Economist: More partnership needed to address challenges

An internationally acclaimed economist is suggesting that Barbados and the rest of the region employ a more partnership-based approach to driving innovation while solving developmental challenges.

Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at the University College London, advised that instead of countries “obsessing” over handing out money, they should develop a new “mission-oriented” model to solve challenges through partnerships.

Pointing to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the broad issues that countries needed to address, Mazzucato explained that government, private sector and civil society organizations should work together to innovate, transform and engage in sustainable development practices.

“Look at what it means to have a challenge-oriented approach, a purpose-oriented approach, a mission-oriented approach where we focus on the problems. If you start with the SDGs, for example, then you turn them into missions . . . and design it so that it brings as many different sectors to the table as possible and design the procurement policies, loans and grants to foster that bottom-up experimentation,” she said as she delivered the Caribbean Development Bank’s 2021 William G Demas Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, to commence the 51st annual meeting of the Board of Governors. The theme was Rethinking Innovation: Reimagining the Future.

Mazzucato posited that countries go beyond cost-benefit analysis and put metrics in place to allow them to capture the true value of various projects and the spillover benefits.

Pointing to some of the issues that came to the fore as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the lack of digital access by school children and lack of access to vaccines for poorer countries, Mazzucato insisted that governments have “tragically and miserably” failed to adequately deal with the health crisis.

She said the pandemic should therefore serve as a “big wake up moment” for countries to see the need for public and private sector and third sectors to work together to better solve developmental and other challenges.

“Stakeholder value has to eventually make us realize that the only way to address . . . challenges, whether climate or the health pandemic, we actually need multiple stakeholders to be investing, to be innovating and taking care to structure those relationships in such a way that is truly stakeholder driven,” she insisted.

Mazzucato said it was important that state agencies get governance right and take on a more proactive approach in dealing with issues, rather than just seeking to “fill the gap with something the private sector is not doing”.

At the same time, the economist said, the private sector should put its “lot of talk” into action.

“It is a really important talk, but we need to turn it into a walk of changing corporate governance so it is truly purpose oriented,” she said.

“The reason this is so important is that we can’t rely just on the state or just on business; we need to actually look also within our organizations and ask ‘do we have the right kind organization in order to confront the challenges?’.”

Acknowledging that the developmental challenges affecting countries were difficult to address, Mazzucato said they required political, social, regulatory, behavioural, technological and organizational change.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)