The immediate need is to continue economic activities to bring back the economy on track in a way that sustainable development goals must not lose or deviate from its target
By Mirza Rizwan
In the year 1979, James Lovelock, an independent scientist and futurist, published a book on his much publicised ‘Gaia hypothesis’ and argued that the Earth is one large living being sheltering and enabling life itself. The idea formulates the interdependence of our ecosystems on earth, ocean and the space explicating holistic and integrative approach for the planet.
Economists, further explored this relationship to defend the theory of Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus influenced by global economic, social, and environmental changes and how it creates governance or public policy challenges.
In the said background, the Covid-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated interconnection of the earth and life systems in numerous forms when enforced quarantine was holding more than a billion people in lockdown with suspended economic activities resulting into lower income and increased unemployment.
Food systems turned out to be the most susceptible due to increased demand for healthier food products and the need for the food safety methods along with disrupted food production and distribution. The positive impact on environment can be noticed in terms of reduced carbon and nitrogen oxide emissions and enhanced marine life as a boon to global food crisis.
In the past few decades, higher level of globalised economy and large-scale population flow has provided better reproductive rate for viruses leading to increased frequency of epidemics of global significance.
The storm of Covid-19 suddenly affected several countries, infecting thousands of thousands of people and killing hundreds of thousands in the fastest unprecedented crisis ever recorded, leading to the severe economic crisis on the history of the ‘Gaia’ (the primordial goddess of Greek mythology personifying Earth).
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres termed Covid-19 as “the greatest challenge of humanity since the formation of the international body”. He further said this human crisis demands “coordinated, decisive, inclusive and innovative policy action from the world’s leading economies”. The question arises, what could be that collaborated innovative policy action?
Risks, Challenges for Post-Covid-19 World
Undoubtedly, the Covid-19 pandemic has made the world express, more than ever, its volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). The human development process needs to be strategized, now and in the future, taking VUCA under considerations.
Consequent insecurities due to rapid change in patterns either of economic, environmental, social, political or something which has yet to be realised, will remain the defining terms for the global and regional development process.
The immediate need is to continue economic activities to bring back the economy on track in a way that sustainable development goals must not lose or deviate from its target.
Instead, the economy has to recover its losses along with addressing new challenges being posed by the post-COVID era in terms of gaining people’s confidence in governance at all levels, which has been badly shaken due to misinformation, human helplessness due to casualties and sufferings of deprived sections in some parts of the world, or under the developing or under-developed economy.
Responsible Innovation is the Solution
Global challenges demand responses at a global level. We need to devise tools and strategies which will guarantee desired security and stability to the people, countries, economies and environment.
From competitive to collaborative alliances among countries is the call of the hour. Exchange of ideas across different levels and boundaries to develop holistic solution of the phenomenon arising out of this global crisis seems to be the only key to answer.
‘Responsible Innovation’ (RI) is the one such techniques which has established its mark at fewer locations like that of China and parts of Europe. RI takes care of the future through collective stewardship of science and innovation in the present. It is an interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually responsive to each other with a view to the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability of the innovation process and its marketable products “(in order to allow a proper embedding of scientific and technological advances in our society),” as stated by Rene von Schomberg at the European Commission Science Policy.
‘Responsible Innovation’ has been the hallmark of the European Union policies in order to harmonise technological progress with societal interest. It triggered Chinese interest and became its core policy in the 13th Five-Year National Science and Technology Innovation Program (2016).
However, the approaches towards RI for each of these actors are different on three contextual factors such as – (1) core values; (2) innovation goals; and (3) institutional logic.
We anticipate the ongoing crisis generating risk and insecurity will compel us to revise the current economic and political systems and the way we dealt with the environment. We need to be positive to gain strength through adaptation in the course of RI-based sustainable development and even become resilient for future risks and challenges that may undoubtedly appear.
Featured image by enriquelopezgarre from Pixabay
(This article first appeared in www.24x7qatar.com and is being used with permission of the website’s publishers)
Mirza Rizwan is a ‘Chief Innovation Officer’ at Si2microsystems, a Bangalore-based MNC, Visiting Faculty at B-schools, and an independent researcher. The views are his own and www.24x7Qatar.com bears no responsibility
