Leading economist lauds UAE’s goal-setting, community-driven approach to government

“[Globally]we talk about climate, future pandemics, and digital challenges, but we don’t [yet] Co-invest and innovate to advance collective intelligence and solve our most difficult goals,” Mazzucato said.

“The UAE is very advanced in terms of residents receiving benefits from the government. You have also been leading the way in space missions, like the Mars mission, and the different ways you are investing in renewable energy, which I find very encouraging. UAE in whole-of-government approach in a leading position [as well]And me [would urge you to] Think climate-centrically,” she said.

Mazzucato, author of several books on inclusive and sustainable economic growth, addressed the Mohamed bin Zayed Parliament in the capital. Her presentation was attended by Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, government officials, students and private sector executives.

According to the economist, the climate crisis is one of the most pressing challenges in the world right now, and because of its urgency, almost every other country needs to steer the course. She also highlighted social inequality as a major problem and said its solutions should support other efforts.

“[For instance,] The mission of COVID-19 should really be to vaccinate the world.this is not a vaccine [that was the mission]since we now have 80 different vaccines, we can [been satisfied] 20. But if we don’t vaccinate the world, [mission isn’t yet] Done,” she explained.

Policymakers should set bold, realistic and inspiring goals, Mazzucato said. This often has spillover effects that benefit the entire economy, she explained. As an example, she mentions the Apollo missions to the moon — the moon landings.

“The mission was to go to the moon in a short period of time, and to do that they required the cooperation of hundreds of thousands of people. There were 400,000 people involved in the project, and not just in aerospace. [Other sectors involved included] Nutrition, Materials, Electronics, Software. And the various problems to be solved along the way have given us a lot of economic value. The entire software industry as we know it today, [for example], is actually a spillover from the moon landing. Other things that came up were camera phones, sneakers and home insulation,” Mazzucato said.

Mazzucato suggested a similar “moonshot approach” to address other challenges, stressing that governments should not shy away from imposing stringent and ambitious conditions on the private sector and third-party collaborators. The economist proposed making the reduction of the steel industry’s carbon footprint a condition for loans in Germany, giving the industry a head start. On the other hand, Sweden’s focus on sustainable school lunches is driving green innovation in the supply chain.

“I’ve been coming to the UAE for several years, and one of the reasons I find it so interesting is this open discussion about the need to run the government differently,” Mazzucato said.

“I’m very optimistic [that we can make a difference], which is why I want to enlighten.When we care, when we impose a sense of urgency on our systems, when we [treat our] Societal challenges as urgent and ambitious as when we went to war. Instead of just throwing money at us and hoping for the best, we should build an economic system that is results-driven,” she urged.