Describe the critical need your solution addresses.

According to Lord Martin Rees, mankind has a 50% chance of surviving the 21st century and it is on an unsustainable path into the future. Consequently, our need to identify the biggest challenges facing humanity and find feasible solutions is greater than ever before in the history of our existence.

Explain your initiative in more depth and its stage of development.

GRR (www.globalriskregister.org) aims to develop a sustainable global community that benefits from managing risks collectively by sharing risk information using a social network platform. GRR will identify and assess current and emerging global risks (including societal, geopolitical, technological, environmental and economic) and create measures to treat and control these risks.

GRR is inspired by the teachings of Lord Martin Rees and James Martin and from recognizing the reality of world problems. Research shows that resources are depleting faster than it is replenishing, population size is rising at an unsustainable rate and human actions are causing major environmental problems at an unexpected rate. These are examples of global risks influencing the survival rate of humanity. Thus, we have to make logical decisions as we enter a new era of international problems.

According to James Martin, our decisions to tackle world problem can lead to catastrophic consequences or glorious civilization, but these decisions need to be made fairly soon. Making the ‘right’ decision however requires a thorough understanding of global risks and finding solutions considering societal, environmental, geopolitical, technological and financial constraints of the people affected.

GRR is developed on the principle that surviving the next century requires understanding global risks better, finding practical solutions, knowing our options and making decisions collectively. We can no longer afford to work in isolation but need to collaborate with intelligence from academia, businesses, governments, and NGOs to combat global challenges.

To date, we have developed the goal of GRR and established a Steering Committee responsible for its governance. Over 60 risk experts have joined GRR to contribute risk information. We are currently developing the social network platform, which will provide access to the richest repository of risks and controls and promote collaboration amongst individuals and organizations to manage information on global risk for the benefit of humanity.

How does your strategy and approach respond creatively and comprehensively to key issues?

According to the World Economic Forum ‘global risks do not manifest themselves in isolation, neither geographically nor in time’. In fact, the world is filled with various types of risks that are interconnected at an exceptional level. The implication is that creating measures (e.g. technological innovation, business decisions, policy formulation and research investments) to address global risks require a creative, comprehensive and collective approach to solving world problem. This principle lies at the heart of GRR.

As stated previously, GRR aims to create an international community of individuals and organizations working together using a social network platform to solve humanitarian problems by identifying and assessing global risks (Within Risk Domains: societal, geopolitical, environmental, economic and technological), and creating measures and treatments for these risks.

Furthermore, the GRR community aims to find and document major and minor cultural, financial, ecological, technological and political issues surrounding each subcategory of risks (e.g. fiscal crisis) found under each of the five major risk domains (e.g. economic risk domain) listed above. This model will allow us to (1) understand better how specific risks arise and connect with other risks; (2) determine those factors promoting and hindering risks; (3) uncover expected consequences of risks; (4) identify mechanisms to reduce risks; and (5) prioritize risk reduction strategies and policies.

The GRR is a breakthrough and a preferred state model because it takes a comprehensive approach to identify and assess world problems as well as to create measures to treat those problems. Unlike any other model before, GRR also encourages collaboration amongst key stakeholders within governments, businesses, NGOs and research from both the developing and developed world in order to develop solutions to world problems that will lead us towards sustainable livelihood.