Let's crowdsource the world's goals
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0:01 - 0:04So let me start by taking you back,
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0:04 - 0:07back into the mists of your memory
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0:07 - 0:10to perhaps the most anticipated year in your life,
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0:10 - 0:13but certainly the most anticipated year
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0:13 - 0:15in all human history:
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0:15 - 0:18the year 2000. Remember that?
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0:18 - 0:21Y2K, the dotcom bubble,
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0:21 - 0:24stressing about whose party you're going to go to
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0:24 - 0:26as the clock strikes midnight,
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0:26 - 0:28before the champagne goes flat,
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0:28 - 0:31and then there's that inchoate yearning
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0:31 - 0:34that was felt, I think, by many, that the millennium,
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0:34 - 0:37that the year 2000, should mean more,
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0:37 - 0:40more than just a two and some zeroes.
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0:40 - 0:44Well, amazingly, for once, our world leaders
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0:44 - 0:47actually lived up to that millennium moment
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0:47 - 0:49and back in 2000 agreed to some
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0:49 - 0:51pretty extraordinary stuff:
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0:51 - 0:55visionary, measurable, long-term targets
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0:55 - 0:57called the Millennium Development Goals.
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0:57 - 1:00Now, I'm sure you all keep a copy of the goals
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1:00 - 1:02under your pillow, or by the bedside table,
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1:02 - 1:04but just in case you don't,
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1:04 - 1:06and your memory needs some jogging,
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1:06 - 1:09the deal agreed then goes like this:
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1:09 - 1:11developing countries promised to at least halve
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1:11 - 1:15extreme poverty, hunger and deaths from disease,
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1:15 - 1:18alongside some other targets, by 2015,
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1:18 - 1:20and developed nations promised to help them
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1:20 - 1:23get that done by dropping debts,
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1:23 - 1:26increasing smart aid, and trade reform.
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1:26 - 1:28Well, we're approaching 2015,
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1:28 - 1:31so we'd better assess, how are we doing on these goals?
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1:31 - 1:34But we've also got to decide, do we like such global goals?
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1:34 - 1:38Some people don't. And if we like them, we've got to decide
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1:38 - 1:41what we want to do on these goals going forward.
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1:41 - 1:43What does the world want to do together?
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1:43 - 1:46We've got to decide a process by which we decide.
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1:46 - 1:48Well, I definitely think these goals are worth building on
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1:48 - 1:52and seeing through, and here's just a few reasons why.
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1:52 - 1:55Incredible partnerships between the private sector,
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1:55 - 1:58political leaders, philanthropists
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1:58 - 2:00and amazing grassroots activists
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2:00 - 2:01across the developing world,
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2:01 - 2:06but also 250,000 people marched in the streets
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2:06 - 2:08of Edinburgh outside this very building
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2:08 - 2:10for Make Poverty History.
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2:10 - 2:12All together, they achieved these results:
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2:12 - 2:15increased the number of people on anti-retrovirals,
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2:15 - 2:18life-saving anti-AIDS drugs;
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2:18 - 2:20nearly halved deaths from malaria;
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2:20 - 2:25vaccinated so many that 5.4 million lives will be saved.
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2:25 - 2:27And combined, this is going to result
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2:27 - 2:30in two million fewer children dying every year,
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2:30 - 2:32last year, than in the year 2000.
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2:32 - 2:35That's 5,000 fewer kids dying every day,
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2:35 - 2:39ten times you lot not dead every day,
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2:39 - 2:41because of all of these partnerships.
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2:41 - 2:44So I think this is amazing living proof of progress
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2:44 - 2:46that more people should know about,
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2:46 - 2:48but the challenge of communicating this kind of good news
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2:48 - 2:51is probably the subject of a different TEDTalk.
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2:51 - 2:54Anyway, for now, anyone involved in getting these results,
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2:54 - 2:57thank you. I think this proved these goals are worth it.
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2:57 - 3:00But there's still a lot of unfinished business.
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3:00 - 3:04Still, 7.6 million children die every year of preventable,
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3:04 - 3:06treatable diseases,
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3:06 - 3:09and 178 million kids are malnourished
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3:09 - 3:11to the point of stunting, a horrible term
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3:11 - 3:14which means physical and cognitive lifelong impairment.
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3:14 - 3:17So there's plainly a lot more to do on the goals we've got.
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3:17 - 3:20But then, a lot of people think there are things
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3:20 - 3:22that should have been in the original package
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3:22 - 3:24that weren't agreed back then that should now be included,
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3:24 - 3:27like sustainable development targets,
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3:27 - 3:29natural resource governance targets,
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3:29 - 3:31access to opportunity, to knowledge,
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3:31 - 3:33equity, fighting corruption.
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3:33 - 3:36All of this is measurable and could be in the new goals.
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3:36 - 3:38But the key thing here is,
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3:38 - 3:40what do you think should be in the new goals?
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3:40 - 3:42What do you want?
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3:42 - 3:44Are you annoyed that I didn't talk about gender equality
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3:44 - 3:46or education?
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3:46 - 3:48Should those be in the new package of goals?
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3:48 - 3:50And quite frankly, that's a good question,
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3:50 - 3:52but there's going to be some tough tradeoffs
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3:52 - 3:54and choices here, so you want to hope
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3:54 - 3:56that the process by which the world decides
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3:56 - 4:00these new goals is going to be legitimate, right?
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4:00 - 4:02Well, as we gather here in Edinburgh,
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4:02 - 4:05technocrats appointed by the U.N. and certain governments,
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4:05 - 4:07with the best intentions, are busying themselves
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4:07 - 4:09designing a new package of goals,
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4:09 - 4:13and currently they're doing that through pretty much the same old
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4:13 - 4:16late-20th-century, top-down, elite, closed process.
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4:16 - 4:20But, of course, since then, the Web and mobile telephony,
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4:20 - 4:23along with ubiquitous reality TV formats
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4:23 - 4:25have spread all around the world.
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4:25 - 4:28So what we'd like to propose is that we use them
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4:28 - 4:31to involve people from all around the world
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4:31 - 4:35in an historic first: the world's first truly global
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4:35 - 4:38poll and consultation, where everyone everywhere
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4:38 - 4:42has an equal voice for the very first time.
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4:42 - 4:45I mean, wouldn't it be a huge historic missed opportunity
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4:45 - 4:48not to do this, given that we can?
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4:48 - 4:53There's hundreds of billions of your aid dollars at stake,
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4:53 - 4:57tens of millions of lives, or deaths, at stake,
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4:57 - 4:59and, I'd argue, the security and future
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4:59 - 5:02of you and your family is also at stake.
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5:02 - 5:05So, if you're with me, I'd say there's three essential steps
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5:05 - 5:07in this crowdsourcing campaign:
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5:07 - 5:10collecting, connecting and committing.
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5:10 - 5:12So first of all, we've got to ground this campaign
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5:12 - 5:15in core polling data.
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5:15 - 5:17Let's go into every country that will let us in,
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5:17 - 5:19ask 1,001 people what they want
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5:19 - 5:21the new goals to be, making special efforts
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5:21 - 5:24to reach the poorest, those without access
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5:24 - 5:27to modern technology, and let's make sure that their views
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5:27 - 5:29are at the center of the goals going forward.
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5:29 - 5:33Then, we've got to commission a baseline survey
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5:33 - 5:35to make sure we can monitor and progress the goals
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5:35 - 5:37going forward. The original goals didn't really have
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5:37 - 5:39good baseline survey data,
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5:39 - 5:44and we're going to need the help of big data through all of this process to make sure
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5:44 - 5:46we can really monitor the progress.
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5:46 - 5:48And then we've got to connect with the big crowd.
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5:48 - 5:51Now here, we see the role for an unprecedented coalition
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5:51 - 5:54of social media giants and upstarts,
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5:54 - 5:58telecoms companies, reality TV show formats,
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5:58 - 6:02gaming companies, telecoms, all of them together
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6:02 - 6:05in kind of their "We Are The World" moment.
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6:05 - 6:08Could they come together and help
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6:08 - 6:10the Millennium Development Goals get rebranded
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6:10 - 6:13into the Millennial Generation's Goals?
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6:13 - 6:16And if just five percent of the five billion plus
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6:16 - 6:20who are currently connected made a comment,
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6:20 - 6:22and that comment turned into a commitment,
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6:22 - 6:25we could crowdsource a force of 300 million people
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6:25 - 6:28around the world to help see these goals through.
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6:28 - 6:32If we have this collected data, and this connected crowd,
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6:32 - 6:34based upon our experience of campaigning
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6:34 - 6:35and getting world leaders to commit,
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6:35 - 6:37I think world leaders will commit
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6:37 - 6:39to most of the crowdsourced recommendations.
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6:39 - 6:42But the question really is, through this process
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6:42 - 6:44will we all have become committed?
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6:44 - 6:47And if we are, are we ready to iterate, monitor
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6:47 - 6:50and provide feedback, make sure these promises
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6:50 - 6:52are really delivering results?
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6:52 - 6:55Well, there's some fantastic examples here to scale up,
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6:55 - 6:57mostly piloted within Africa, actually.
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6:57 - 7:00There's Open Data Kenya, which geocodes
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7:00 - 7:02and crowdsources information about where projects are,
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7:02 - 7:04are they delivering results.
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7:04 - 7:06Often, they're not in the right place.
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7:06 - 7:09And Ushahidi, which means "witness" in Swahili,
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7:09 - 7:11which geocodes and crowdsources information
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7:11 - 7:15in complex emergencies to help target responses.
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7:15 - 7:19This is some of the most exciting stuff
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7:19 - 7:21in development and democracy,
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7:21 - 7:23where citizens on the edge of a network
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7:23 - 7:25are helping to force open the process
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7:25 - 7:27to make sure that the big global aid promises
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7:27 - 7:31and vague stuff up at the top really delivers for people
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7:31 - 7:35at a grassroots level and inverts that pyramid.
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7:35 - 7:38This openness, this forcing openness, is key,
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7:38 - 7:41and if it wasn't entirely transparent already,
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7:41 - 7:46I should be open: I've got a completely transparent agenda.
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7:46 - 7:48Long-term trends suggest that this century
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7:48 - 7:51is going to be a tough place to live,
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7:51 - 7:55with population increases, consumption patterns increasing,
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7:55 - 7:58and conflict over scarce natural resources.
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7:58 - 8:02And look at the state of global politics today.
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8:02 - 8:05Look at the Rio Earth Summit that happened just last week,
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8:05 - 8:07or the Mexican G20, also last week.
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8:07 - 8:10Both, if we're honest, a bust.
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8:10 - 8:12Our world leaders, our global politics,
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8:12 - 8:15currently can't get it done.
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8:15 - 8:18They need our help. They need the cavalry,
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8:18 - 8:20and the cavalry's not going to come from Mars.
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8:20 - 8:24It's got to come from us, and I see this process
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8:24 - 8:27of deciding democratically in a bottom-up fashion
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8:27 - 8:29what the world wants to work on together
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8:29 - 8:32as one vital means by which we can crowdsource
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8:32 - 8:36the force to really build that constituency
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8:36 - 8:38that's going to reinvigorate global governance
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8:38 - 8:40in the 21st century.
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8:40 - 8:45I started in 2000. Let me finish in 2030.
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8:45 - 8:49Many people made fun of a big campaign a few years ago
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8:49 - 8:51we had called Make Poverty History.
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8:51 - 8:54It was a naive thought in many people's minds,
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8:54 - 8:57and it's true, it was just a t-shirt slogan
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8:57 - 9:00that worked for the moment. But look.
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9:00 - 9:04The empirical condition of living under a dollar and 25
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9:04 - 9:08is trending down, and look where it gets to by 2030.
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9:08 - 9:10It's getting near zero.
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9:10 - 9:12Now sure, progress in China and India
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9:12 - 9:14and poverty reduction there was key to that,
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9:14 - 9:17but recently also in Africa, poverty rates are being reduced.
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9:17 - 9:20It will get harder as we get towards zero,
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9:20 - 9:22as the poor will be increasingly located
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9:22 - 9:25in post-conflict, fragile states,
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9:25 - 9:27or maybe in middle income states
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9:27 - 9:29where they don't really care about the marginalized.
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9:29 - 9:33But I'm confident, with the right kind of political campaigning
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9:33 - 9:36and creative and technological innovation combined
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9:36 - 9:39working together more and more as one,
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9:39 - 9:42I think we can get this and other goals done.
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9:42 - 9:45Thank you. (Applause)
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9:45 - 9:50(Applause)
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9:50 - 9:53Chris Anderson: Jamie, here's the puzzle to me.
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9:53 - 9:56If there was an incident today where a hundred kids
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9:56 - 10:00died in some tragedy or where, say, a hundred kids
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10:00 - 10:03were kidnapped and then rescued by special forces,
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10:03 - 10:06I mean, it would be all over the news for a week, right?
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10:06 - 10:09You just put up, just as one of your numbers there,
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10:09 - 10:12that 5,000 -- is that the number?
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10:12 - 10:14Jamie Drummond: Fewer children every day.
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10:14 - 10:15CA: Five thousand fewer children dying every day.
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10:15 - 10:19I mean, it dwarfs, dwarfs everything
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10:19 - 10:22that is actually on our news agenda, and it's invisible.
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10:22 - 10:24This must drive you crazy.
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10:24 - 10:27JD: It does, and we're having a huge debate in this country
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10:27 - 10:29about aid levels, for example, and aid alone is not
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10:29 - 10:32the whole solution. Nobody thinks it is.
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10:32 - 10:36But, you know, if people saw the results of this smart aid,
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10:36 - 10:39I mean, they'd be going crazy for it.
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10:39 - 10:42I wish the 250,000 people who really did march
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10:42 - 10:46outside this very building knew these results.
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10:46 - 10:48Right now they don't, and it would be great to find a way
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10:48 - 10:51to better communicate it, because we have not.
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10:51 - 10:54Creatively, we've failed to communicate this success so far.
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10:54 - 10:57If those kinds of efforts just could multiply their voice
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10:57 - 11:00and amplify it at the key moments, I know for a fact
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11:00 - 11:02we'd get better policy.
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11:02 - 11:04The Mexican G20 need not have been a bust.
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11:04 - 11:07Rio, if anyone cares about the environment,
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11:07 - 11:09need not have been a bust, okay?
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11:09 - 11:11But these conferences are going on,
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11:11 - 11:13and I know people get skeptical and cynical
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11:13 - 11:14about the big global summits and the promises
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11:14 - 11:16and their never being kept, but actually,
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11:16 - 11:19the bits that are, are making a difference,
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11:19 - 11:20and what the politicians need
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11:20 - 11:22is more permission from the public.
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11:22 - 11:24CA: But you haven't fully worked out the Web mechanisms, etc.
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11:24 - 11:26by which this might happen.
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11:26 - 11:28I mean, if the people here who've had experience
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11:28 - 11:31using open platforms, you're interested to talk with them
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11:31 - 11:33this week and try to take this forward.
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11:33 - 11:35JD: Absolutely. CA: All right, well I must say,
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11:35 - 11:38if this conference led in some way
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11:38 - 11:41to advancing that idea, that's a huge idea,
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11:41 - 11:43and if you carry that forward, that is really awesome,
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11:43 - 11:44so thank you. JD: I'd love your help.
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11:44 - 11:46CA: Thank you, thank you.
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11:46 - 11:49(Applause)
- Title:
- Let's crowdsource the world's goals
- Speaker:
- Jamie Drummond
- Description:
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In 2000, the UN laid out 8 goals to make the world better by reducing poverty and disease -- with a deadline of 2015. As that deadline approaches, Jamie Drummond of ONE.org runs down the surprising successes of the 8 Millennium Development Goals, and suggests a crowdsourced reboot for the next 15 years.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 12:10
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