Champion for Innovative Financing for Development, Laurent Lamothe, Spoke at the World Economic Forum.
Laurent Lamothe spoke at the World Economic Forum on Thursday 4 May in the discussion focused on: South Africa—EU Dialogue on Sustainable Transition: Country perspectives: How a circular economy can benefit African and European nations alike.
As an international organisation with no commercial interests, the World Economic Form provides a platform for leaders from all the stakeholder groups from around the world—business, government and civil society—to come together to shape a better future for mankind. The Forum engages businesses in projects and initiatives—both online and off-line—to address industry, regional and systemic issues.
Laurent Lamothe, former Prime Minister of Haiti and founder of LSL World Initiative, which assists the governments of emerging countries to generate revenue for socio-economic development through micro-contributions levied on global activities such as telecommunications and financial transactions (Innovative Financing for Development), spoke on Thursday 4 May in the discussion focused on: South Africa—EU Dialogue on Sustainable Transition: Country perspectives: How a circular economy can benefit African and European nations alike.
The term “circular economy” relates to economic activities envisaged as a circle like a doughnut where the hole in the doughnut’s center reveals the proportion of people globally who fall short on life’s essentials such as food, water, healthcare, and political freedom of expression—and a large part of humanity’s challenge is to get everyone out of that hole.
Certainly, Lamothe’s life work has been focused on assisting the governments of emerging countries to uplift their peoples through the provision of education, telecommunications, water, electricity and other important services using their domestic resources and without increasing their foreign debt. His contention has always been that micro-contributions—when aggregated— can make a mega-contribution to the provision of socio-economic development.
Many millions of people still live daily with hunger, illiteracy, insecurity and voicelessness while at the same time, the collective pressure of humanity on our planet has already overshot at least four planetary boundaries: for climate change, land conversion, use of fertilizer and the loss of biodiversity.
Also on Thursday, Lamothe spoke at the networking cocktail reception with the South African Minister of Environmental Affairs, Mrs Edna Molewa, on Innovative Financing, and revealed how he used Innovative Financing for Development mechanisms to put 1.4 million Haitian children through school free of charge during his tenure in Haiti as Prime Minister.
He also took part in the live panel discussion on Engineering Africa’s Infrastructure Development by CBNC Africa and Siemens.
Lamothe’s participation and insights were significant in the global context and insightful against a backdrop of a deeply divisive and degenerative global economy—riven with extreme inequality and destructive forces undermining the living world on which everything depends.
As the international balance of power continues to break down, scientific and technological breakthroughs promise to transform economies and societies, and growth models are overturned, the unique platform provided by the Forum helps leaders from all walks of life to prepare for disruptive change. Our world is an interconnected system straining under the burden of its own complexity.
The emergence of new geo-economic competition, new regionalism and new actors is evident, and more technological change will occur over the next decade than ever seen in the past 50 years.
Advances in all the sciences will leave no aspect of global society untouched while around the world, a young generation is demanding a voice. Increasingly, they see decisions being made at the expense of their futures.
Each of these factors and others require a new kind of institution—one that is adaptable, entrepreneurial and engenders the trust of all its stakeholders—one that can bring together people who have the power to drive change, to achieve mutual understanding and collaboration—people who can negotiate, come to a common agreement and where appropriate, drive action to solve pressing issues. LSL World Initiative certainly fits the bill as one of these “new kinds of Institutions.”
Through its Industry affiliation initiative, each World Economic Forum industry community comprises select partner companies that are shaping and transforming their industries in strategic and socially responsible ways. These are world-class companies with a strong interest in developing systemic solutions to key challenges. They are represented in forum communities, events and projects by the chief executive, chairperson or other executives at the board level who are personally involved in decision-making and the steering of initiatives. Participation is reserved for the most senior executives to facilitate the necessary decision-making needed for meaningful progress.
Well-known as an innovative and visionary solution-seeker and entrepreneur, Lamothe’s participation and insights were significant in the global context and insightful against a backdrop of a deeply divisive and degenerative global economy—riven with extreme inequality and destructive forces undermining the living world on which everything depends.