Lunch Program | Promoting Prosperity in a World in Transition

Conference Context & Logistics

• The Milken Institute Global Conference reached its midpoint, with a scheduled panel on Wednesday featuring Paul Ryan, former Secretary Robert Gates, and Cory Booker.
• CEO Mike Clouden apologized for rain disrupting outdoor plans, noting it is an event he has only had to apologize for twice in 17 years.
• A participant quiz regarding 2015 international migration data revealed India as the country with the largest number of international migrants (approx. 16 million), surpassing Mexico, China, Bangladesh, and Russia.

Panel Composition & Personal Histories

• Jane Harmon: Former U.S. Congresswoman (9 terms) and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson Center; parents were refugees fleeing Nazi Germany; raised in West Los Angeles public schools.
• Dr. Jim Yong Kim: President of the World Bank; parents were Korean war refugees; grew up in Iowa with a background in medicine, anthropology, and global health (co-founder of Partners in Health); previously President of Dartmouth College.
• Tijan Fafé: CEO of Credit Suisse Group; born in the Ivory Coast; father was a cabinet minister and journalist who was arrested and exiled; served as a cabinet minister in Africa before transitioning to the financial services industry.

Economic & Developmental Framework

• Mike Milken's 1965 prosperity formula remains the thematic anchor: Prosperity = (P) + (FT) + (Social Capital) + (Rule of Law), focusing on financial capital, human capital, and real asset creation.
• The panel identified the core challenge as meeting the rising middle-class aspirations of the global population, noting that 8 billion people are expected to share these aspirations soon.
• Dr. Jim Kim cited a $4 trillion annual cost to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), requiring a shift to private sector financing to close the gap.
• Tijan Fafé highlighted a demographic trend where the entire wealth growth from 2006–2016 ($26 trillion) was concentrated in emerging economies ($17 trillion) vs. developed economies ($9 trillion).

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) & Specific Sector Analysis

• Health & Human Capital: Dr. Kim noted that the top 25% of countries investing in human capital saw 1.5% higher GDP growth per year over 25 years compared to the bottom quartile.
• Health Financing: Proposals include ending regressive fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies, implementing tobacco taxes, and utilizing cross-border telemedicine (e.g., doctors in Boston treating patients in Rwanda).
• Gender Equality: Jane Harmon announced the upcoming release of the Wilson Center's Power and Parity Index, which tracks women's power in senior public service; current leaders include Scandinavian nations and Rwanda, with the US ranked in the middle.
• Education & Demography: Fafé cited data showing illiterate African women in rural areas have 8.2 children on average, compared to 2.1 for literate women with secondary education, directly linking female education to reduced population growth and political stability.
• Wealth Management: Credit Suisse is focusing on "The Bank for Entrepreneurs," aiming to help the 1% of the global population with over $1 million in assets manage and deploy their growing wealth ($26 trillion increase) into emerging markets.

Innovation & Impact Investing

• New Partnership Announcement: The Milken Institute, World Bank, and Credit Suisse launched the Disruptive Technology for Development (D4D) fund.
• Funding Source: The fund is capitalized by donations from Tijan Fafé's clients and aims to finance technologies that allow developing nations to "leapfrog" inefficient infrastructure.
• Case Studies:
  • Zipline: Drone delivery systems in Rwanda delivering blood within 30 minutes, bypassing the need for extensive cold-storage infrastructure and road networks.
  • Road Lab: Crowdsourced mobile app allowing truck drivers to report potholes in real-time to prevent exponential road decay.
• Impact Investing Strategy: Fafé argues that the West's lack of long-term investment opportunities due to aging demographics creates a market failure that can be filled by impact investing in emerging markets, which offer higher potential returns.

Regional Focus: Africa & Stability

• Jane Harmon emphasized that instability in Africa and the Middle East poses a direct threat to security in the U.S. and Europe due to migration and conflict.
• The Wilson Center is focusing on the "good half" of Africa, working to establish rule of law, stable governance, and succession (citing Liberia's recent peaceful transition) and promoting local private sector capital markets.
• Population Projections: By 2025, half of the world's population growth will occur in Africa; countries like Uganda have a median age of 15, creating a youth bulge that requires economic opportunity to prevent conflict.

Forward-Looking Statements

• Milken Institute to add Wednesday panels on Africa and the Middle East.
• The World Bank plans to release a new, "wildly controversial" ranking of countries on health and education investment to pressure governments into increasing spending.
• Dr. Kim predicts that without addressing the equality of opportunity (vs. outcomes), the world faces risks of fragility, conflict, and violence.