Catalytic Leadership
Garry Jacobs

Democratization in Eastern Europe
Mila Popovich

Making Social Transformations Happen
Donato Kiniger-Passigli

Transformation Barometer
Petra Kuenkel

Shift to a Wellbeing Economy
Sandrine Dixson-Decl褠ve

Overcoming Apartheid
Mamphela Ramphele

German Energy Transition
Ernst von Weizs盲cker

Social Examples of Pathways to Transformations
Thomas Reuter

e-Roundtable on Catalyzing Rapid Social Transformation

9 March 2020 

Co-convened by

• Club of Rome Project on Emerging New Civilization Initiative (ENCI)
• WAAS-UN Project on Global Leadership in the 21st C. (GL-21) and Future Capital Initiative (FCI)

Participants 

1. Carlos Alvarez-Periera previously a researcher in systems dynamics and an entrepreneur in the IT sector, Carlos promotes the emergence of a civilizational shift towards equitable wellbeing in a healthy biosphere. He focuses on socio-technical paradigm shifts towards sustainability. He is an ExCom member of the Club of Rome and Fellow of WAAS.
2. Zbigniew Bochniarz is a professor of economics at prestigious universities and is the author of many publications, including 15 books published in 12 languages.  His teaching and research focus on sustainable development, comparative environmental policies, microeconomics of competition, and sustainability assessment of transformation processes in post-communist countries. He is a WAAS Trustee.
3. Yi-Heng Cheng has chemical engineering background and is a guest professor at College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, Shanghai. He is a technical consultant in Clean Coal Technologies and CO₂鈥揜esourcing, practitioner of Applied Consciousness for Holistic Healing, and a member of the Club of Rome.
4. David Chikvaidze serves as Chef de Cabinet to his third Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG). He occupied this position previously, from 2006 to 2011. In 2011-2013, he was Director of the UN Library at Geneva and Chairman of the UNOG Cultural Activities Committee. He has worked for over thirty-three years in the foreign, government and international civil services. He is a Fellow of WAAS.
5. Sandrine Dixson-Decl褠ve has 30+ years of European and international policy, business leadership and strategy experience with a particular focus on EU and international climate change, sustainable development, green growth, conventional and sustainable energy solutions and sustainable finance. She is currently the Co-President of the Club of Rome and divides her time between lecturing, facilitating difficult conversations and advisory work. 
6. Rodolfo A. Fiorini is Professor of Bioengineering at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering (DEIB), Politecnico di Milano University, Italy. He is the founder and coordinator of the Research Group on Computational Information Conservation Theory (CICT), and currently he is responsible for the main course on Wellbeing Technology Assessment (WTA) at DEIB. He has published over 300 articles and presentations in international journals, books, etc. He is a Fellow of the 被窝影视福利 of Art and Science (WAAS), Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science (JTiBS), Member of AAAS, IEEE and EMBS, and is a renowned international scientific presenter, conference chairman, keynote and plenary speaker.
7. Robert Hoffman, an economist by training and systems modeler by vocation, Robert Hoffman has been involved in integrated socio-economic and biophysical systems modeling for four decades, first as an analyst and research program director at the Canadian statistical office, then as Research Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo, and since 1990 as founder and principal of whatIf? Technologies Inc. He is a Member of the Club of Rome, a Fellow of the 被窝影视福利 of Art and Science and a Trustee of the American Society for Cybernetics
8. Robert Horn is a political scientist with a special interest in policy communication, social and organizational learning, and knowledge management (especially in sustainability and national security affairs).  For the past 27 years, he has been a Senior Researcher at Stanford University’s Human Science and Technology Advanced Research Institute (H-STAR) and has taught at Harvard and Columbia universities. His large info-murals and 鈥渕ess mapping鈥� process enable decision making groups get their minds around larger contexts for strategic discussions. He was the synthesizer and visualizer for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development鈥檚 Vision 2050 project and the European-Commission-supported project on policy options for a resource efficient Europe (POLFREE) for 2050
9. Obiora Francis Ike is a Nigerian Catholic Priest, Prelate, scholar, grassroots development practitioner and human right activist. He is the Founder and Director of the Nigerian Ethics Research Centre, the Catholic Institute of Development, Justice, Peace and Caritas, Co-Founder and Chairman of the leading Nigerian Umuchinemere Microfinance Bank, and Chairman of the Enugu State Economic Advisory Committee. He is also Professor and Chair for Ethics and Intercultural Studies at the Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu. A recipient of over 50 awards, Ike鈥檚 activities are dedicated to youth development, poverty eradication, health, conflict management, interreligious dialogue and values-driven leadership
10. Garry Jacobs is an American social scientist, author and management consultant. He is President and CEO of the 被窝影视福利 of Art & Science, Chairman of the Board and CEO of the World University Consortium, a Full Member of Club of Rome International, and Director of Social Science Research at The Mother鈥檚 Service Society (India). His research, consulting work and publications focus on the need for integrated, transdisciplinary, human-centered and value-based theories and strategies to promote peace, employment, social equality and sustainable development in the fields of business, economy, education, governance, and international security.
11. Till Kellerhoff works as Program Manager at the international secretariat of the Club of Rome in Winterthur, Switzerland. He joined the Club in 2017 after completing a Masters degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
12. Donato Kiniger-Passigli is a specialist in humanitarian action and governance, risk and crisis management, business continuity and partnership-building, development cooperation, strategic communication and leadership development. He is Vice President of the 被窝影视福利 of Art and Science and its Special Representative at the UN in Geneva. He is also Special Adviser at UNITAR, providing strategic and technical guidance in the framework of post-conflict stabilization, reconstruction and social inclusion. He has served in the UN for more than a quarter century in various capacities. He also served as head of office in Belgrade for the UN peacekeeping mission and managed large UN development programmes. He is a journalist and a member of the Italian Press Federation.
13. Petra Kuenkel is an Executive Committee Member of the Club of Rome International. As a trained organizational psychologist, political science scholar and expert in complex multi-stakeholder collaborations she promotes systems transformations through a collective stewardship approach. As the founder and executive director of the Collective Leadership Institute, she has developed transformative change methodologies that are widely used for systems transformations in environmental, social and economic change by collective action networks, public sector, corporations, and civil society.
14. Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien has 15 years of experience in strategic management, corporate sustainability and responsibility, advisory services, microfinance, rural development, project design and implementation, capacity building, enterprise development, and corporate governance spanning the private sector, public sector and civil society in Africa and Europe. As the Chief Strategy Officer of Strategy and Execution Ltd, Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien consulted for the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources on the development of the National Food Security Program (2008-2010).
15. Mila Popovich is a Comparative Literature and Humanities scholar. A Fellow of the 被窝影视福利 of Art and Science, she serves as the Chair of the Academy鈥檚 Nominations and Evaluations Committee. She has published on a range of interdisciplinary topics such as international cinema, nationalism and women鈥檚 issues, new economic paradigm and global crisis. Popovich is engaged in environmental and women鈥檚 issues in her resident community of Denver, Colorado.
16. Mamphela Ramphele is someone with a lifetime of achievement despite overwhelming challenges. She received her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) from the University of Natal. In 1991 she received her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town. She has also authored and edited a number of books. In October 2018, she was appointed co-president of The Club of Rome.
17. Thomas Reuter is an anthropologist and Asia expert at the University of Melbourne. He was chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations (2008-2012), Senior Vice-President of the International Union of Anthropologists (2008-2018), on the executive committee of the International Social Science Council (2013-2018) and an expert advisor to IPBES, WSDR and IPCC. He is a board member of Future Earth (Asia) and WAAS as well as a Fellow of the European Academy. His research in Indonesia is focused on indigenous people, social movements, religion, political elites, ecology, climate change, food security and globalization.
18. Philippe Szokol贸czy-Syllaba is a Swiss national who started his career in 1987as a lawyer in Geneva. In 2005 he launched My Global Advisor. My Global Advisor is a member of the Groupement Suisse des Conseils en Gestion Ind茅pendants and is affiliated to Polyreg (www.polyreg.ch), a Self-Regulated Organisation approved by FINMA. In recent years Philippe Szokoloczy-Syllaba has focused on establishing links between sustainable agro ecological projects and the world of finance. He is a regular speaker at conferences and contributor to magazines on tax, agro ecology and finance related topics.
19. Tibor T贸th from 2005 to 2013, he was the Executive Head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization鈥檚 Prep-Com (CTBTO). CTBTO operates a global system of around 500 monitoring and communication facilities around the globe, representing a 1 billion dollar investment. He was the first ever head of a global intergovernmental organization elected from the Eastern European region. He has more than three decades of leadership experience in UN, multilateral matters and critical technologies. T贸th served as Ambassador of Hungary to the UN in Geneva, Vienna and The Hague. In between 1986 and 2013, T贸th participated in all sessions of the UN General Assembly and its subsidiary bodies in New York. Ambassador T贸th chaired for an accumulated period of 25 years several global intergovernmental diplomatic conferences and fora. He was member and Chair of the WMD Council of the World Economic Forum (2011-2013). He is Executive Secretary Emeritus of the CTBTO. He is member of the High-Level Peer Group of the EU Science and Knowledge Service (JRC).
20. Kristin Vala Ragnarsdottir is an academic and an activist. Her research publications, teaching and activism focus on sustainability from a system鈥檚 perspective. She is on the Icelandic government麓s Energy Policy Committee and its Climate Council. She has advised the government on higher education, education for sustainable development, nature protection, genetically modified organisms, futures thinking, and government policy plan. Vala has advised on green policies in Iceland, Sweden, UK, Bhutan and China and on European Commission鈥檚 Circular Economy Strategy.
21. Ernst von Weiszacker has been Co-President of the Club of Rome between 2012 and 2018. Ernst served as professor, dean and director of several universities and institutes, such as the UN Centre for Science and Technology for Development and the graduate School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California. He founded the Wuppertal Institute, a thinktank on energy efficiency, material flows and climate policy. He was Member of the German Bundestag, chairing the Committees on Globalization and the Environment. In 2007, he was appointed Co-Chair of UNEP鈥檚 International Resource Panel.
22. Alberto Zucconi is President of the Person-Centered Approach Institute (IACP), founded with Carl Rogers. Alberto is Chair of the WAAS Board of Trustees, Secretary General of the World University Consortium and WAAS representative at UNESCO. He has been promoting the applications of the Person-Centered Approach in various settings in his international activities of training, teaching and consulting.

9 March 2020 

Papers

• Social Transformative Leadership – WAAS-UNOG Project Working Group paper

e-Roundtable on Catalyzing Rapid Social Transformation

9 March 2020聽

Co-convened by

• Club of Rome Project on Emerging New Civilization Initiative (ENCI)
• WAAS-UN Project on Global Leadership in the 21^st C. (GL-21) and Future Capital Initiative (FCI)

Agenda

This agenda describes Part I of an online roundtable to discuss topics included in the Dubrovnik Roundtable聽originally scheduled on March 8 evening to March 11 afternoon and subsequently postponed due to the聽Corona Virus threat. A second online meeting, Part II, has also been proposed to cover other topics of the聽original agenda. A final scheduling will take place after assessment of the first online meeting.

IUC, Dubrovnik; WAAS-Club of Rome Joint Roundtable

On March 21-22, 2019 WAAS partnered with the Club of Rome (COR) to conduct a two-day interdisciplinary roundtable at the Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik to explore profound questions and catalytic ideas regarding the evolution of global society and strategies to accelerate the transition to a human-centered, inclusive and sustainable development paradigm for humanity. Forty scientists and sustainability practitioners from WAAS and COR exchanged views in a highly interactive roundtable format designed by Carlos-Alvarez Pereira, which included two Warm Data Labs facilitated by Nora Bateson.

The roundtable was framed within the context of three major threats confronting humanity today: Climate Change, the Nuclear Threat, and the Cognitive Technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The search for effective, comprehensive, lasting solutions highlighted the need for a fundamental shift away from the dominant world views based on a reductionist, materialist, mechanistic viewpoint to a synthetic, integrated perspective that recognized the interdependence and complexity of phenomena; the identification of blind spots which prevent us from discovering solutions to persistent problems; the affirmation of a value-based, human-centered perspective on which alone an inclusive and sustainable global society can be founded; the need for a whole system approach that recognizes the complex interdependence which makes piecemeal strategies ineffective; the need for a theory of change that describes the driving forces and processes that drive social evolution; and the need to draw on insights from many different cultural perspectives founded on the unity in diversity of humanity’s rich evolutionary experience. Participants agreed on the need for a fundamental shift in thinking and values as essential conditions for an effective transition. The remainder of this report consists of comments by individual participants.

Excerpts from the Report titled

Emerging New Civilization Initiative (ENCI): Emergence from Emergency

In October 2018, the Club of Rome adopted the “Emerging New Civilization Initiative (ENCI)” as one of its core themes. The “New Paradigm Project” of WAAS, launched at the UN in Geneva in 2013, is being developed in parallel. They seek to explore a paradigm shift towards seeing the world as an interconnected whole and bring such a view into the mainstream discourse of global sustainability transformation. It will substantially contribute to overcoming the current value crisis and work towards making humankind a collectively responsible actor in the era of the Anthropocene. It is about overcoming together our many high-speed gridlocks and frustrations, because we have to rethink our problems in frameworks different from those which created them.

This endeavor is all about accepting the reality of complexity and the need for system change. Cognitive processes are themselves complex: reality is not fully accessible to our conscious understanding. Ignoring complexity would mean dismissing life, which can only bring tragedies. How can we purposefully change a complex living system of which we are part? Can we be reliable observers of our interdependencies and ourselves? Can we be external observers of a system, which we aspire to transform as if it were a mechanism that we can tune? We have here a double bind, two contradictory injunctions at the same time: recognize complexity around us and create change as if complexity were reducible. We like to say we are systemic in our thinking and a second later, we look for linear solutions.

The unique role of ENCI is to create new conversations among many different perspectives, it allows new and better questions to be asked and opens the space for new possibilities to be considered. It talks not only about complexity, it holds complexity, so that the shape of the responses matches the shape of the issues.

Rethinking economic and financial processes is mandatory. Economics must be freed from incumbent dogmas. If we put

the label “capital” on something, we take for granted it has a natural right to reproduce itself because it helps to create value. The issue arises when capital disconnects from any productive process and from reality itself, when it becomes pure abstraction, where it reproduces itself in a fictitious way without the backing of any human activity.

In an increasingly financialized world, the demands of rentism do not leave room for taking care of human wellbeing and the health of the biosphere. The transformation of economic processes cannot happen without a shift in our behaviour as consumers. This is one of the many reasons to address Inner Transformation as another perspective of systemic change. It is a call to individuals to move from awareness and the anxiety it brings towards higher levels of consciousness about ourrelationships with others and with nature as a whole.

Conversations on truly new paradigm(s) are actually just starting. They have to include unheard voices and angles, avoid confrontations leading to binary dilemmas, absorb from all wisdoms and contribute to making sense of the world in a different way. Complex systems do not change in alignment with purposeful planning, they get unstuck through mutual learning. By connecting and supporting those who are at the forefront of stimulating and shaping them, ENCI reinforces a shared commitment and interest in forming long term alliances with each other. This is our unique contribution to the reconciliation of humanity with life as a whole.

For the full paper, please click here.

– Carlos Alvarez-Pereira & Other Contributors

A New Conceptual System for Humanity

Sustainable System Change

New Civilization with Heart

Change in Worldviews

Prevailing worldviews are the main source of the existential threats posed by global society today and the principal obstacle to a transition into an equitable and sustainable world civilization. Such a transition requires a new consciousness and mutual learning on projects based on a social and ecological orientation and a shift from competition to cooperation.

Science and technology must be reoriented to serve human well-being. Human-centered education has a key role to play in integrating the biosphere and society.

– Erich Hoedl
Vice-President, European Academy for 
Sciences and Arts, Austria; WAAS Trustee

Pathways Towards a New Civilization

How can we help the new paradigm emerge that reshapes our role as humans within the greater Earth Community? What is the new operating system for humankind that is built on human dignity, respect for nature and protection of the commons? These questions together with others regarding transformations, climate emergency and biodiversity loss need to be examined in order to begin a thinking process and foster a narrative of possibilities, a future civilization—or even future civilizations— which operate according to principles that enhance planetary aliveness and humankind’s vitality.

– Petra Künkel, Executive Director, 
Collective Leadership Institute, Germany; 
Executive Committee Member, COR

Trans-disciplinary, Trans-ideological Approach

The major challenges confronting humanity in the 21stcentury are income inequality, unemployment, economic, political and military interventions, forced migrations, intercultural conflicts, depletion of natural resources, and climate change. Discussions on these problems should lead to an inclusive and coherent new paradigm of human development which provides sustainable development of mankind. The model should have a multiple disciplinary and trans-ideological character. It should represent a unity of global, regional and national views. In this endeavor, one should start from the Sustainable Development Goals.

The new paradigm of human development requires a trans-ideological approach in which the two predominant ideologies of our times—neoliberalism and Chinese socialism—and also other relevant ideologies will be analyzed in detail

in a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary way to provide the basis for a transdisciplinary synthesis.

The framework of the task should be determined by the major problems confronting humanity today. The result would not be a new ideology, but a general model that would be able to take various special forms, each defined by starting from a certain ideology and going beyond it.

– Nebojša Neškovi膰, WAAS Secretary-General; Former Head of TESLA Project, 
Vin膷a Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Serbia

What Transformation(s)?

Obstacles to Transformation

Some of the biggest obstacles to the emerging new civilization are our own mindset and the existing structures including regulations, financial systems, businesses, economies and education systems. These systems are still modelled after archaic and dysfunctional 20th century systems and the prevailing mindset does not provide the necessary leadership to bring about transformation. ENCI provides an invitation, know-how, and a framework to awakened individuals, investors, entrepreneurs, business people, and other agents of transformation to collaborate to bypass outdated and destructive systems and lead us into the future. This initiative provides hope, direction and encouragement to use our passion, resources, intelligence and creativity to transform the global civilizations toward holistic sustainability.

– Mariana Bozesan
Member, COR; Founder, AQAL AG, 
AQAL Capital, AQAL Foundation, Germany

Defining Civilization and Finding a Common Ground

Civilization refers to the overall technological, spiritual, political and social development of humanity.

In a narrower sense, a civilization comprises the states that existed on the same territory in a longer period and produced specific cultural goods of universal value.

– Vesna Vuc虒inic虂, 
Professor, University of Belgrade, Serbia; WAAS Fellow

The meeting facilitated the engagement between members of WAAS and the Club of Rome seeking common ground for collaborative initiatives.

– Fadwa El Guindi, 
Retiree Professor, University of California, USA; WAAS Fellow

Trying to define the idea of civilization and its different interpretations was a challenging task and one of the main points of discussion. The magnitude of the task of identifying the main features of the New Emerging Civilization was such that it is not easy to see what kind of tangible outcome will come out of the seminar. In any case, it has been an enriching, intellectually challenging and interesting experience.

– Cristina Manzano, 
Editor-in-chief, esglobal, Spain; Associate Member, COR

March 21-22, 2019

聽Inter-University Center (IUC), Dubrovnik, Croatia

Role of Business and Economy in the evolution of Global Governance
Nikolina Kolman

Strategies to enhance and accelerate effective governance of the Globe
Emil Constantinescu

Strategies to enhance and accelerate effective governance of the Globe
Rodolfo Fiorini

John Bunzl

Frank Dixon