Which global challenges are the most important to address?

The particiants at the Summit on the Global Agenda 2011 were polled to determine their thinking on the importance of the global challenges discussed. These global challenges revolve around the five main themes of this year’s Global Agenda Summit:

1. Resource scarcity and demographic change
2. Digital governance and managing complex systems
3. Global rebalancing and economic reform
4. Inclusive growth and employment creation
5. Global and regional governance

While the results of the polling questions are not totally unexpected, there are some unique takeaways.

When asked which of the global challenges is the most important to address in 2012, respondents clearly chose inclusive growth and employment creation, at 31%, with global rebalancing and economic reform coming second at 26%.

This contrasts with the ones they chose as most promising in terms of international cooperation, with global rebalancing taking the top spot at 29% and digital governance in second place at 26%. Interestingly, participants do not see much promise in international cooperation around inclusive growth and employment creation, which came in fourth at 14%.

While managing resource scarcity and demographic change came in last as far as being promising in terms of international cooperation, it leads the pack in being the most challenging under the same terms, at 37%, outdistancing its closest rival, global and regional governance, by nearly 10% of all respondents.

Of interest also, there is a fairly even balance between challenges that would benefit the most from new models, with inclusive growth and employment creation again leading, but only marginally, at 26%, three of the other four also breaking the 20% barrier.

And finally, concerning which would benefit the most from multistakeholder partnerships, managing resource scarcity and demographic change led the pack at 35% of all respondents, with inclusive growth and employment creation coming in second at 26%.