Rethinking vision 2030: Lessons from Davos

David Kuria

The high level discussions at the 2010 World Economic Forum, held at Davos, Switzerland, offer immense lessons for the global economic future, challenges and the need to rethink, redesign and rebuild. According to IMF report, the world GDP is expected to contract by a record 2.5 per cent as the financial crisis continues to bite.

To counter this global crisis at a country level, Vision 2030 should offer a safety nest to ensure the economy remains sustainable.

The Government must create through its vision, an enabling environment that catalysises the private sector to invest in research and development and support extensive collaboration in research between universities and industry and the protection of property rights.

These research endeavours should be guided by the needs and aspiration of our state-current and the future; there is need to explore, support and strengthen the social entrepreneurship in emerging economies. This young generation of social entrepreneurs is embracing long term business solutions that deliver a benefit to people and the planet.

The forum through Schwab Foundation has set a framework for identifying annually, emerging social entrepreneurs and under forty Young Global Leaders. The Vision should tap on this development and support the spread of these models; this will require additional financial resources, strengthened public-private partnerships, enabling regulatory environments and new capacity development arrangements.

Entrepreneurship

The forum noted that entrepreneurship education can play an essential role in shaping attitudes, skills and behaviours from primary to university levels. And this can form strong societal change agents that can serve as catalysts to develop the new, innovative models necessary to achieve a sustainable vision.

There is need for Vision 2030 to support or stimulate Green Investing, this will put the country into the global map of the doing. This will include facilitating investments towards cleaner energy infrastructure.

Its necessary to re-engineer a green revolution in agriculture. As a country we need to invest and make better use of science and new technologies that will ensure increased food productivity and market distribution.

Improved mechanisation can result to greater yields, only 10 per cent of agriculture is done by tractor in Africa and four per cent of the land in Africa is artificially watered compared to 20 per centre in Asia. There is also enormous amount of post-harvest waste that can be remedied through better management, storage and market access. A better environment for investment is needed, particularly for the small farmer.

Cities are well known drivers of metropolitan, national and global economies.

Cities are also major drivers of climate change, accounting for 70 per cent of world energy consumption and generate 80 per cent of green house gases. Nevertheless, cities are hubs of diverse human capital, specialism, expertise, opportunities for knowledge transfer and concentration of extraordinary creativity and entrepreneurship.

The full potential of urban communities remain untapped due to lack of basic services, poor economic access for the bottom of the pyramid, water shortage and food supplies and widening inequality and unrest. Our task, before the tipping point, is to regenerate our cities and harnessing the social capital and innovations of our population for wealth creation.

Investment

We must match urban governance to city challenges, defining and demonstrating a manifesto of core principle for urban management beyond physical planning. We must understand that our city moves the country, and thus invest with the right infrastructure, governance frameworks and create enabling environment for private sector to invest in services and wealth creation.

We need to tap the vigor of urban youth and refocus their energies for improved social and economic welfare.

The writer is a member of Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum.