News about the Academy & its Fellows
In This Issue
ACADEMY NEWS
NEWS ABOUT FELLOWS
ACADEMY NEWS
Election of Officers
We are pleased to announce the results of the election of officers held during the WAAS Board of Trustees meeting in Bucharest on October 11, 2022 and effective from December 1, 2022.
Garry Jacobs has been reelected as President and CEO for another three years. Alberto Zucconi has been reelected as Chairman of the Board. Nebojsa Neskovic has been elected as a Vice President (Science and Technology) to complement the role of Donato Kiniger Passigli as Vice President (Social Sciences and Humanities). Janani Ramanathan has been elected as the new Secretary-General of WAAS.
UN-WAAS Global Campaign on Human Security For All
On October 1, 2022 WAAS commenced formal collaboration with the United Nations Trust Fund (UNTFHS) for a global campaign on Human Security for All (HS4A). This one-year campaign will reach out to decision-makers, institutions and the general public around the world to promote a comprehensive, integrated, person-centered approach to enhance the security, human rights and sustainable development of people everywhere.
WAAS will be collaborating on the campaign with an expanding network of organizations around the world involving UN agencies, national parliaments, universities, academies, research institutes, businesses, financial institutions, civil society organizations, and extensive social media networks.
HS4A supporters include Art for the World; CoNGO, coalition of 600+ NGOs with UN ECOSOC consultative status; Consumer Technology Association, organizer of the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show, the world’s largest exhibition of innovative technologies which will be held in early January 2023; Force for Good; Foreign Press Correspondents USA; Green Hope Foundation; IAP, Interacademy Partnership including 140+ national, global and regional academies; The International Amateur Radio Union; The Inter-Parliamentary Union of 170+ national parliaments; International Children’s Art Foundation; POP Movement; SDSN Europe network of 400+ universities and research institutes; Unity Earth and UNIFY social networks; World Health Organization; and others.
A recent CES Tech Talk podcast featured Garry Jacobs, discussing the critical role of technology as a means for attaining human security for all. Click here to listen to the podcast.
HS4A is a natural extension of our earlier work with the UN on New Paradigm for Human Development and Global Leadership in the 21st Century. The human security approach is closely aligned with the work of the Academy over the past decade to forge transdisciplinary, integrated, human-centered perspectives and strategies to address pressing global challenges. The January 2023 special issue of Cadmus will include articles exploring different dimensions of Human Security. The 6th WAAS-WUC International Conference on Future Education to be conducted online in March 2023 will focus on Education for Human Security.
| Recent WAAS Events |
Basic Sciences and Sustainable Development
WAAS, WUC, UNESCO, The Club of Rome, Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences and other organizations hosted an international conference on “Basic Sciences and Sustainable Development,” commemorating the proclamation of the year 2022 as the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD) held on September 19-22, 2022 at Belgrade, Serbia.
Click here to view/download the recently published conference report.
COP-27 Global Financial Solutions Summit
WAAS Fellows participated in numerous events at COP27 Egypt on November 9, 2022, including a panel organized by the UNFCCC’s Global Innovation Hub and YK Center at the Global Financial Solutions Summit. Panelists included Massamba Thioye of UNFCCC, Yehuda Kahane, Ketan Patel, Stefan Brunnhuber, Phoebe Koundouri, Jeffrey Sachs, Moshe Bareket and YKC co-founder Tal Ronen, presenting innovative financial solutions for addressing climate change and other essential investments in Sustainable Development Goals.
The speakers presented diverse, but compatible financial solutions to tackle the unprecedented challenges of our times, and bring the global society to Net Zero emissions of Greenhouse gases by 2050.
Another session on Financing SDG stimulus and the Paris Agreement was held at the Global Innovation Hub the same day. Prof. Koundouri advocated the idea that sustainable financing can be profitable and showcased her work on monetizing ecosystem services and natural capital for a holistic sustainable finance where the evaluation model is informed by both environmental and social factors. Report by Marta Neskovic, WAAS AF.
Security, Science and Peace Conference
WAAS and Pugwash Croatia organized a two-day conference called “Security, Science and Peace Conference 2022” on 23-24, November 2022. It dealt with global security and peace policies, the role of science, ethics, and religion, transformative management, and economic aspects of security.
WAAS participants included Ivo Šlaus, Garry Jacobs, Ana Jerković, Jonathan Granoff, Asim Kurjak, Mamphela Ramphele, Paulo Cotta Ramusino, Alyn Ware and Aleksander Zidanšek among others. The discussions focussed on the idea that peace, security, and the very future of humanity depend on the exercise of science and the values on which science is founded, or the social responsibility of science.
Education for Human Security
WAAS was invited by the University of Bucharest, Black Sea Universities Network, and Balkan Universities Association to conduct a special session on Education for Human Security at the International Congress on “Dialogue and Cooperation in the Black Sea and Balkan Regions” on October 12-14, 2022.
WAAS and WUC conducted a special session on October 13 on Education for Human Security. Speakers included Remus Pricopie, Garry Jacobs, Alberto Zucconi, Jonathan Granoff, S.S. Sreejith, Janani Ramanathan, and Mila Popovich.
Trauma Informed Care Best Practices Project
The Trauma Informed Care Best Practices Project (TIC-Project) is a network of networks created to provide free training, materials and information to people and organizations dealing with relevant issues related to psychological trauma. The initiative was launched by Alberto Zucconi, WAAS Chair and President of the Person-Centered Approach Institute (IACP) as an official collaboration with WAAS, World University Consortium (WUC), University for Sustainability (U4S), Black Sea Universities Network (BSUN), PoP Movement and the Ukrainian Psychological Association. The first training session was conducted in Bucharest on September 25-27, 2022. Training under the program is being offered free to qualified Ukrainian psychotherapists. Financial contributions for the project can be made through WAAS here.
ISACCL’s 5th Anniversary Meeting
On October 12, 2022 the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, a WAAS Center of Excellence, celebrated its 5th anniversary. Five members of the WAAS Board are members of the ISACCL Scientific Council and three WAAS trustees attended the event. Garry Jacobs congratulated ISACCL President Emil Constantinescu for his remarkable leadership in building up this institution from scratch into a fully functional and very active research institute conducting projects on a wide range of issues relevant to the region.
Report on Recent Reports (RRR)
The Report on Recent Reports (RRR) identifies selected reports and their key concerns and bottom-line messages to advance the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The reports published by UN agencies, many NGOs and government agencies are usually ignored by the mass media.
Thus, the RRR series will try to report on these reports, probably appearing bi-monthly in 2023. Click here to read the first three reports in the series. Readers of the RRR series are encouraged to suggest important new reports for coverage, and to comment on how this format of brief abstracts can be improved. Contact Michael Marien at [email protected].
| Upcoming WAAS Events |
Education for Human Security
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS
March 7-9, 2023
The 6th international Conference on Future Education will be held in collaboration with SNSPA, Black Sea Universities Network and the World University Consortium. The conference will be conducted online on March 7-9 2023 on the theme of Education for Human Security. This conference is being conducted in support of the campaign on Human Security For All. A selection of papers will also be included in a book published by Springer. The program committee will be composed of Garry Jacobs, Remus Pricopie, Phoebe Koundouri, Donato Kiniger-Passigli, Eden Mamut, Nebojsa Neskovic, Marta Neskovic, Janani Ramanathan, Ralph Wolff, and Albert Zucconi.
The conference is intended to be a highly interactive exchange of views centered around critical questions, issues, opportunities, challenges and solutions. The format of sessions will include special issue-based sessions, moderated panel discussions, short presentation roundtables, and presentation of papers. Contributors are invited to propose session topics, questions for discussion, ideas and strategies to address specific needs as well as proposals to organize sessions which include specific speakers.
Proposals are invited for submission by January 10, 2023. For more information, click here.
NEWS ABOUT FELLOWS
| Upcoming Events & Projects |
Sustainability Action Platform
The Sustainability Action Platform (SAP) is a multi-functional digital toolset that will be co-designed in a multi-stakeholder process with local actors from government, community and business. The tools will enable them to share experiences with creating ‘Local Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production’ (LSSCPs) and with the wider task of SDG localisation. SAP will identify, evaluate, monitor and disseminate information about the most effective local sustainability transition efforts worldwide. WAAS Fellows are welcome to get involved. SAP will serve as a global digital hub to share knowledge and solutions submitted by a diverse ‘community of practice’, including existing initiatives. WAAS Fellows interested in sustainability action at a local level, through science advise and digital peer-to-peer exchange of solutions, may contact Thomas Reuter at [email protected]
21st Century Skills and the Future of Employment
1-2 February 2023 – Karabuk, Turkey
The 1st Futures Literacy and Strategic Foresight Conference will take place between 1-2 February 2023 at Karabuk University, TURKEY. The conference is held under the UNESCO Chair on Anticipation Studies, Futures Literacy, and Strategic Foresight and is entitled ’21st Century Skills and the Future of Employment’. The conference aims to bring many diverse disciplines to more clearly define the future of employment and figure out necessary skills associated with it in today’s highly complex world. For more information, click here. Submitted by Elif Cepni
| Appointments |
Josep Gari (Fellow): Recently nominated employee ambassador at UNDP. This is a pilot scheme to promote young talent, gender equality and human diversity across the UN professional corps.
| Papers |
“One for All and All for One” by Gerald Gutenschwager (Emeritus Fellow) traces the origins and history of democracy, individualism and collectivism and how the relationship between the individual and the collective has become the main challenge when it comes to achieving the ideal type of democracy the world needs. We need neither selfish individualism nor selfless collectivism but a strong cooperation between them characterised by values like Trust. Click here to read the full paper.
| WAAS Fellows who will be remembered |
Eleanora Masini
Distinguished Futurist, Sociologist, Lawyer and former President of the European division of WAAS. An expert at the United Nations University and UNESCO. Eleanora Masini was a pioneer in futures thinking and studies and was fascinated by the theory of social change. She believed there was strong evidence between environmental change and social factors, and endorsed transcultural, disciplinary linkages as essential for finding solutions. She played a key role in organizing the 1992 WAAS international conference in Vinci, Italy, which explored the relationship between art and science, which is a WAAS project now.
Mihaela Smith
Co-founder and CEO of the Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management (CPTM) Ltd. Mihaela’s works focused on information networks and complexity theory as applied to transformation, innovation, governance and development. For close to thirty years, she brought leaders and policymakers together to discuss solutions to social issues. She spearheaded solutions using an integrated approach, strongly believing that development doesn’t need aid and that problems could be resolved if people and nations work together with mutual respect–what she called “smart partnership.”
Editorial Team
Ranjani Ravi (Editor) | Vasugi Balaji | Chitra Krishnamoorthy | Hariny Narayan | Vani Senthil