The World Economic Forum and Benchmarking Progress in Society
Competitiveness Indicators and the Global Redesign Initiative
Dr. Irene Mia, Senior Economist and Director
Global Competitiveness Network, World Economic Forum
3rd OECD World Forum “Statistics, Knowledge and Policy”-Charting Progress, Building Visions, Improving Life
Busan, October 27th-30th, 2009
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Outline
The Global Competitiveness Network and the Executive
Opinion Survey.
The Global Redesign Initiative (GRI) and the key
importance of benchmarking, sounder indicators and
data-driven policymaking in the future global
architecture.
The Global Agenda Council on Benchmarking Progress in
Society and its role in the GRI.
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The Global Competitiveness Network
Flagship product: The Global Competitiveness Report:
launched in 1979 covering 16 countries; it has since
expanded its coverage to 133 countries.
Editor: Professor Klaus Schwab.
Goal: to provide a benchmarking tool for policymakers
and business leaders.
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The Global Competitiveness NetworkGeographical coverage
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The Global Competitiveness Network
Thematic coverage
Regional, topical and industry report series:
The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report
The Global Information Technology Report
The Global Enabling Trade Report
The Lisbon Review
The Mexico Competitiveness Report 2009
The Brazil Competitiveness Report 2009
The Africa Competitiveness Report 2009
The Global Gender Gap Report
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Use of hard data (publicly available information from
sources such as the International Monetary Fund, the
World Bank, UNESCO, United Nations, etc.).
And survey data (from the Executive Opinion Survey-
EOS), which records the perspectives of business
leaders around the world; survey data is indispensable,
particularly for variables where no reliable hard data
sources exist.
In 2009, over 13,000 business leaders from 133
countries responded to the Survey.
The Global Competitiveness NetworkData sources
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The Executive Opinion SurveyThe Voice of the Business Community
On a yearly basis, the EOS asks
business executives to provide their
expert opinion on various aspects of
the business environment in which
they operate.
Administered between January and
May, the sample of respondents is
carefully selected to reflect the
structure of a country’s GDP.
The EOS is available in over 20
languages and with an online version.
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The Executive Opinion SurveyThe Voice of the Business Community
The Survey is reviewed and
streamlined every year to reflect
the variables captured in the
Global Competitiveness Index
(GCI) among others.
It includes 130 questions
structured around twelve major
issue areas relevant to the
current state of an economy’s
business environment and
reflected in the GCI and the
other Forum’s indexes.
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The Executive Opinion SurveyThe Voice of the Business Community
In view of reaching out to business executives around the
world, the Forum collaborates closely with a network of
over 140 Partner Institutes who administer the EOS at the
national level.
The Partner Institutes conduct the EOS on an annual basis
as well as disseminate the findings of the Forum’s Report
at national level.
All Partner Institutes are required to collect 80 surveys in
their respective countries – with the exception of the BRIC
economies and the United States where a sample of 300
surveys is requested.
In order to ensure that methods used to administer the
survey are consistent across countries, the Forum requests
that each Partner Institute follows detailed guidelines.
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The Global Competitiveness NetworkOur principal benchmarking tools
The Global Competitiveness index:
- over 110 variables, about 70% Survey data
(according specific country’s stage of
development)
The Networked Readiness Index:
- 68 variables, about 60% Survey data
- assessing countries’ capacity to leverage ICT
for increased development, featured in the
Global Information Technology Report series
The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index:
- 71 variables, 39% Survey data
- assessing the factors and institutions that make
attractive to develop the T&T sector, featured in
the T&T Competitiveness Report series
The Enabling Trade Index:
- 30 variables, around 50% Survey data
- measuring the factors, policies and services
facilitating the free flow of goods over
borders and to destination, featured in the
Global Enabling Trade Report series
The Financial Development Index:
- over 120 variables, around 17% Survey
data
- assessing key drivers of financial system
development and economic growth,
featured in the Financial Development
Report series
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Fostering public-private dialogueThe results of our Reports provide an objective base for public-private dialogue on the priorities for reform in countries, i.e. during regional meetings of the World Economic Forum, special business-led forums and in the framework of competitiveness focused structures (competitiveness councils or institutions).
MonitoringFor highlighting priorities and monitoring progress over time.
The Global Competitiveness Network
A platform for public-private dialogue
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The Global Competitiveness Network played the key
catalytic role in launching in 2004 the Egyptian Competitiveness Council. This council has spearheaded
the efforts in other Arab countries to setup similar bodies
(e.g. UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Morocco), following the
Forum’s guidelines.
Also in many countries, the Forum’s Indexes are used as a
tool to assess national advancements and to set policy
targets. The Forum is working closely with the government
led competitiveness institutions in charge of the above in
a number of countries, including Mexico, Peru, Colombia, and Dominican Republic.
The Global Competitiveness Network
A platform for public-private dialogue: A few examples
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Vision: a new covenant between sovereignty and globalisation, old and rising players, governments, businesses and citizens to help address global problems in a more effective, collaborative and sustainable manner.
Objectives: highlight fresh ideas and approaches for international cooperation regarding global issues with gaps in governance and in need for more collaborative approaches.
Expected outcomes: a systemic vision and blueprint of architectural improvements to guide a major renovation of the structures and underlying ecosystem of international cooperation. It will be used to stimulate a global, multimedia conversation in 2010 about enhanced commitment by all stakeholders on improving the state of the world.
The Global Redesign InitiativeConcept
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The Global Redesign Initiative Timeline
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The Global Agenda CouncilsConcept
Shaping the global agenda by bringing together the foremost minds and networks on 70 different issues.
Alignment to the Forum’s vision: Councils are formed around the key issues on the Global, Industry & Regional Agenda in line with the Forum’s mission to improve the state of the world; composed by 15-20 leading minds on each issue, multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary approach.
Global Agenda Councils and the GRI: tasked to identify innovation in global governance and closing gaps in international cooperation in each of the six pillars of the GRI. A number of Councils have been identified as priority in this sense and are involved in the drafting of the blue print for the GRI.
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The Global Redesign InitiativePillars
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The Global Agenda Council on Benchmarking
Progress in Society and the GRI
Focus:Holistic and accurate understanding of economic and social progress: what are the key ingredients of societal progress and the possible complements to GDP-centered measures of progress?
Generalizing the use of benchmarking for data-based policy-making: how to ensure a good measurement of progress in both official and non-official statistics?
Creation of an institutional platform to promote benchmarking and its legitimacy, bringing together researchers, policy-makers and civil society.
Reach-out: how to effectively communicate this initiative to the citizens and obtain constituencies’ support? How can data be made available to the general public to promote openness and government accountability?
GRI pillar: Building Effective Institutions – Priority Council
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The Global Agenda Council on Benchmarking
Progress in Society and the GRI
GRI Pillar
Building Effective Institutions
Reflects on the institutional context for effective global
governance
Priority Global Agenda Councils:
Global Institutional Governance
International Legal System
Intellectual Property System
Future of Government
Benchmarking Progress in Society
Decision-making & Incentive Systems
Designing Complex Systems
Sound indicators and benchmarking practices are key for better policy-making and for more effective global governance!
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The Global Agenda Council on Benchmarking
Progress in Society and the GRI
Issues to be addressed by the Council within the GRI:
What are the key global governance gaps related to
Benchmarking Progress in Society in light of contemporary
circumstances and challenges?
Concrete proposal to remedy one or more of these
structural gaps.
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9The Global Agenda Council on Benchmarking
Progress in Society and the GRI Where do we stand?
Gaps in international cooperation/governance in benchmarking have been identified as follows:
a) gaps in the definition of progress;
b) gaps on quality, comparability and reliability of data
and lack of a global system to facilitate cooperation by
guaranteeing proper indicator selection, regular data
collection, consistent methodologies, and ease of
comparison and benchmarking.
c) gaps in making data-driven policymaking the
standard practice for government and make
benchmarking results/data salient and understandable
to decision-makers and to the general public.
Recommendations on how to address the above are being prepared
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9The Global Agenda Council on Benchmarking
Progress in Society and the GRI Where do we stand?
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