Global Leadership in the 21st Century

There is an urgent need to fill the global leadership vacuum in order to address the complex, pressing challenges confronting humanity today. The Global Leadership project was launched by WAAS and the UN Office in Geneva in November 2019 to address this critical need. This multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral project highlights innovative strategies and effective principles to accelerate the emergence of dynamic leadership for successful implementation of the SDGs. The project will involve consultations with IGOs, nation-states, business, scientific research and educational institutions, civil society and youth organizations.

The overarching objective of the project is to become a catalyst to accelerate the emergence of leadership for global development. Its strategy is to consciously apply at the global level essential principles of effective leadership that have previously served as catalysts for rapid transformation.

“The aim of this initiative is to identify strategies for a new transformative leadership to successfully accelerate progress on pressing global challenges.”
Tatiana Valovaya, Director General, UNOG

Featured Events

Global Leadership in the 21^stC.

This conference examined leadership strategies for a renewed multilateralism through the engagement of civil society, media, youth networks, social movements, and the private sector. It was the culmination of a one-year joint project to develop cross-sectoral catalytic strategies to address global leadership challenges.

WAAS along with 20 partner organizations organized an e-conference covering political, economic, financial, educational, social, health, cultural and ecological issues. The conference identified catalytic strategies and successful initiatives to fill the global leadership gap and generate positive momentum for progress.

The Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and WAAS conducted a Youth Leadership Day event online. The event offered youth the chance to learn from leaders in the field of peacemaking, covering topics such as human rights, peace, education, science and technology, arts, economy and climate change.

MORE EVENTS

Reports

WAAS-UNOG Report on GL-21

The report addresses 5 interdependent pillars of a comprehensive approach to building global leadership—Redefining Multilateralism, Sustaining Peace & Human Security, Mobilizing Civil Society, Financing Implementation of SDGs, and Transforming Education. Under each pillar it identifies key areas for breakthrough initiatives.

This report summarizes the main discussions of the WAAS-UNOG conference on GL-21 held in December 2020. The conference was the culmination of a 1 year joint project to develop cross-sectoral catalytic strategies to address current leadership challenges. It explored the integration of research into policy making and implementation.

Impact of Science and Technology on Society and Economy – Trieste, Italy – Mar 4-5, 2013
Opportunities & Challenges for the 21st Century: Search for a New Paradigm – United Nations Office at Geneva – Jun 3, 2013
Opportunities and Challenges for the 21st Century – Library of Alexandria, Egypt – Jun 5-6, 2013
New Paradigm for Human Development – Baku, Azerbaijan – Apr 30, 2014

Published Articles

New Paradigm

In 2013 WAAS embarked on a new project to examine the global challenges and opportunities confronting humanity in the 21^st century. The first phase of the project was launched at a conference at the United Nations Office in Geneva on June 1, 2013 jointly conducted by WAAS and UNOG with the participation of 200 senior diplomats, heads of research institutions and civil society organizations. Phase I led to the publication of more than 100 articles on different sectors of global society, including peace and security, global governance, democracy, economy, finance, employment, education, ecology and environment, society and culture. Phase I identified certain common characteristics of all the challenges confronting humanity and argued that a mere change in public policies would be inadequate to address any of them. More fundamental changes would be needed necessitating a paradigm change in approach, including a reconstitution of institutions at the national and global level, a reformulation of social theory to take into account the interlinkages and interdependencies between sectors, a restructuring of education to overcome the barriers created to independence silos of knowledge and fundamental changes in the way we think of global issues. The outcome of Phase I conferences and published papers led eventually to the launch in 2019 of Phase II of collaboration between WAAS and UNOG under the title Global Leadership in the 21^st Century as presented above.