Global Challenges

"15 Global Challenges" have been defined and tracked since 1997 by The Millennium Project of the American Council for the United Nations University, in its State of the Future series of annual reports. The challenges were defined by the Project's Global Outlook Panel through modified Delphi method questionnaires, and are updated annually. The material exists in several languages and the inputs have come from the project's twenty-two nodes around the world. The descriptions of each challenge include a review of the current state of affairs, approaches to address the challenge, and regional perspectives.


 * 1) How can sustainable development be achieved for all?
 * 2) How can everyone have sufficient clean water without conflict?
 * 3) How can population growth and resources be brought into balance?
 * 4) How can genuine democracy emerge from authoritarian regimes?
 * 5) How can policymaking be made more sensitive to global long-term perspectives?
 * 6) How can the global convergence of information and communications technologies work for everyone?
 * 7) How can ethical market economies be encouraged to help reduce the gap between rich and poor?
 * 8) How can the threat of new and reemerging diseases and immune micro-organisms be reduced?
 * 9) How can the capacity to decide be improved as the nature of work and institutions change?
 * 10) How can shared values and new security strategies reduce ethnic conflicts, terrorism, and the use of weapons of mass destruction?
 * 11) How can the changing status of women help improve the human condition?
 * 12) How can transnational organized crime networks be stopped from becoming more powerful and sophisticated global enterprises?
 * 13) How can growing energy demands be met safely and efficiently?
 * 14) How can scientific and technological breakthroughs be accelerated to improve the human condition?
 * 15) How can ethical considerations become more routinely incorporated into global decisions?