a new take on "neglected" diseases

Some 20 years ago, when asked to recommend new initiatives for a privately funded think-tank, I suggested a comprehensive assessment of the role and contribution of the media and communications and advertising and entertainment industries in global affairs.

As I recall, at that time, industry "standard setting" and self-regulation through professional associations and consumer protection and media watchdogs was (a) informed by serious research in academic institutions and think-tanks on the impact of culture-creating and modifying "media" on human behaviour (political, economic, social) and (b) guided and incentivised by the efforts of a small number of foundations promoting and defending freedoms of speech and the media as critically important pillars of good governance. In parallel, the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural (UNESCO) had developed a number of programmes on the role of "education" in promoting peace, respect for human rights, religious tolerance, good citizenship and so on. Established initially by prominent Swiss psychologists and pedagogues as a private organisation, the Geneva-based but later UNESCO-affiliated International Bureau of Education had already established itself as a centre of excellence, specialising in curriculum development.

Sadly, widespread optimism that the end of the cold war would herald a new New International Order, more determined attention to the raft of issues re-stated in Rio and then in Johannesburg and genuine commitment to the notion of common but differentiated responsibilities (requiring resource transfers not re-cycling) had already been infected by a new and even more resistant strain of self-centredness among the 10% - defined not by geography, but by advantage. Many of us fell for the three card trick, believing "governments" were actually in charge, trusting the "market" to deliver and fairly distribute the benefits of globalisation and mistaking "populism" for democracy.

As the "noughties" rolled on, the World Health Organisation and civil society actors, academics, medical practitioners and humanitarian agencies were already talking about "mental health", "wellness", and the impact of malnutrition and trauma or sustained stress on the cognitive development and behaviour of children and adults in disaster or conflict affected parts of the world requiring (but typically failing to secure) greater resources for sustained psycho-social support. More recently, in addition to UNESCO's pioneering work on "futures literacy" and anticipation and the Futures of Education initiative launched earlier this year, UNESCO-IBE has led ground-breaking work in the fields of neuroscience and the impact of technology on how we learn and teach.

In fits and starts, multi-lateralism has provided a platform for leading scientists, socially and environmentally aware "entrepreneurs", and "civil society" activists to pronounce on impending threats and the need for major course corrections. The Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) provided a comprehensive framework for attention to the symptoms if not the causes of rampant and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and increasing inequality. Agenda 2030, combining all of the elements described in the Brundtland Report and much strengthened by more inclusive and more effective consultations, represents a significant step forward but there is small comfort in the greater acceptance of high profile statements from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Economic Forum, and increasing attention to "strategic foresight" as a pathway to critical re-assessment of current trajectories and experimentation to fast track transitions to transformation.

While the "Financing" and "ICT" for development processes gave cause for hopefulness and management schools touted "principle-centred leadership" and "value creation" for stake holders (not just share holders) and "staff engagement", rhetoric continues to confront reality in the realisation that the systems that we have created and now digitised will continue to incentivise resistance (visible and invisible) to the changes that all but a few can see are necessary UNLESS there is a change of heart and a Copernican shift in mind sets. This is the "neglected disease" to which I refer, as susceptible as other "neglected diseases" to misunderstanding, misrepresentation, discounting and discrimination, as devastating in its effects in terms of loss of purpose and productivity, and as powerful in its potential to restore, regenerate and protect.

From home to school, from church or mosque or synagogue or temple to communing with nature, from workplace to voting box, from apartment block or community to neighbouring towns and cities, the remedy lies in rediscovering who we are in relation to other forms of life and deciding what kind of world we want for ourselves and for future generations. It lies in realising that while the "borders" that past generations of explorers and politicians have drawn on the map are an administrative necessity, it is "one world or none". It is our choice to slow and where possible, reverse the decline or, if truly beyond our control, to mitigate and adapt in ways that allow humanity to transition, successfully, from the Anthropocene era to a more civilised era, perhaps a new renaissance. And it is here that I return to my interest in the role of the media and communications, and advertising and entertainment industries.

In what some have decided is a "post-religious" age, common sense dictates that now would be a good time to search out the people who are asking the same kinds of questions, to sign up to the UN High Level Political Forum's call this year for "accelerated action and transformative pathways", and to identify and apply frameworks for priority setting and performance management that make ESG an ambition rather than an aspiration. Now would be a good time to re-visit the role and contribution of media and communications and advertising and entertainment industries and seek reassurance from those who profit from the dissemination of unreliable information and circulation of material that feeds humanity's darker side that they are aware of the power they wield and willing to invest and to be assessed on the basis of their contribution to the global goals - local to global.