Establishing A "global Challenges Wikipedia": A Primer

Draft 1 | Copyright © Ali Wyne 2008

A Primer for Empowering the World’s Problem Solvers “A global challenges Wikipedia has the potential to yield long-term frameworks for addressing every single global challenge that confronts our planet: in short, it has the potential to empower billions of people to transcend their plight and become their own agents of change. That prospect is as much a source of excitement as it is a call to action – let us answer it together.” BACKGROUND I entered Change.org’s competition to propel ten ideas to the fore of Barack Obama’s administration. My proposal to establish a “global challenges Wikipedia” has generated great interest among nonprofit organizations, consulting firms, and policy organizations. I prepared this primer quickly to ensure that I am able to follow up with them while they are still enthusiastic. It is intended both as a preliminary effort to describe the wiki’s purpose and functionality and as an invitation to readers to volunteer any questions, concerns, suggestions, and other observations that they might have. Please direct all correspondence to [email protected].

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Draft 1 | Copyright © Ali Wyne 2008

I. INTRODUCTION Barack Obama will inherit perhaps the greatest set of global challenges that any president has confronted since Franklin Roosevelt surveyed the ruins of war abroad and the devastation of recession at home. He is being inundated with prescriptions on how to address each of these challenges – ranging from climate change to weapons proliferation – in no small part because much of the global community regards him as an agent of change and innovation. It is doubtful that many of the legion memos, reports, and books that he is receiving will actually be opened, let alone read and heeded. A “global challenges Wikipedia” would empower the next administration – indeed, the entire global community of problem solvers – to address global challenges in an efficient, systematic manner with an eye towards generating and implementing concrete solutions.1 Although this portal could be launched without the next administration’s support, establishing, maintaining, and updating it will require extraordinary manpower and resources. It stands to reason that these will be obtained more readily if this proposal gains the attention of President Obama and, accordingly, of problem solvers here and abroad. II. A GLOBAL CHALLENGES WIKIPEDIA Given that there are currently about 20 global challenges and 200 countries in the world, a global challenges Wikipedia (GCW) would consist of three distinct, but highly integrated parts: [1] The global challenges repository (GCR) would be 20 rows by 200 columns (one row per global challenge, one column per country). Each cell would contain (a) A history of the corresponding global challenge in the corresponding country; (b) An inventory of the players – the international institutions, governments, businesses, nonprofit organizations (NGOs), and individuals – that are addressing it, and how; and (c) A profile of the issue, financial, and logistical networks between these players. Teams of experts, one per global challenge, would ensure the accuracy of additions and updates to the GCR. [2] The solutions portal (SP) would also be a 20 x 200 matrix. Each cell would contain (a) Descriptions of policy initiatives that have been successfully deployed against the corresponding global challenge in the corresponding country in the past; (b) A thread on how to address the corresponding global challenge in the corresponding country; and (c) A thread on how the aforementioned players can collaborate without replicating each other’s efforts and wasting resources. The expert teams would ensure that all contributions are solution-oriented. They would evaluate the ability of the solutions that have worked for a given country ([2](a)) to be tested in and 1 I use the phrase “global challenges Wikipedia” not as a potential title for the framework that I envision, but rather, as an analogy to illuminate its intended purpose and desired outcomes. I have considered several titles (for example, the “Global Challenges Portal”) but have yet to settle on any of them. The final title, however, will not contain the word “Wikipedia,” which is a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation.

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Draft 1 | Copyright © Ali Wyne 2008

applied to others. They would also monitor the discussion threads ([2](b), [2](c)) to identify areas of consensus and accordingly articulate new solutions. [3] The case studies of past successes and write-ups of new solutions would be inputted into a 20 x 200 solutions repository (SR), which would offer a dynamic pool of insights for application to new challenges. III. A HYBRID, SOLUTION-ORIENTED MODEL My proposal would blend Wikipedia’s spirit with principled regulation. Specifically, the expert teams would be tasked with approving all additions to the GCR and SP, which would be open to the public. Furthermore, they would have exclusive access to the SR, the GCW’s central output. As noted earlier, additions and updates to the GCR, which would essentially be a repository of facts, would be monitored for their accuracy. Additions to the SP, however, which would essentially be a repository of recommendations as to what actions should be taken, would be monitored for their relevance and tone. Thus, proposed contributions that did not contribute to the discussion at hand and / or were abusive would not be accepted. Otherwise, the discussion and debate in the SP would proceed without any interference. Allowing individuals – whether scholars, public servants, activists, or laypeople – to contribute continuously to the SP would provide for a marketplace of ideas in which sensible proposals prevail. I envision populating the GCR and SP initially with comments from the appointed experts so as to give the GCW enterprise profile and credibility at the outset. Thereafter, however, the discussion and debate would be truly global insofar as they derived from and responded to the needs of individuals who are suffering acutely because of global challenges. Enlisting the support of NGO representatives who are on the ground in developing countries will be critical in this regard, because they can speak with and aggregate the concerns of those who do not have the technical access or savoir-faire to contribute to the GCR and SP themselves. Only 22% of the world’s population overall has Internet access and, not surprisingly, the figure is much lower in those regions where global challenges are most oppressive. Only 21.3% of individuals in the Middle East, 15.3% of individuals in Asia, and 5.3% of individuals in Africa have Internet access.2 It is the 78% of people in the world who do not have Internet access whose concerns must drive the solutions that emerge from the GCW. IV. THE MODEL AT WORK Figure 1 offers a simple illustration of the GCW at work; it is a small, 10 x 10 cross-section of the proposed model:

Internet World Stats, “The Internet Big Picture: World Internet Users and Population Stats,” available at http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm (2008). 2

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Suppose that you are interested in establishing a microfinance scheme to alleviate financial instability in Uganda. I include images of President Obama, a poor Ugandan farmer, and a group of social entrepreneurs to emphasize that “you” can be anyone in the world: all contributors to the GCW would be treated equally. It is impossible to have a solution-oriented dialogue that responds to those who are suffering if contributors are accorded preferential treatment on account of their background, pedigree, or position. With that thought in mind, you could look up the highlighted cell to see what efforts players are already undertaking so that you can either support them or identify and pursue areas that they are neglecting. This knowledge is crucial because, far too often, those who are trying to address global challenges undermine rather than help each other. Sometimes this unfortunate outcome results from their being unaware of each other, in which case they replicate each other’s efforts and waste precious resources. When they are aware of each other, however, they tend to compete rather than collaborate – egos clash. Figure 2 presents a high-level view of the GCW that would, if properly implemented, streamline collaboration: Figure 2: The GCW Cycle

New Challenges Solutions / Challenges Matching Expert Verification

GCR

Discussion and Debate

Expert Input SP

Expert Verification Public Input

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SR

Draft 1 | Copyright © Ali Wyne 2008

Another hypothetical example is in order. Suppose you are a human rights advocate who is worried that sex trafficking in Vietnam is not receiving sufficient attention. You and your colleagues could go to the cell that addresses human rights challenges in that country and input [1](a) – [1](c). A team of experts on human rights would verify the information that you submit and proceed to update the GCR. Any member of the public could modify your entry, contingent upon the experts’ approval. Discussion and debate would occur, hopefully yielding consensus-based solutions as to how to proceed. The experts would extract those solutions that they believe to be realistic and input them into the SR. The solutions that comprise the SR would ideally be applied to new challenges that are inputted into the GCR, thereby completing the GCW cycle. V. AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME The scholarly literature has placed growing emphasis on the importance of streamlined collaboration between players. Here are two prominent examples: There is mounting concern about a global governance deficit for managing international environmental problems and sustainable development. This article reviews the proposals and justifications for reform, and suggests an alternative model of global governance based on diffuse networks of diverse actors performing multiple and overlapping functions. Some reform proposals are offered to improve the prospects of network-based global governance.3 [T]he thin line that separates weak states from truly failed ones is manned by a hodgepodge of international charities, aid agencies, philanthropists, and foreign advisors...as a consequence [of these entities’ work], many of these states are failing to develop the skills necessary to run their countries effectively, while others fall back on a global safety net to escape their own accountability.4 These assessments, only two of many others, suggest that the GCW’s time is long overdue. JeanFrançois Rischard, prominent economist and World Bank vice president for Europe from 1998 to 2005, argues that The potential result [of what he calls “global issue networks”] would be a new kind of legitimacy – a horizontal legitimacy – emerging from joint deliberations, both across borders and throughout government, business, and civil society, by a large group of people deeply concerned with and knowledgeable about one issue. Horizontal legitimacy would not replace but rather would complement the vertical legitimacy of the traditional local-to-global electoral processes of nation states, which deal with all issues but within the confines of a defined territory. In a way, the horizontal legitimacy of global issues networks is designed precisely to pressure nation-states’ traditional vertical legitimacy systems into performing better on urgent planetary issues. Performing better means acting faster and adopting more of a long-term, global-citizenship perspective than those normally taken by traditional

3 Peter M. Haas, “Addressing the Global Governance Deficit,” Global Environmental Politics, 4:4 (November 2004): pp. 115. 4 Michael A. Cohen, Maria Figueroa Küpçü, and Parag Khanna, “The New Colonialists,” Foreign Policy (July / August 2008): pp. 74-79.

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systems. At the same time, horizontal legitimacy can be expected to impose accountability on the political systems of nation-states that is currently lacking on inherently global issues.5 Collaborative endeavors such as http://www.wiserearth.org/ and http://www.globalgiving.com/, to name but two, are growing rapidly. They smartly leverage technology to enable cooperation between players that might not otherwise find each other. VI. IMPORTANT QUESTIONS There are important questions that will have to be answered carefully and thoroughly for the GCW to flourish. Here is a list, by no means exhaustive, of some important ones: 1. How will the experts be selected? 2. Who, if anyone, will administer the GCW? 3. Given that the utility of the GCW will scale with the number of contributors, how will they be encouraged to contribute? 4. Will the GCW sustain itself through private donations, foundation grants, government assistance, some combination thereof, or none of these? 5. Given its matrix format, characterizing a given global challenge in a given country, how will the GCW account for the reality that global challenges influence one another and cross borders? 6. How, as a database of global problems and solutions, will the GCW be able to address challenges at sub-national (that is, local and regional) levels? 7. Through what mechanisms will the 78% of people in the world who do not have Internet access have their feedback solicited and inputted? 8. By what criteria will the experts determine that a consensus has been reached? 9. By what criteria will the experts determine that a consensus-based solution is sufficiently realistic as to be inputted into the SR? 10. How will GCW-generated solutions be disseminated to policy makers so as to achieve maximum influence? 11. Have GCW-like efforts been attempted before, and what is their current status? 12. What alternative solution-generating frameworks exist? VII. A BRIGHT FUTURE Almost a decade into the 21st century, we confront an unusual phenomenon: namely, although the challenges that we face have never been greater, neither has our ability to address them. Indeed, we have a “good” problem: we have so many players that are trying to address them and so many resources that we can marshal to do so and so many schemes for allocating those resources that the key for us is to figure out how to harness what we have rather than identify what we lack. As with any undertaking of the nature and scale of that which I am proposing, establishing a GCW will encounter many unforeseen obstacles and will demand great patience, care, and creativity. If it succeeds however, it has the potential to yield long-term frameworks for addressing every single Jean-François Rischard, “Global Issues Networks: Desperate Times Deserve Innovative Measures,” Washington Quarterly, 26:1 (2002): pp. 17-33. 5

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global challenge that confronts our planet: in short, it has the potential to empower billions of people to transcend their plight and become their own agents of change. That prospect is as much a source of excitement as it is a call to action – let us answer it together. Ali Wyne Washington, D.C. January 13, 2009

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