Issue Areas

Opportunity—for education, employment, income, raising a family—divides those with a promising future from those without. Today’s global inequality levels are alarming, unprecedented, and inexcusable. To close the gaping divide, we must help create a world in which every person has the opportunity to pursue happiness, peace, and prosperity.

Adequate preparation for, and access to, quality education unlock the economic opportunities that can allow someone to rise out of poverty. Conversely, a lack of education significantly increases a child’s chances of leading a life of hardship, little or no opportunity, and unrealized potential.

Destructive practices like deforestation and pollution that are causing skyrocketing global greenhouse emissions must be dramatically reduced and eliminated. At the same time, we must also work to catalyze more sustainable lives and economies, including the improved management of and access to sustainable shelter, clean water, and clean energy.

Lack of access to quality health care, especially in developing countries, is a fundamental source of many of society’s ills, resulting in millions of preventable deaths every year. To solve this problem, innovations must be supported that enable access to and use of reliable, affordable, and appropriate health care that leads to improved health outcomes in disadvantaged populations.

From Haiti to Syria, life-shattering conflict must be turned into collaborative, workable political, legal, and social solutions that ensure the protection of human rights and the rule of law. Freedom, stability, and prosperity—including transparency, government accountability, and citizen mobilization—are the critical building blocks to lasting peace.

Today’s short-termist markets do not reflect the real costs of degraded natural resources and unjust labor practices, or the hidden opportunities for long-term value creation. Market players must mobilize resources to speed this transformation by focusing supply and demand on generating sustainable products, services, practices, and economies.