, columnist and author.
Opening the annual event, ECOSOC President Frederick Shava said a retreat from multilateralism would post a significant threat to peace and prosperity. He called on delegates to explore solutions to engender inclusive prosperity and meaningful global cooperation.
Dian Triansyah Djani, Chair of the Second Committee, noted challenges to the idea that globalization is a prime driver of economic growth, highlighting the cross-border impacts of financial crisis, inequalities, human displacement, and unemployment. He said “the many should work together so the few helpless are not left behind because of globalization.” He also called for special attention to an enabling environment for developing countries to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Friedman suggested that countries “learn faster and govern smarter” to increase the rate of human adaptability to technological changes.
Friedman’s address highlighted the “value of pressing pause” amid accelerating changes in three global forces: market, nature, and technology. On market changes, he said “flow” has become more relevant than accumulation, making it more important to adapt to new ideas than to accumulate stocks of goods, products or assets. On technology, he said the rate of technological changes is faster than the rate at which humans can adapt, resulting in “enormous dislocation.” He suggested that countries “learn faster and govern smarter” to raise human adaptability. On nature, Friedman said biodiversity loss, climate change and population growth are putting Mother Nature through her own exponential changes.
To respond to these accelerations, Friedman said an example of a successful response from a large company is to support employees to “tap the flow” by taking courses that update their skills. In the changing market, “you can be a lifelong employee if you can be a lifelong learner.” Friedman also encouraged countries to mirror the adaptive tools of nature, such as co-evolution, such as by letting taxes “co-evolve” with key threats. As for political actors that do not adapt an evolutionary approach, he said, “that’s why our political parties are blowing up.” Friedman added that technology acceleration has made humans’ values and beliefs all the more important; “we’re almost to the point where one of us could kill all of us, or one of us could fix everything.”
Friedman concluded that countries can “dance in a hurricane, but only if you’re standing in the eye,” and called for building healthy communities that move with storms and draw energy from them, while providing their members with a safe foundation, rather than trying to build walls. He predicted that the politics of the world’s countries are going to be “between the ‘wall’ people and the ‘eye’ people.”
Responding to a question from a government delegate, Friedman said the best jobs of the future will be in the field of “STEMpathy,” which combine expertise in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) with human empathy. The ability to ask good questions and translate the answers to another human being will be valued more than ever. He also highlighted that pluralism and diversity will bring rising “returns on investment.” Another delegate asked what steps would enable governments to become more innovative, and Friedman recommended a focus on the community level to find innovation and innovative capacity.
The side event also included a panel moderated by Pamela Falk, CBS News, with presentations from Anu Madgavkar, McKinsey Global Institute, Michael Plummer, Johns Hopkins University, and Mariama Williams, South Centre. [IISD RS Sources] [UN Press Release] [Meeting Summary] [ECOSOC President Remarks]