Increasingly, the global population’s most basic sets of needs will be met in the 21st century, but if more people are able to thrive, it will take more money, information, and community resources for them to do so. The purpose of this theory of change is to build out a sustainable model for thriving (pro-active global wellbeing aimed at preventing problems, rather than reactively treating symptoms).
Background: The MPI (Multidimensional Poverty Index) adequately addresses how a variety of factors can create positive or negative snowball effects that keep people in poverty, as well as bring them into and out of a state of poverty. The MPI’s 3 key pillars (health, education, and living standards) adequately address extreme poverty, but are limited within the scope of the problems and solutions that will be developing over the course of the 21st century.
For example, an increasing number of the world’s most fatal diseases have been eradicated, or else are in the process of being eradicated. Infant mortality rates are down over 30 percentage points in the last 30 years. Access to electricity is up approx. 20 percentage points in the last 20 years, and literacy rates are steadily rising. Existing systems are well underway toward tackling these problems.
As humanity continues on a path towards helping more people survive, other dynamics are shifting in the 21st century. As technology expands its reach, fewer people will be able to rely on traditional means of employment. Although quality of medical services has dramatically increased around the world, mental health, diet, and other habits remain a challenge. Meanwhile, the traditional academic system is failing to keep up with the rapidly changing economy, which will place an already dubious causal relationship between education and wealth under increasing strain.
Vision: Enable self-agency for people around the world—by increasing the geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic access to money, information, and quality of life resources—so as to create a bottom-up chain reaction whereby people, nations, and ultimately the world at large can thrive, connect, and enjoy life in increasingly sustainable ways.
Goal: Produce measured improvements around the world along a multidimensional wellness index:
Money
Information
Quality of life resources
Money: Here are some of the key ways to help build more wealth for more people.
Enact universal basic income
Create more and better jobs to replace those lost to automation
Reduce individual barriers to entering the global economy
Foster a global financial system
Information: Here are some of the key ways to help educate a wider population on overall wellbeing (emotional, professional, financial).
Build awareness for health (diet, exercise, mental health)
Foster templates for success (habits, mindsets)
Build marketable skills (business, marketing, technology, entrepreneurship, etc.)
Quality of Life: Here are some of the key ways to help foster sustainable & fair communities & institutions.
Improve existing inventory (current communities, infrastructure, institutions)
Generate new inventory (more communities, infrastructure, institutions)