Conference Presentation, Panel, Fireside Chat
Around the World in 60 Minutes: Creating Global Prosperity
- The 19th annual global conference is scheduled for May 1st through 3rd next year, with plans to convene a panel to lay the groundwork for creating one billion net new jobs over the next couple of decades.
- Sub-Saharan Africa faces a critical employment disparity where 11 million new young people enter the job market annually while only slightly over one million jobs are created, a trend Strive Masiyiwa describes as a "terrible cocktail" that risks alienating youth with dramatic consequences if unaddressed.
- Strive Masiyiwa identifies that 63% of the world's unutilized arable land is located in Africa, a factor that could drive short-term job creation across sectors if food productivity improves, alongside a forecast that by the end of the century, half the world's young population will be African.
- Investment in broadband infrastructure is projected to generate a tremendous number of new jobs in Africa, a strategy reinforced by views that skilling up the youth and improving access to land and capital for women farmers are key to inclusive growth.
- Health system failures, such as the current situation in Monrovia, are expected to rapidly evolve into global threats, citing a precedent where maternal HIV transmission risk dropped from 90% to 2% over 20 years as evidence of potential game-changing results.
- Global labor trends anticipate a shift where labor-intensive, low-value-added jobs in the US, Europe, and Japan move to Asia, specifically China, while manufacturing, service, and low-to-middle productivity white-collar roles face replacement by robots, AI, and software.
- Technology is forecast to become increasingly capital-intensive, skill-biased, and labor-saving, presenting a primary challenge to prevent the loss of one billion jobs in the next few decades before new ones are built.
- Aging societies in Japan, Europe, and the United States are expected to adopt new templates for coping with a demographic shift toward longevity, with individuals living into their 90s and 100s, requiring a re-evaluation of retirement age which was set when life expectancy was significantly lower.
- Japan faces a unique labor dynamic with more jobs available than people looking for work, yet aligning female and male labor participation rates could add approximately 7.2 million jobs and lift GDP by nearly 13% in absolute terms.
- India is projected to continue outpacing China in economic growth for at least the next couple of years, while global populations are expected to rise with younger demographics in emerging markets contrasting with aging populations in advanced economies.
- Education, particularly for girls, is identified as a critical solution to global issues including terrorism, while liberalized trade in labor and migration are expected to be the most significant factors for increasing global job creation and welfare.
- The Middle East is expected to shift toward growth, stability, and peace within a decade if leaders address root causes and replace ideologies of extremism with open-minded approaches, noting that intolerant societies are unlikely to sustain successful economies.
- Social Security and healthcare funding are predicted to become fiscally impossible if retirement remains at 65, as average workers now live significantly longer than they did when benefits were established in the 1930s, creating a risk of fiscal disaster.
- Agricultural productivity changes have historically reduced employment in the US as workers moved to other sectors, a transition the Milken Institute notes is not yet occurring in Africa, where addressing employment in non-agricultural sectors remains a priority.
- Global challenges regarding the environment, food, and water are expected to be managed through commitments to energy provision, infrastructure, and education, while a lack of preparedness could theoretically force human expansion to colonize another planet.
- Rapid advancements in healthcare, such as the reduction in HIV transmission risks, are cited as the number one driver of economic growth, extending the productive years of life in countries like Japan compared to the US.
- Political leaders face increasing pressure to deliver faster solutions, yet there is a belief that people prefer leadership to followership, necessitating policies that keep countries engaged with the world over the next decade or two.