Trends Identified
Invisible to visible
Standard practices can render the insights, perspectives, and opinions of individual citizens and residents invisible to those in government who are responsible for making decisions that affect them. Likewise, governments can face challenges in perceiving different scenarios and envisioning the various paths to positive future outcomes. Only once visible can these insights, perspectives and opinions become tangible and meaningfully engaged with. Governments are now taking innovative steps to make these invisible factors visible. By leveraging these newly visible elements, they are better equipped to make better decisions that affect their people, and to nudge citizens and residents to make better decisions as well.
2019
EMBRACING INNOVATION IN GOVERNMENT-Global Trends 2019
OECD
Opening doors
Traditionally, the complexity and opaqueness of government has served to limit participation and minimise public value for underserved and at-risk populations. Only those with the means or knowledge to navigate this environment have been able to maximise the value of government. However, new technologies, open data and the emergence of new business models in the private sector are creating space for government to explore a range of possibilities. Such mission-oriented and adaptive innovations seek to explore ways to open doors for everyone to access the public value of government, while also embracing the major shifts occurring in people’s everyday lives.
2019
EMBRACING INNOVATION IN GOVERNMENT-Global Trends 2019
OECD
Machine-readable world
In recent years, governments have started to discover the power of machine readability, with energy devoted to building open government data programmes that help to fuel innovations both within government and in the broader economy. They are now setting their aims even higher by developing innovative new projects that have the potential to completely reconceive one of the most foundational roles of government – creating laws and other rules that impact the daily lives of citizens and businesses. Governments are also seeking to digitise human characteristics, senses and surroundings to deliver innovative services and interventions. This growing wealth of machine-readable content serves as fuel for a new generation of innovations that use emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain. While these advances show tremendous potential, they can also pose major risks and raise significant ethical questions. Governments should seek to understand and experiment with these technologies, but should do so in an informed and ethical way.
2019
EMBRACING INNOVATION IN GOVERNMENT-Global Trends 2019
OECD
#twinning: Farming's digital doubles will help feed a growing population using less resources.
Imagine a planet where instant access to critical data on the world’s farmland could be provided to anyone that needs it. In the next five years, this will become reality when a digital twin of the world’s agricultural resources is readily available.
2019
5 in 5 - Research predicts five innovations that will change our lives within five years.
IBM Research
Spoiler alert: Blockchain will prevent more food from going to waste.
Within five years, we’ll eliminate many of the costly unknowns in the food supply chain. From farmers to grocery suppliers, each participant in the food ecosystem will know exactly how much to plant, order, and ship. Food loss will diminish greatly and the produce that ends up in our carts will be fresher—when blockchain technology, IoT devices, and AI algorithms join forces.
2019
5 in 5 - Research predicts five innovations that will change our lives within five years.
IBM Research
Mapping the microbiome will protect us from bad bacteria.
Within five years, food safety inspectors around the world will gain a new superpower: the ability to understand how millions of microbes coexist within the food supply chain. These microbes—some healthy for human consumption, others not—are everywhere –in foods at farms, factories, and grocery stores. The ability to constantly and cheaply monitor the behaviors of microbes at every stage of the supply chain represents a huge leap in food safety.
2019
5 in 5 - Research predicts five innovations that will change our lives within five years.
IBM Research
Dinner plate detectives: AI sensors will detect foodborne pathogens at home.
Within five years, the world’s farmers, food processors, and grocers—along with its billions of home cooks—will be able to detect dangerous contaminants effortlessly in their food. All they’ll need is a cell phone or a countertop with AI sensors.
2019
5 in 5 - Research predicts five innovations that will change our lives within five years.
IBM Research
A radical new recycling process will breathe new life into old plastic.
In five years, the disposal of trash and the creation of new plastics will be completely transformed. Everything from milk cartons and cookie containers to grocery bags and clothing will be recyclable, and polyester manufacturing companies will be able to take in refuse and turn it into something useful again.
2019
5 in 5 - Research predicts five innovations that will change our lives within five years.
IBM Research
Power and Values
A period of change in the international system is destabilizing assumptions about global order. Last year’s Global Risks Report argued that the world is becoming not just multipolar, but also “multiconceptual”. This chapter further examines how changing power dynamics and diverging norms and values are affecting global politics and the global economy. The chapter begins by outlining how normative differences increasingly shape domestic and international politics. It then highlights three trends with the potential to trigger disruptive change: (1) the difficulty of sustaining global consensus on ethically charged issues such as human rights; (2) intensifying pressure on multilateralism and dispute-settlement mechanisms; and (3) states’ increasingly frequent use of geo-economic policy interventions.
2019
The Global Risks Report 2019 14th Edition
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Heads and Hearts
The Global Risks Report tends to deal with structural issues: systems under stress, institutions that no longer match the challenges facing the world, adverse impacts of policies and practices. All these issues entail widespread human costs in terms of psychological and emotional strain. This is usually left implicit but it deserves more attention—and not only because declining psychological and emotional well-being is a risk in itself. It also affects the wider global risks landscape, notably via impacts on social cohesion and politics.
2019
The Global Risks Report 2019 14th Edition
World Economic Forum (WEF)