+100 development ideas to change the world

Ideas on how economics can help us save Planet Earth

1. Redistributive enterprise

The idea of a redistributive enterprise is about the concept of a private enterprise that redistributes part of its profits as basic income to vulnerable groups. The basic income provided by the enterprise could be provided monthly. The enterprise works like any other enterprise on the market and it must be able to produce profits if it wants to benefit the vulnerable groups. It can work in a sector of the economy, but of course if it wants to benefit people properly, it should work in a sector where enough profits can be made.

The choice of the vulnerable groups to be benefitted should be done by the entrepreneur, but in my opinion, it should focus on groups that are trying to live on a basic income, but they don't manage, such as those living in extreme poverty, people suffering from hunger, Romani people, homeless people, pensioners in developing countries and so on.

Customers of the company should be informed about the results of the assistance provided by the enterprise, which can be coupled with psychological support, medicines and other sort of assistance in most difficult cases, in order to provide an integrated help.

The assistance provided should be properly evaluated in order to see the effects it has on people, where some groups are more a difficult group to assist than the other. Homeless people are a more difficult group to assist than pensioners, but they still need more help. The enterprise can benefit more groups at the same time, if it chooses to do so.

2. Inflation and GDP growth rate

The relation between inflation and GDP growth rate is not enough analyzed in the framework of economics. GDP growth rate is fact the rate of growth of income in an economy, since production is equal to income in economics. If inflation is higher than GDP growth rate, a country will be poorer and poorer, since the level of prices is growing more than national income.

That is what is happening in Italy, where the GDP growth rate is normally lower than inflation rate, at part the post-Covid scenario. That's the reason why people perceive life to be more and more expensive over time.

Ideally, GDP growth rate should be more than the rate of inflation in order for a country to be more and more affluent. Still, it is not an easy issue to solve, at least in the case of Italy, where notwithstanding the alternation of many different governments, the country is lagging behind many other European countries in terms of GDP growth over time.

3. A solution to urban environmental hot-spots

Mainly due to old industrial policy, sometimes steel industries and other dangerous productions are located in urban areas. An example are steel industries in Taranto, Italy or Elbasan, Albania, located in the center of town. This is the reality of many other cities in developed and developing countries. In these cases, where there are serious health consequences, certified by data which are clear and certain, such as the increased number of cancers that affected the local population in Taranto and Elbasan, the approach of the government must be radical.

Since there is a trade-off between the working class as well as the management, on one hand, and the environment, on the other side, the idea is to take an approach that somehow satisfies both. The steel industry must be closed, workers must be absorbed by the public administration and green areas must be created instead in the industrial areas. In alternative, a system based on basic income can be designed for the workers that loses their jobs. Or to finance a massive job-creation program for all the workers that has lost their jobs.

Although it has a high cost for the collectivity, it is the only approach that satisfies both sides at the same time, the needs of the workers and the environment. If the entrepreneur is compensated through public money, it will be also protected from running into serious judicial problems, like it happened in Italy.

Although expensive, it is a way to stop a long-term environmental disaster, with unacceptable health problems that plague the local population, besides the workers themselves. Steel and other hazardous industries can then be relocated out of town, in a more adequate setting.

4. Climate change and responsibility to help developing countries

Climate change is becoming a global phenomenon, which impacts countries everywhere. Although the majority of CO2 emissions derives from industrialized countries, the impact of climate change is bear sometimes in developing countries as well. For example, recent droughts in Southern Madagascar during the year 2021 have been ascribed by experts to the phenomenon of climate change.

Since these extreme events are foreseen to multiply in the future, especially in Africa, it is clear that there is a moral responsibility of advanced countries, which contribute disproportionately to the phenomenon of climate change, to help developing countries, especially in Africa, in front of famines, such as the one happening at present in Madagascar. The responsibility to help is based on the fact that advanced countries caused the phenomenon of climate change historically and, if the effects are suffered in Africa, that contributes only to 2 per cent of global CO2 emissions, the responsibility to help in case of famines must be held by the West.

WFP and other humanitarian agencies are specialized to deal with food assistance in case of hunger and famines, so a humanitarian system is in place in order to assist people in need of help in case of famines. WFP is the 2020 Nobel prize winner, that testifies the efficiency of such humanitarian agency. Other sources of humanitarian assistance can be chosen by advanced countries, such as specialized NGOs, in order to address extreme food insecurity scenarios due to climate change.

5. A proposal on how to deal with CO2 emissions

The impact of global CO2 emissions on climate change has been considerable. This phenomenon has been witnessed by the increase of global temperatures, droughts and other extreme weather events.

From a theoretical point of view, it would be preferable that people would change behaviors that lead to CO2 emissions, such as driving cars and eating meat. The same logic applies not only to people, but also to private and public enterprises. Still, notwithstanding a higher level of sensibilization and education on environmental topics, behaviors are very hard to change. In presence of this phenomenon, it is necessary to deal with another approach as well, that combines environmental education and sensibilization, with the use of environmental taxes. The idea is to tax human activities that leads to CO2 emissions in proportion to the cost necessary to adopt human and technological initiatives that absorb CO2 emissions.

For example, you charge yearly taxes on cars according to the amount of CO2 emissions and to the cost necessary to absorb these CO2 emissions.

Since you produce a damage to the environment that is bear by other people, it is fair that you are levied a tax that eliminate the negative impacts you are having on others. Taxes should be used also to research on new ways to deal with CO2 emissions and absorption.

The same logic can be applied to other sources of pollution, such as plastic, taxing them in order to clean plastics in the environment as well as to promote research on new materials that can someday substitute plastics.

In general, governments should identify pollution sources and sponsor taxes on how to clean the environment from such pollution and also to identify new materials or energy sources that don’t pollute the environment.

6. Computational environmental modeling: a proposal

A complex simulation of CO2 emissions is necessary in order to deal with the phenomenon of climate change. The idea concerns with the creation of a computational environmental modeling, able to simulate CO2 emissions at world level. The idea deals with the identification of main sources of CO2 emissions and their evolution over time.

The model should be updated frequently in order to have a clear understanding of the impact and diffusion of technological innovations on CO2 emissions. For example, the invention of electric cars or electric planes should be taken into consideration and trends should be included and analyzed. The idea implies acting at statistical level, since it is simply too complex to keep track of the actual diffusion of emissions and technological innovations at global level. Still, it is important to keep track of main CO2 sources, innovations to contrast them and their diffusion. Such a complex model would help to guide us on real environmental trends in CO2 emissions and also in the identification of possible areas of technological innovation. It also would give us an actual vision of environmental trends and their possible impact on climate change. It is not a simple simulation of "business as usual", but an actual analysis of existing trends. The results of the modeling should be made widely available in order to stimulate technological innovation and environmental policies.

This complex environmental simulation modeling could be implemented by the United Nations or by other environmental organizations, such as WWF or Green Peace, with the technical support of some main research universities. It should be presented periodically, in order to guide innovators and policymakers. Such computational environmental modeling can be applied to the other sources of pollution as well, not only CO2, such as plastics. It should therefore track and also try to promote technological innovation for the environment in general.

7. An attempt to reduce unemployment

Unemployment can be linked to a lack of presence of enterprises on the market. Therefore, the creation of enterprises can be a solution for reducing unemployment. The idea is to intervene in a given territorial area and try to completely eliminate unemployment. The idea is to calculate the number of unemployed people and the number of possible entrepreneurs, taking into consideration the economic features of the territory. Then, credit and technical assistance should be offered by the government in order to promote businesses and employment and fully eliminate unemployment. The normal rate of enterprise failure should be taken into consideration in order to obtain optimal results. Although the destruction of financial resources linked to the failure of enterprises can be seen negatively, it is after all an injection of wealth in a given territorial area. An evaluation should be afterwards implemented in order to analyze the results obtained. This idea should be considered as an economic experiment and should be implemented in a given territorial area, such as a region or a city. Support on the demand side could be offered as well through stimulus money, still taking into consideration the necessity of not creating inflation. The magnitude of this initiative it what distinguishes it from normal job creation programs. If successful, this initiative can be replicated in other territorial areas of the same countries or in other countries as well. The initiative should be based on the evaluation of spaces, ideas and other factors in order to create such a high number of enterprises in a given territorial area.

8. Do we need a new monetary policy?

Monetary policy is adopted by Central Banks in order to provide money supply, while taking control of inflation. Money supply is inserted in the economic system by purchasing government bonds. Money supply is a positive economic phenomenon, since it increases the whole wealth of the economic system. It should therefore be pushed to the limit, without creating inflation. Still, there is a serious problem. As mentioned before, money supply is inserted in the economic system by purchasing government bonds. It means therefore that every time we insert wealth in the economic system, at the same time we create debt. We therefore link a positive aspect, such as the increase of wealth in the economic system, to a negative aspect, such as the creation of debt. We therefore need new ways of dealing with this issue, by exploring heterodox monetary policies that do not contribute to the creation of debt. One of them is to transfer money directly to citizens or to the government in order not to create debt. It is a sort of the helicopter money proposed by Milton Friedman, but on a regular base. Other heterodox monetary policies should be explored and developed by experts.

9. Knowledge management of the environment

A system of knowledge management of the environment should be created at city level. This initiative can be implemented in developed countries and in developing countries as well. The point is to have a system that allows to have a clear picture of the environment available in a city in a given year. The idea is linked to the approach that if we know the amount of environment available each year, we are able to see if we are destroying it or not. Our approach to the environment is in fact characterized by an ignorance that we cannot allow anymore. It should be highlighted that contributions to the environment are made not only by the public sector, but also from the private sector as well. A rapid tour in any city of the world can witness that. The knowledge management system should be updated every year and presented to public authorities and also to the general public. In this way, local authorities can take decisions concerning the environment in a conscious way.

10. Mass philanthropy

Philanthropy is normally seen as an activity implemented by the rich. It has a positive impact on the world and is normally considered to be a fine initiative. Still, there is a room to involve other subjects in such positive doing-good activities. An example is unemployed people, who have a lot of free time available. They can search for food or small change from small and medium business owners and help the homeless, for example. It is something that benefit unemployed people, who can improve their well-being and have something positive to include in their CVs, as well as homeless and business owners who wants to participate in the model. Examples can obviously multiply, but the approach is to offer opportunities to people that are not traditionally involved in doing-good activities and benefit vulnerable groups.

11. Development as a process of micro-developments

If we take into consideration the concept that people normally adopt regarding development, we have to highlight that development is basically a process of micro-developments. The birth of a new enterprise, the creation of a new technology, a micro-credit program in developing countries, they all represent micro-initiatives that contributes to the global development process. The same is obviously true for the public sector, where different initiatives contribute to the development process. This is a philosophical consideration and an idea as well, that aims to consider every subject involved in the development process as responsible for progress.

12. Lack of resources and problem-solving

In many cases, public organizations are characterized by the fact that the resources available are not coherent with their objectives. That brings to the obvious consequence that nobody works to solve problems. Activities implemented go into the direction of solving problems, but don't really solve them. This is proven by the fact that many problems existing in our society are ongoing for many decades. Adequate resources, as well as adequate technical solutions, should be allocated for solving problems definitely. A typical positive example in this sort of approach are Nordic countries, such as Finland, where homelessness has been reduced by 80 per cent, or Denmark, which is planning to offer clean energy to 3 million people. Such a logic should be implemented in other countries as well, being an obvious best-practice in problem-solving.

13. UN and development traps

Prof. Paul Collier from Oxford University has developed the concept of development traps, that hindrance the development process of developing countries. They are conflict, reliance on natural resources, being landlocked with bad neighbors and bad governance. Although it is obviously difficult to work on these issues, the UN should have high-skills politicians and economists present in their country-offices to work on development traps. Although it has an obvious financial cost, resources can be reallocated from the UN not so impactful development activities and destined to high-skill human resources. The traditional approach to have, for example, a high-skill politicians when a country precipitate in conflict is too weak: normally the situation is too complex for being solved, as witnessed by many conflicts ongoing for many years in many parts of the world. The objective should be, as far as possible, to prevent countries to end up in conflict, as well as to help on bad governance. At the same time, high-skills economists should instead be helping on other more economic development traps before disasters happen. An exchange of best practices should be promoted inside the UN system, among high-skilled politicians and economic experts and country staff of different countries as well.

14. A website with Government best practices

Government around the world implement remarkable initiatives in order to promote the public good. These initiatives concern many different sectors, ranging from economics to health, from education to the environment. The UN could create a website where Governments' best practices are described and available to everybody for public usage. The UN main website is translated in all the official languages of the United Nations. Best practices should be submitted by Governments around the world to the UN or the UN could search for best practices in the countries of intervention directly. The UN should make them available to everybody in the world. It must be highlighted that innovations come very often from developing countries as well, so that such a website would permit to exchange best practices at the developing countries level. At the same time, the website would permit to exchange innovations among developed countries as well, so that the UN would offer a service to its donors as well.

15. High-working class skills

In traditional economics, the working-class is considered to have low skills. This interpretation doesn't take into consideration that the working-class has considerable physical and psychological skills. A typical example is a waiter in a coffee shop, who makes thousands of coffees per day, standing on her feet for long hours and having a nice approach to customers. Working in such environment for years require considerable skills from a physical and psychological point of view. The fact that a waiter has not a very high salary make her also a very skilled economic agent, able to deal with a complex economic system.

16. How to create a communist stateless society: a strategy from utopia to reality

Karl Marx envisaged a final stage in the transformations foreseen from a socialist system based on the dictatorship of the proletariat to the communist stateless society system. Nevertheless, he did not provide many indications on how the stateless society could be reached. Important elements are instead provided by Marx and Engels as basic features of the communist society. In the "German Ideology", it is described as a system where the division of labor is overtaken: "In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, just has I have in mind, without ever becoming either hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic".

How such a society can be reached? That represents one of the history most standing riddles. Based on a new theoretical approach, a communist stateless society can arise from the concept of a "distributive enterprise", a term suggested by Mr. Victor Matteucci, an Italian EU official and writer, in a conversation with the author. This is a new model of enterprise, which is based on a simple specific feature: part of the profits is directly handed over to people external to the organization by the entrepreneur, as donations.

Let’s think about 1000 persons who decide to live in a community area as part of a social experiment in Cuba, China or in another socialist country. Ten of them runs an enterprise. For example, a website business. The website sells its services at world level and makes 10 million US$ profit per year. Successful websites run by a few people and making a similar kind of profit are not so unusual in today's business world. The entrepreneur shares the profit with the rest of the members of the community, providing 1000US$ per month to each member. The rest of the society is free to dedicate themselves to other sort of social, humanitarian or productive activities, just like in Marx's final stage of communist society.

This new model of community represents an innovative case of stateless communist economic system. It is a possibility to create wealth, freedom and to have people capable of pursuing different activities during the day.

An important question should be addressed. Does this system might represent the famous stateless society foreseen by Marx and Engels? The peculiar system described by them is compatible with the social experiment described above. But what are the main features of the redistributive enterprise in details and what might be instead be the characteristics of our experimental society?

Basically, the redistributive enterprise can work like any kind of enterprise. Of course, it can work in any productive sector, since there are not relevant limitations to that. Secondly, the capacity of transferring profits to the members of the community in an adequate amount is strictly linked to the possibility of eliminating the necessity of a state actor, which is normally in charge of providing health, education and other usual social services. It would be therefore a system able to empower people, which would be able to satisfy their needs directly, through the purchase of goods and services on the market.

The law of economics must therefore be respected also by the distributive enterprise, so that the business must be able to provide funds to be distributed to the rest of the community, while at the same time it should be able to stay on the market. As a consequence, we might imagine a situation where the company's services might be purchased by leftists all around the world. Society would therefore regulate production, as foreseen in the final stage of Marx and Engels evolution of societies. Few questions come obviously to one's mind concerning the potential organization of this new experimental society. In particular, concerning the provision of public goods and other typical market failures has a high relevance. Normally, the private sector is in fact not fit to face an emergency situation such as a landslide or be able to finance and build a new road or create an electricity system.

In order to address these important issues, we can imagine a situation where, for example, fifty people of our hypothetical community are in charge of dealing with such issues, through voluntary contributions provided by the company or by the savings of the people. In alternative, such services, such as electricity, can be purchased by the Cuban or Chinese government. No tax system would be imposed by the state, only contributions should be offered by the community or the business in order to address situations connected with typical market failures. Since Marx and Engels' model is very environmental, making reference to hunting, fishing and rearing (although it makes reference also to other different activities such as criticizing), it can be imagined as an area at the outskirts of La Havana or Beijing, where people could easily interact with the city to purchase private goods and services, depending on the peculiar kind or organization people want to give themselves. The only requirement is for our hypothetical fifty people to be available to perform this sort of activities needed by a society. The Cuban or Chinese government should "withdraw" from such area, by declaring it stateless.

After dealing with this issue, another question is to be addressed. What is actually a state? What does therefore define, in the sense of lack, the same concept of a stateless society? Is actually our experimental and hypothetical community a possible example of stateless society?

Sovereignty is the main characteristic that defines a state. In other words, a state is able to use the power over its citizens, through its sovereignty function and associated law system. A stateless society is therefore marked by the lack of sovereignty and a law system. We can therefore affirm that our experimental society, being characterized by a unique level of freedom and voluntary interactions among its members, represent a system of stateless society.

In order to grow bigger, more distributive entrepreneurs could instead grow within the area destined to our social experiment. The decision to allocate and identify an area big enough to host several distributive enterprises is therefore crucial to experiment interactions and new possibilities of development.

Entrepreneurs could belong to completely different sectors of production of the economy, taking care of one of another part of the population. That would preserve the concept of community that characterize our society, which is a structure strongly marked by a unique sense of redistributive justice, a unique level of freedom and no competition among its members.

An example of a website which could maintain many people is a business activity that distributes newsletters on how people created and lived in the stateless society, a dream for many leftists around the world. It would be a website easy to take care of, where everybody could contribute with its stories, the website services could be purchased around the world, to people which support the creation and experiment of a stateless society and therefore a hypothetical profit of 10 million US$ could be reached easily.

17. A new approach to fight famines and extreme hunger.

United Nations' development activities should be focused more on a precise set of priorities. In fact, development activities are not all at the same level of impact. Saving lives should be at most priority and additional funds should be earmarked for this sort of activity. An example is the fight of World Food Program against famines, extreme malnutrition, and World Health Organization working against mortal diseases. The existing issues of famines and extreme world hunger are particularly pressing, given around nine million die yearly of hunger in the world. This represents one of the greatest and unacceptable inequalities of our times. A new approach to fight these problems is to be proposed in the framework of the present idea. The approach deals with the location of massive assistance, under the form of food storage points in the circular way around the famine’s areas. In fact, famine areas are normal conflict zones, where it is difficult for humanitarian organizations to intervene, at least during our present times. Hot spots such Somalia, south Sudan, north eastern Nigeria and Yemen are all characterized by more or less high levels of conflict, ranging from full scale civil war, to high prevalence of terrorism extremism.

Such geographic areas have characteristics in common. First, they are not very big territories. People are escaping the conflict and locating very often in nearby states. Such it is witnessed, for example, by the refugee camps of Somalis in Kenya and in Ethiopia. The idea is to facilitate the existing reality and, when a famine starts, place massive food storage points in nearby countries or in the safe areas of a domestic country, in a circular way, so as to be able to attract refugees from the escaping population. Information campaigns can be implemented in the affected countries in order to attract people. Bigger storage points can be located along existing roads and smaller storage points can be located where no big infrastructure is available. The methodology is aimed at saving as many human lives as possible and reducing the amount of people involved in the conflict. Statistic studies should be implemented in order to determine the typology of food available in the storage points in order to be able to provide food to the different categories of the population, such as children, women, and elder people. Peacekeeping troops could protect the food storage points.

This approach, that requires additional funding for the UN or redistribution of aid internally to the Agencies, can be implemented also in peaceful areas, where a population affected by extreme hunger is located. Professor Tharun Khanna, at present at Harvard Kennedy school and Harvard Business School developed the concept of "last mile delivery approach" in fighting world hunger to define this approach. Food storage points can be placed in severely affected areas in a geometrical and mathematical way so that nobody leaves more than x kilometers from the food storage point. This is an important feature of a concept, that is to say by providing food assistance in a geographically logical way, especially in the presence of the problem that is difficult to localize properly, from an informational and descriptive point of view, such as extreme food hunger. If the system will be implemented in a peaceful area, such as the one in Madagascar where there is a famine at present, the last mile delivery can be applied on a full scale, without the problems deriving from working in a war-torn area. Anyway, this approach involves a deep coordination with international organizations and NGOs providing information about areas most affected by hunger in the world. In conclusion, the present approach can represent an innovation in humanitarian assistance, that if extensively applied can be a fundraising instrument for the World Food Program, WHO and other NGOs fighting world hunger.

18. A state that beats the territory.

It is a new concept where social services keep an eye on the territory in search of problems. It is a methodology to be implemented mainly in big cities. A city is divided into areas and each area is covered by one or more social services officials. The idea is to detect severe mental health cases of homeless, drug addicts, alcoholics in order to approach them and help them through the regular social services system. The aim is to not leave anybody abandoned to himself, but to have a proactive approach to detect problems where they are and try to solve them. The same methodology can be adopted in order to discover dysfunctions within the city infrastructure, such as potholes. In this case, problems will be fixed by the regular maintenance operations of the Municipalities.

19. A micro credit program for garbage bins searchers

A program of micro credit should be launched for people looking in garbage bins for things to utilize. The idea is to place staff of the humanitarian organization that will implement the micro credit program at every garbage bin of the cities of intervention and contact people searching in garbage bins in order to offer them the financial support program. The main message should be that life has offered you another opportunity today. Although there might be other poor people that are not identified by the humanitarian organization implementing the microcredit program, searching in garbage bins is a clear indicator of poverty. The invention proposed here is therefore traditional, that is to say micro credit, but the amount of money offered should be higher than in normal microcredit programs, since very small microcredit program risk not to create big wealth. After all the profits are normally linked to the amount of capital offered although it depends a lot on the business idea, the skills necessary to implement it, the business environment and other similar factors. In order to offer a decent living, the micro credit should be therefore as big as possible, depending on the financial resources available at the humanitarian organization. In conclusion it should be highlighted that this sort of methodology can be mainly implemented in urban areas of developing countries.

20. Global brainstorming on economic and social problems

This idea deals with the creation of a website where people can brainstorm on the main economic and social problems. First, this methodology concerns a detailed description of main economic and social problems, such as poverty, inequalities, climate change, world hunger, homelessness, gender, and so on. A comprehensive description of these problems should be included on the website. Then, it concerns with possibility of brainstorming on how to solve these global problems by offering new ideas as well as new insights. Ideas can be discussed and voted on the website, as well as prizes can be offered to the best solutions suggested. A similar approach is proposed by the website Quora. A website where there is sometimes also a pier-to-pier exchange in topics such as "surviving homelessness". For example, a homeless person asked how do you take care of your hygiene and another homeless person suggested by subscribing to a gym. The brainstorming website distinguished itself from Quora by offering a detailed description of economic and social problems to be addressed. The main objective is to find solutions, as well as to increase participation of normal people in addressing public policy issues. In fact, it is incorrect to believe that public policy ideas are identified only by public officials and experts. Solutions can be instead offered by everybody as witnessed by homeless examples on Quora. In conclusion, it is advised that the brainstorming website should be created through private sources or by a foundation grant. The website can be managed by a small team, while thematic experts can be employed in order to prepare the descriptive part of the website.

21. Harvard Kennedy School for the people

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) is a public policy and public administration school, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts USA. The author attended a mid-career master of public administration at HKS in 2009. The present Dean, professor Douglas Elmendorf, is placing a lot of emphasis on addressing emerging issues such as racism and climate change, both in teaching and research. Besides this new emphasis, the school focuses many courses on addressing persistent social problems, such as poverty, inequalities, gender, social housing and so on. This approach is successful giving that, in many areas of expertise, the school is ranked among the top 3 worldwide. Still, HKS is training a small number of students, around one thousand per year. This idea is to take inspiration from this approach and insert topics, such as poverty, inequalities, racism, climate change, gender, social housing, etc., in the curricular of primary and secondary schools around the world. Such topics should be introduced in a way that is obviously adequate to the student’s age. Professors can simply draw on the internet in order to collect data and information about such topics, being the material available online both relevant and abundant. Eventually, a specific course in social studies can be designed and offered to young students. Training millions of students in such areas can literally have an incredible impact on our societies in the future. Our students can in fact be future citizens who are sensible about major problems in our society and are prepared, as adults, to fight against them.

22. Basic income as a parachute

According to Wikipedia, Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a theoretical public program for a periodic payment delivered to all citizens of a given population without means test or work requirements. Although the provision of an Universal Basic Income has many supporters, the author favors the provision of a more targeted basic income. In fact, it is not efficient to provide a basic income to those who already have a sufficient income, deriving from work or other sources of income, such as stocks, rents and others. Still, the author favors that, when a person is in dire economic conditions because he has lost his job and has, almost completely, exhausted his wealth, he will not get to zero resources, facing disastrous consequences. He will land instead on a basic income provided by the Government, for an indefinite period of time. In this way, basic income will work as a sort of parachute in our societies. If the person manages to get back into work again, the provision of a basic income will be suspended. The exact amount to be provided through the basic income should obviously vary from country to country. It should be below an average salary level, in order to incentivize people to work. Anyway, it should be also high enough to cover the main basic needs of an individual.

23. The need for new financial services in developing countries

The lack of opportunities for high-yield private financial investments in developing countries is a serious issue. In Albania, Italian banks present in the country do not offer the same opportunities they offer to private customers in their home country. In Ethiopia, there are no major international banks present in the country.

Equity funds and other advanced financial instruments are of great relevance for the whole process of wealth creation. Customers in Italy have a wide range of financial services where to invest their savings. If we take into consideration the fact that this phenomenon concerns the entire amount of savings of a country, it is easy to see that it has a huge impact on wealth production, by creating a situation that is deeply unbalanced and disadvantageous for developing countries.

If it would be therefore necessary that advanced financial instruments are offered in developing countries as well, together with the provision of a financial education that would allow people to take advantage of these opportunities.

Although such opportunities do not directly concern the poor, still they regard the middle class and the rich, which could expand their wealth and create jobs for the poor.

It would be therefore of utmost importance that national banks start to be operational on international financial markets and create equity funds to be offered to private customers. Technical assistance could be provided to national banks by foreign experts on how to create equity funds. At the same time, international banks, if present in the country, could offer the financial services they normally provide at home. The whole impact on the economy could be simply impressive.

24. Brainstorming at the UN

One of the aims of the present endavor is to demonstrate the power of brainstorming. The idea that only our leaders, whether in the political, economic and social arenas, have the ideas to solve complex problems is simply limiting our potential to address them. This concept should be taken as a reference point in order to create additional opportunities to brainstorm with the participation of usual citizens and experts as well. One organization that should take inspiration from such an approach is the United Nations. Actually, the United Nations is partially adopting such a theory and it is allowing its staff to brainstorm on its website. Still, there is an untapped potential to allow normal citizens and experts to brainstorm on its website as well. As the author hopefully intends to demonstrate, there are additional possibilities and options available to deal with economic and social problems. As previously mentioned for the thematic brainstorming website, the best ideas provided to the UN could be published on its website and prizes should be offered to them. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is running an annual competition regarding new development ideas. This approach should be applied by the UN as well, not on an annual but on a daily basis, allowing people to submit ideas on each single day.

It is also no secret that psychologists developed the concept of positive deviance around 50 years ago. A positive deviant is a person that, even if he is living in the same environment and shares the same number of resources as everybody else, he is able to find a solution to a problem. After all, even where there is a high incidence of malaria, some people manage to avoid such a disease by developing simple new ideas to avoid the problem, such as covering all the body with clothes. This simple but powerful fact was witnessed by Malaria Consortium, a British Charity working in this field. So, positive deviants exist and find solutions to problems.

The ideas can then be spread around through projects implemented by the United Nations and being ideas developed by normal people in their usual economic and social contexts, they normally don’t require massive financial resources to be applied. Normal citizens, experts and positive deviants can therefore extensively contribute, through the United Nations website, to main complex global problems.

25. Transparency in recycling

Recycling is a crucial activity, which foresees a positive participation of people toward common environmental goals and a valuable interaction with the State. It is an activity that offers the possibility to collect paper, glass, plastics and other relevant materials, as well as offers the possibility to show civic education. The present idea is that, just like in the case of taxes paid by the citizenship, the State should tell you how the resources collected are utilized. This should be done in order to inform people about the results of their involvement in environmental activities, for a mere matter of transparency and in order to motivate people to participate in recycling. As for the taxes, this sort of information is provided by some Governments in advanced economies, such as the USA and Great Britain. As far as recycling is concerned, this information is not provided anywhere, apart online in the case of the American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which states that glass is used to make new roads and plastics is used to make park benches. Such sort of information should be instead offered to citizens, simply through a sticker placed on the garbage bins used for recycling. The cost of this idea would be very low and rewards could be instead very high.

26. Value depends from workers

From a numerical point of view, the value of the goods and services produced in our societies mainly depends on the working class. Although we don’t want to underestimate the role provided by the entrepreneurs through the provision of capital, ideas and managerial skills, we have to highlight that, if the take into consideration that the working class is much bigger, in terms of numbers, than the entrepreneurial class, the greatest part of the value produced in our societies is related to the working class. This interpretation should bring a new consideration of the role of the working class in production, given that its importance should therefore be highlighted, both from a substantial and economic point of view.

27. Quantity and quality in public organizations

The secret of success in a public organization is linked to two factors: the quantity and quality of its programs. The implementation of a high quantity of high quality programs, aimed at solving public problems, at least to the maximum extent possible, is the crucial element for success in the public arena.

It must be highlighted that these two elements of success are present in other fields as well. In fact, for example, they concern private organizations, whose success is normally linked to the quantity and quality of their products.

At the same time, they regard entire societies. Nordic countries can be considered a model of "extensive quality of life", being deeply inclusive and egalitarian: the number of homeless and beggars is in fact extremely low, a sign of the fact that these societies are able to offer a high quality of life to a huge part of their population.

The United Nations would deeply benefit by performing through a high quantity and high quality of their programs, in any given possible area of intervention. Given that the UN works in many important areas, such as peace, development, environment, they would greatly benefit from such an approach, being able to obtain relevant results. Of course, the United Nations should focus on this specific approach, through shared values and common culture focusing of quantity and quality. This is the precondition for implementation, just like it's happening in Nordic countries, where shared culture and shared values allow them to create a sort of utopic societies.

28. What does unemployment depend on?

Basically, unemployment depends on two factors. First, the lack of capacity to enter the working environment as an employee. Second, the lack of capacity, in general terms, to start a new enterprise. These are the two basic options for the unemployed, whether to be employed in an existing enterprise or to start his own enterprise. If any of these two options cannot materialize, we should ask ourselves what are the hindrances for these two outcomes. If you are applying for a position in an existing enterprise, the hindrance is normally represented by the lack of skills or qualifications. If you want to start your own enterprise, the problem can be represented by the lack of capital, business ideas or other entrepreneurial skills, the lack of suitable land to start an enterprise, the lack of trained labor to launch a start-up. Both cases deal with the lack of one or more factors of production that are necessary to an entrepreneurial activity. Of course, we could ask ourselves if the Government should try to keep unemployment low and therefore possibly act in the direction of providing the different factors of production to the unemployed. In my opinion, in order to have just and fairer societies, the Government should interfere with the market economy and provide factors of production to the unemployed. This is an alternative approach to the provision of a basic income for the unemployed, which offers, as support, what should be the final result of the use of the factors of production, that is to say a basic (or higher) income. Massive endowments of factors of production should be provided to the unemployed, through job creation programs, in order to limit the phenomenon of unemployment. This is a variation of the Keynesian approach, where public works are promoted in order to support the unemployed. Programs might be tested initially in a specific geographic area, in order to check for the results obtained and to fine-tune the approach. It is recommended that enterprises are promoted by blocks, not all at the same time, so the capacity of the economy to absorb these enterprises is not overestimated.

29. A new socialism

A new socialism cannot be interpreted in a limited way, through ad-hoc traditional interventions, such as, for example, the nationalization of a railway system. A new socialism can only be defined by interventions that change the lives of millions of citizens. An example is a high minimum wage for workers coupled with a basic income for the unemployed, both measures being implemented at the same time. These sorts of interventions should couple to traditional socialist interventions such as free health care and free education. We cannot forget in fact that we use free education and free health care normally only for a limited part of our lives, but if we want to live in a socialist system where people are protected from the negative aspects of the market economy, such as low wages and unemployment, we should design interventions that cover other phases of the lives of the individuals as well, such as the above mentioned, high minimum wages for workers and basic income for the unemployed at the same time.

30. How to fight poverty scientifically and systematically

A theoretical and scientific way to fight poverty should be identified before it is implemented in the real world. A systematic approach to fight poverty in the short run is to benefit economically the different categories of agents in the economy, whether they are workers, unemployed or informal workers. These three categories cover all possible agents active in an economy, although unemployed technically are not in the condition of being part of the productive effort. Growth has demonstrated its potential to fight poverty, both in developed and developing countries, and should be supported by Governments as a long-term strategy. Yet, in the short-term, the Government should focus on a different instrument for each of the economic agents defined above. As for the workers, the main instrument should be an high minimum wage. Minimum wage is a mechanism that, if set to a relatively high level, in particular above the poverty line, can improve the economic conditions of the recipient. Besides that, it has the advantage that it is not necessary to increase the taxes, since it will be paid by the entrepreneurs present in the economy. As for the unemployed, basic income provided by the Government is instead the answer. Since these people are not employed and cannot be reached through a minimum wage, they should be reached instead by a basic income, to be set above the poverty line, but not high enough to disincentive the re-entering in the working environment by the unemployed. If we want to fight poverty adequately, the basic income should be provided indefinitely, unless a person re-enters the working environment. As for informal workers, it should be calculated how much they make each month and integrate their income with economic transfers by the Government to reach a level that is set above the poverty line. By reaching a poverty level which is above the poverty line for all the three categories identified, a real-world fight to poverty can be implemented, both scientifically and systematically. The dimensions of the interventions should vary according to the fact that we are dealing with an advanced economy or a developing country. The necessary resources will vary from country to country. It will involve an increase of taxes, with a redistribution of resources from the rich to the poor, but it is the only possible way to fight poverty scientifically in the short run, by benefiting each agent in the economy with an economic transfer to be set above the poverty line.

31. The need for local and regional GDP data

The use of local and regional GDP data should be higher than it is actually today. The utilization of these data is in fact an important input in evaluating local government performance and therefore serves as a potential important factor on how to vote in local elections. A case from the author’s hometown, that is to say Genoa, can help to clarify this idea. Few decades ago, the city government decided to focus the local economy heavily on tourism. A big part of the city was destined to touristic initiatives, ranging from touristic ports to a huge aquarium. Has the city benefited from the local government choice? Data about Genoa’s total GDP, even data concerning the output of the specific sector of tourism would better help people in evaluating the local government development strategy and therefore provide important scientific information on how to vote in local elections. The same is true for other sectors of the economy, such as for example the area of electronics, where the local government has helped to create the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa. Was that a good choice? How has the electronics sector scored in Genoa, after this development choice? Data concerning the historical evolution of Genoa’s GDP should be used more.

32. Operational think tank

There is no doubt that think tanks play an important role in research on development economics. Still, this book hopefully offers a new perspective on what an operational think tank can do. By an operational think tank, I mean a think tank that is focusing on the research of development actions to be implemented in reality. If research on understanding how the world works is important, research on how to improve the world is in fact even more important. New operational think tanks should be promoted in individual countries or at global level. Ideally, financial resources should be made available at the think tank level, in order to implement the practical initiatives identified, such as those proposed in the framework of this endavor.

33. Economic quality of life

The economic quality of life is given by the relation between the average salary in a country and the prices of a basket of goods and services of common use. It cannot be calculated as a single index, because that would mean that the average salary is spent in an equitable way on all the goods and services of the basket or that hypothetical assumptions are made on how the average salary is spent among the different items of the basket. Still, it has an important function at cross-country level, where the average salary level can be compared to the price of single items in the basket, such a liter of milk or a pizza. It is an index that can be prepared by a think-tank. Under a certain profile, it is a comparison between price levels, given that also the average salary is a price as well.

34. Additional development, transformational development, improvement development

Development can be promoted either from the private sector, the public sector or the third sector. It takes different characteristics, according to the subject which is promoting it. If the private sector is promoting development, it can be represented by a new product or a new enterprise. If the public sector is promoting development, it can be represented by a new road or a new park, that is to say by the provision of a public good. If the third sector undertakes development, it can be represented by a training course or a microcredit program. The whole result of these different initiatives is the development system of a country.

The main idea is that development is normally constituted by additional development, in the sense that a private or a public actor adds, for example, an enterprise or a park to the existing economic and social system. Single development initiatives are somehow of limited impact, because capital is very widely distributed in society, but they add something to the economic and social system.

Another kind of development is called transformational development, that is to say when a new development initiative substitutes an existing one. An example is the case of mobile phones who substituted fixed telephones or, in the public sector, protected residences that substituted mental asylums in order to provide care to mental health patients. This is much more uncommon, since it has to deal with innovation, that is much more unusual in the development sector.

Finally, we have the improvement development that happens when an existing piece of the economic and social sector is improved. An example can be the rehabilitation of a school, that is implemented by the public sector. This is not so uncommon, if we take into consideration the high number of these sort of initiatives.

Therefore, we can identify three development concepts: additional development, transformational development and improvement development. The first is the most common, the second is the most unusual and the third is located between the two, as magnitude. All together, they contribute to the development system of a country.

35. Evaluation in public spending

The practice of evaluating public expenditures is not widespread enough in public economics. If a private enterprise is not able to stay on the market, it will go bankrupt. The same is not true for the state that continues its operations, sometimes with limited efficiency and transparency. In order to increase efficiency and transparency, an additional effort in the proper evaluation of public expenditures should be made. The idea is that, since the total public spending of a state is too big to be evaluated, an ad-hoc evaluation of a limited number of the state’s service providers should be made, through a random draw system. A number of hospitals, schools, police units, post offices and government agencies should be evaluated in their annual performance. The evaluation should respect some geographical criteria, since differences in service provision are common in most countries, given the territorial imbalances that characterize both advanced and developing nations. Evaluation techniques have started to be developed for public spending, both by academia and international organizations. An evaluation can take advantage from these experiences. The main proposal in this case is that the evaluation happens through a random draw, yet big enough to have a clear perspective on the performance of public expenditures. Evaluation results should be made available to both government officials and the general public, in order to have a clear picture of how the country is scoring in the provision of different public services.

36. Value in GDP

According to Investopedia, a website, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can be defined as “the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period”. Since production is equal to income in economics, it would make sense to focus the country’s production on products and services of high value, in order to increase the national income. If that is obviously true for both advanced and developing countries, the concept is particularly relevant for developing nations. In fact, many economists suggest that developing nations specialize in agriculture, in the framework of the international specialization in the production of goods and services, given their abundance of manpower and land. Still, this advice is very short-sighted, given that the value of agricultural products is normally very low and that brings, as suggested before, to a low value of GDP and therefore of income. Developing countries should instead proceed on the process of industrialization, given that the value of products produced in the industrial and service sector is higher. The success of many countries, such as, for example, the case of the Asian tigers, is a testimony of this thesis. Agriculture is clearly a source of jobs and incomes in many developing countries, but in the medium and long-term should be abandoned as the main sector, in order to raise the national production’s value and therefore the national income.

37. Social bonds

According to Bloomberg, a website, social bonds are defined by funding for projects that help society, such as improving social welfare or serving disadvantaged populations. The use of social bonds has been widespread, from fighting homelessness to promoting initiatives against climate change. Still, there is plenty of room to make them even more common and effective.

One option is to offer high-yield social bonds. As for example, fighting homelessness is definitely an important objective in society, it should therefore be incentivized by offering a high interest rate on social bonds fighting homelessness. Aiming at private savings in order to fight social problems is a valid economic strategy, given the high dimension of private savings in advanced and even in developing countries. A reward through a high interest rate can untap considerable resources for the social good. Another way to support social bonds is to offer political support for them. We can imagine a Prime Minister that asks the population to subscribe to social bonds in order to fight homelessness. Asking the population to offer resources in that direction might be a strategic way in order to incentivize the collection of resources to fight homelessness.

The idea here is therefore to offer high-yield social bonds with political support instead of the more classical social bonds. If these two features of new social bonds are applied, considerable resources can be collected, given the high amount of savings in a country, to fight homelessness and other social issues.

38. Participated problems and solutions

Some categories of social and economic problems can be considered participating problems. It means that such problems are characterized by the behavior of a huge amount of people, that contribute to create them. Examples are some sort of inequalities and climate change. It is us, through our consumer behavior, that made multinationals so rich. It is us, through our environmental behavior, that created the problem of climate change. These are behaviors that create problems and, very often, we still deeply complain about these problems. In front of such participating problems, a good approach is to address them through participating solutions. Participating solutions means that a considerable amount of people work in the direction of solving the problem. A solution that allows a considerable amount of people to participate in solving the problem should be first identified. Then, people should be incentivized in order to take part in the solution of the problem. An example are environmental bonds, with high-yield and ad-hoc political support, that are used to plan trees in order to fight climate change. The solution offered is easy (planting trees), as well as it is the instrument to raise money, such as a public bond. If we think that a usual public bond issued in Italy is normally equal to billions of Euro, you can understand the potential of such participating solutions, thanks to the national government and to the citizens who subscribed to the bond through their savings. Other similar examples can be identified and implemented, through support at the different levels of society. A case is homelessness, where homeless can be provided with a small apartment through the funds collected through a public bond. Given the amount of homeless and the dimension of public bonds in Italy, such a problem could be completely solved through a normal public bond where proceedings are used to construct small apartments for the homeless.

39. A new approach to maintenance

Developing countries focus more on the construction of new infrastructure than on the maintenance of infrastructure itself. This phenomenon has importance consequences, since there is not enough focus on the maintenance of infrastructure and new infrastructures decay very rapidly, shortly after being constructed. In order to prevent this phenomenon, we propose that, in the framework of development cooperation programs, a financial amount is left for management to local authorities, so that the yields generated by this financial amount are used for the maintenance of the infrastructure created in the framework of the development cooperation program. The financial amount to be left for management to local authorities varies accordingly to the amount and type of infrastructure created in the framework of the development cooperation program, being them roads, bridges, water supply systems, electric supply systems and so on. Different pieces of infrastructure have in fact different maintenance needs, that can be studied from a statistical point of view, in order to determine the right financial amount to be left to local authorities for maintenance. The financial amount left to local authorities should also generate yields in order to preserve itself from inflation, in order to be sustainable over time. A culture of maintenance should also be developed through the international cooperation programs, and in particular through this new approach, in order to influence the maintenance to be provided to infrastructure constructed by local authorities through their regular funds.

40. Developing countries have land to grant to the poor

Although developing countries are generally poor in capital, many of them have a resource in abundance to grant to the poor: land. Land can be used for agriculture or construction and, in both cases, it can deliver substantial returns for the poor. Land should be granted for free to the poor, provided that poor are adequately identified. In order to identify the poor properly, you should assess their wealth, besides their income, so that an economic database should be created in order to assess the country's poor general economic conditions. Land can vary, of course, depending if it is urban or rural, but in both cases, it should be provided in order to make the poor exit extreme poverty. That should be a minimum objective in order to improve the economic conditions of the poor. The support to the poor can be coupled with seeds, fertilizers, cattle and working instruments, if necessary, in order to provide an integrated support to the poor, with the aim of lifting them out of extreme poverty.

41. Ministry for vulnerable groups

NGOs around the world play an important role in supporting vulnerable groups, but their work should be scaled up, if a real impact has to be reached. At this end, the idea we propose is to create a Ministry for Vulnerable Groups. The Ministry would implement activities normally covered by NGOs, but at a wider and more massive level, being financed by a State. Vulnerable groups to be covered are for example the poor, the homeless, the gypsies. Many of the innovative ideas proposed in the framework of this book, could be implemented by the Ministry of Vulnerable Groups, such as the basic income, land and microcredit described in the framework of this book. Having an ad-hoc focus helps to develop and implement innovative initiatives.

42. An attempt to reduce pollution

Individuals are polluting the environment in various ways. Still, attempts to sensibilize them might be implemented. The present idea concerns the sensibilization of people when they are starting an action that pollutes the environment. Examples can be offered concerning main possibilities of preventing pollution implemented by people. An electronic instrument can be placed in people's cars and inform them that you are polluting when you start the engine. Signals can be placed in airports so that people can be informed that they are starting to pollute when they take a flight. A visual camera can inform you that you are contributing to pollution when you are eating meat. These examples can be multiplied and contribute to the sensibilization of people to limit pollution. The strategy is to inform people when they are starting an action that have a negative impact on the environment.

43. Are we constrained in our approach to environmentally-friendly activities?

The aim of the present idea is to think about the fact that we are constrained in environmentally-friendly activities: either we are obliged, we are convinced by somebody or we convince ourselves in implementing environmentally-friendly activities. The first case is, for example, when the mayor prohibits the circulation of cars on Sundays. We are obliged to keep an environmental behavior. The second case is when, for example, by reading an article in the newspaper, we adopt an environmentally-friendly activities. We are convinced by someone to have an environmentally-friendly approach. The third is when we simply convince ourselves that we should adopt environmentally-friendly initiatives, for example by observing the poor state of the environment. Still, that also means that we have deeply limited options to deal with environmental problems.

44. An environmental tax

Construction is an industry which has a considerable dimension, both in developed and developing countries, it has therefore a high impact on the environment, especially in terms of destruction of green areas. The idea is that a tax is levied on each construction built, so that the amount of the environment that is destroyed through the construction can be rebuilt somewhere else. The idea deals therefore with protecting the amount of the environment available at present, without proceeding to its further destruction. It is a sort of minimum approach, which take into consideration the necessity of preserving the environment still available. The tax can be levied by municipalities and should take into consideration the average cost of rebuilding the environment destroyed. This approach should also be implemented by public actors, not through taxes, but simply through the reconstruction of the environment destroyed by public works, such as highways.

45. Do the UN need a new priority scale?

In the framework of the UN system, activities implemented by some agencies are more important than the ones implemented by the others. In particular, we are making reference to the ones brought forward by agencies such as WFP and WHO. Activities concerning people at risk of death, because of acute hunger and sickness, are in fact more crucial than general development initiatives. Therefore, budgets should be reallocated by donors in favor of Agencies that intervenes in life-or-death scenarios. The Secretary General might suggest donors to proceed in that direction, not by shutting down other Agencies, but simply by reallocating funds based on a new priority scale. The new scenario should therefore see a re-balance of resources in favor of agencies such as WFP and WHO. By making a concrete example, it is simply not correct to reconstruct schools for children in middle income economies when children are dying of hunger in other countries. The United Nations should act on the basis of a new scale of priority of vulnerable groups.

46. A definition of vulnerability

Although vulnerability is a concept widely used in development economics, a proper definition is lacking. Vulnerable groups are identified, such as refugees, unemployed, poor people, but there is not a comprehensive definition of vulnerability. The present idea concerns with the introduction of a definition of vulnerability, where a vulnerable person is someone who lacks a condition that makes him belong to an ideal situation. The ideal situation is a sort of "perfect" situation where you are employed, healthy, affluent and so on. The lack of one of these conditions, such as a house, make you fall into one of the vulnerable groups categories.

47. Economic and social databases

As mentioned in the framework of another idea, a socialism for the 21st century cannot limit itself to offer free health and education to the poor, but should also offer a basic income. In order to identify the poor to be benefitted through the basic income, an economic and social database of the population of the country should be implemented in order to identify who should be benefitted. The people, through the economic and social databases, could also be offered information concerning the existing social programs they could benefit. The economic databases should contain data concerning wealth, income and disabilities so to be able to identify who should be benefitted. The measure is mainly aimed at middle income countries, which are richer and more organized, but it can be implemented hopefully in low-income countries as well, where the need of benefitting the ultra-poor is very high. The initiative should be launched by national government, but it should also rely on the cooperation of local governments. A reform of the tax and welfare system aimed to finance and provide a basic income to people living in extreme poverty is necessary as well. All these measures are necessary to provide a new form of socialism to people.

48. Are enterprises a social capital?

Enterprises can be seen as organizations which produces products and services. Still, enterprises can be seen as something more. They can be seen as a social capital, which belongs to society as a whole. The closure of an enterprise is something that makes all of us poorer. A restaurant, for example, is a place of well-being and social interactions, that goes behind the concept of an enterprise, seen not too much from the perspective of the owners, but from the society as a whole. After all, it is also an organization that, as per definition, is open to society. It interacts and belongs to society and therefore is something more than a simple enterprise. We are therefore offering a different perspective on the complex world of enterprises, with a sort of additional view, something that goes behind the mere production of products and services.

49. A communist-capitalistic society

A model of society which might have interesting features of a communist and capitalistic society is the following. Equality is provided at the bottom by the Government, so poor people are entitled to a small house, food and a basic income, so everybody is in a condition to live properly. The Government does that through an "equality tax", which allows the State to redistribute the wealth created by the private sector. The means of production are in fact in the hands of private individuals, so that wealth is created just like in any capitalistic system. The State applies instead redistribution policies through the public sector, by creating equality at the bottom.

This socio-economic model can be applied in advanced societies, but also in developing countries as well. It is a society of economic well-being, where, from an economic point of view, everybody has enough. Economic failure is not possible, given the features of the society.

It is an excellent way to fight poverty and everybody is in a condition to know that, if their business life will not go too well, they still will be able to rely on the Government in order to have a decent life. In fact, it is a way to have an acceptable way of living anyway, whatever they will be your economic fortunes or misfortunes in your life.

It is an excellent way to organize economic and social life in China, Vietnam and other communist societies which turned to the market economy as their economic system, but also for capitalistic societies in general, where people will have a guaranteed good economic life. It is a much better model of society than one characterized by homelessness and extreme poverty, where in front of the payment of an equality tax, everybody is sure to have a house, food and a basic income to live a decent economic life. The equality tax would be very low, given the limited amount of people in need of relevant assistance in general in societies.

50. Goods that causes inflation

An historic study in the goods that caused inflation should be implemented in each country that presented such economic phenomenon. This is necessary in order to identify the sources of inflation and take actions. If, for example, inflation was caused by food prices, it would be necessary to promote endogenous production and avoid the import of inflated food items. If the inflation was caused by oil, it would be necessary to promote alternatives, such as solar or wind. The general approach is therefore to substitute the inflated good with the non-inflated one. We have to highlight that inflation is the greatest threaten to wealth creation. If inflation is at 8% and growth at 3%, as it is at present in USA, the country will the 5% poorer in terms of net effect. Not to mention the impact on financial and non-financial wealth, if this is not compensated by interest rates and financial return on stocks and real estate, as it is happening at present. Fight against inflation through an historic study of drivers of this phenomenon and subsequent actions is an absolute necessity for governments that wants to keep an healthy and well-functioning economy over time.

51. Can cryptocurrencies help the poor?

The total number of cryptocurrencies is increasing rapidly. According to new data, the whole number of cryptocurrencies has crossed 20.000 in 2022. If such a large number of cryptocurrencies makes difficult to identify potential winners, on the other hands it offers the possibility of applying a new investment strategy that I devised.

The approach is to purchase all the existing number of cryptocurrencies, that is to say around 20.000 and aim at the fact that some of them will perform just like Bitcoin and Ethereum did in the past, with a total return in the terms of millions in the framework of few years.

Since the individual performance of cryptocurrencies is also based on technological innovation, it is statistically likely that some of them will perform just like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

That's what already happened in the year 2021, where 15 cryptocurrencies had a total return of more than 5.000%, with GALA at the top with a performance of over 40.000%.

Economic and financial conditions change over the years and there is no guarantee of a similar financial performance in the future. Nevertheless, the approach is statistically realistic in bullish periods for the cryptocurrencies market and it might be successful also in bearish periods as well, although that must still be tested.

52. Optimal taxation level as a pre-condition to offer good public services

A new approach to optimal taxation deals with the whole taxation level that allows the Government to offer good public services in health, education and so on. In my opinion, taxes should be set at a level compatible with the provision of good public services for the local community.

This approach has a theoretical and a practical dimension.

From a theoretical point of view, we can ask ourselves how much does it cost to have a good public service system. Based on that, we can define the tax system that can suit such a level of public spending. If there is political support, changes can be made to the existing tax system in order to make the necessary corrections to create a good public services system in reality.

From a practical point of view, we can ask ourselves which country has the best system in health and education and check which taxation level they have in reality.

Since we focus on developing countries, I will briefly deal with that approach in such societies.

According to different sources, Thailand has the best public health system, while Mexico has the best education system in developing countries. Curiously, they both have a very similar tax system, which exempt very low incomes from the payment of taxes and a top tax on high incomes of 30%.

Of course, there are additional considerations concerning the provision of public services, besides the financial resources available through the tax system. For example, we have to take into consideration the human capital available in health or education systems.

Yet, this sort of analysis provides interesting information from the point of view of the correlation between a good level of public services and the tax system.

Moreover, from a cross-country level comparison, we can identify other developing countries tat have taxes at a level which is simply too low to have a good public services system.

53. Excellence in society

Is widespread excellence in society an attainable goal? By excellence in society, I mean positive experiences in society for an individual during his average day. For example: a good breakfast, a fair commute to work, a satisfactory working day, good meals, satisfactory free time. This excellence in society for the individual is linked to positive interactions with the other members of the society: from the bar where we might have breakfast to the office where we work, from the restaurant where we might have lunch to the club where we enjoy the evening.

It is partially linked to the products and services available in society, but also to positive interactions, from a human point of view, with the other members of the society. It is basically the possibility to have good experiences in each place during the day: from the bar to the office, from the restaurant to the club.

Is this ideal condition only available to part of the society or can be attained for all the members of the population? At present, we must honestly recognize that excellence in society is available only to a part of the population. In the future, it is instead linked to the possibility to adopt wide redistributive policies, such as basic income, that can enhance the living standard of the population that is at present excluded by a fair participation in the economic life.

54. Sustaining each other

When we enter in a shop a product, we have the impression that we are paying the price for a product only, while in reality we are paying for the personnel, the rent, the bills and so on. So, in reality, we are sustaining each other.

That's why enterprise when successful are so important. They allow to sustain each other.

55. Psychological factors in economic growth

Although the general focus and the literature on economic growth mainly concentrate on variables such as capital and technology, there are unexplored issues concerning the individual, which after all is the main subject in the production effort.

The psychological component is therefore crucial, although is rarely analysed. Variables such as motivation, dynamism, well-being, etc. should be kept into consideration when explaining economic growth. Without these characteristics at the individual level, there is a chance that the individual production effort will be lower than it might be. There is therefore a wide room to analyse the impact of psychology on economic growth, as an endogenous factor in the economy.

56. Are 1.000 US$ from each rich people enough to solve the problem of extreme hunger in a year?

According to the Global Wealth Report, at the end of the year 2021, there were 51.882.000 people who own one million dollar or more world wide.

At the same time, WFP says that, at the end of 2021, a total 45 million people are on the brink of famine across 43 countries.

According to the UN Agency, they require urgent interventions. Based on WFP calculations, the average cost of a food ration is 0.61 US$. This is the average cost at world wide level. We are talking about 2US$ per day for the cost of assistance to a person at risk of starvation.

Therefore, we are talking about a financial contribution from each rich people in the world of less than 1.000 US$ for each year. Considering that it consists in an amount equal to 1/1000% out of the total wealth, this is feasible from a financial point of view.

UN Agencies should start therefore a fund-raising campaign in this direction, targeting rich people to solve extreme hunger.

57. A structural partnership between Government and NGOs

NGOs are real engines of innovation and passion, working with creativity on solving complex political, economic and social problems. Nevertheless, they lack financial resources to scale up their projects and have a real impact.

On the other hand, Government lacks in innovation and creativity, but have considerable financial resources available.

In Albania, an NGO created the concept of vegetable gardens in few schools, in order to teach kids the respect for the environment and sustainable food production.

The Ministry of Youth had the idea to scale it up to every school in Albania.

This example witnesses the potentialities available, when innovation and creativity meets financial resources. Hundred of thousands of children will be trained in environment protection and sustainable food production, with the possibility to have a real impact on future citizens.

It would be therefore interesting to organize a structural partnership between NGOs and Government, under the form of a Steering Committee (SC) compounded by local NGOs and Government officials, that meet for example every six months, to consult if NGOs projects can be scaled up by the Government. The SC might be open to other innovators as well, both individuals and organizations.

58. An anticyclical Official Development Assistance (ODA)

Official Development Assistance suffers from a structural limitation. When the global economy is in recession, ODA diminishes as a consequence. Nevertheless, it is when developing countries need it most.

There is therefore room to improve on this particular issue. The approach is to focus more on emergencies in two ways. First, by shifting the focus of work of international organizations and NGOs more on emergencies. It is unacceptable to focus on classical development projects, such as water-supply systems and schools rehabilitation in middle-income countries, while children and adults are at risk of dying in low-income countries. As a consequence, resources should be shifted from middle-income to low-income countries. At the same time, savings should be put aside by international organizations and NGOs in order to work in situations of humanitarian crises that will arise when next recession will strike. This approach will bring to the possibility to have an anticyclical ODA.

If savings are morally unacceptable when emergencies are not met, they will become acceptable if major humanitarian emergencies are addressed and savings will be used when next emergency strikes.

59. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and vulnerable groups

Artificial Intelligence is developing fast and its applications are starting to be implemented in the real world. Instead, research about what AI can do for vulnerable groups is not developing fast enough.

Opportunities are several. For example, robot trucks can be utilized for the distribution of food in conflict zones. Regular robots can also be used in this sort of operations.

Another possibility is to use robots in the rehabilitation of vulnerable groups, such as homeless, by making conversations with them and keeping company.

This trend is starting to develop and, in fact, success stories can already be counted. For example, a smart stick for visually impaired people is in course of creation, with cameras to identify obstacles and objects, as well machine learning to guide in the street. Another example is that, in Nordic countries, cameras are starting to be located in waste bins, so that environmental operators can be informed when the garbage bins are filled up and proceed to empty them..

Additional research should therefore be developed in the field of AI and vulnerable groups, including environmental issues, so that new applications can be developed in a sector that is largely unexplored, but promising.

60. Do we all need a Swedish urban planner?

Best practices can be acquired abroad and implemented at home, sometimes with little effort.

An example is the district of Djurgarden in Stockholm, characterized by the fact of being a sort of park where museums, monuments, institutions and other attractions are located. The environmental culture of Scandinavians is difficult to copy, but infrastructures are not. By asking advice to Scandinavian urban planner, a similar district can be replicated in other cities worldwide, not only creating an environmentally friendly area of the town, but sparking interest toward environmental themes.

The idea is simple, but straightforward. The amount of green areas is not limited to a line of trees at the edge of the road, but it makes the district more similar to a park. In the central part of the street, dividing the two lanes, four lines of trees are placed, with a path for pedestrians and bicycles in the middle.

The same concept applies to other excellencies, such as for example Harvard. A regular university located in Europe, Asia or Africa can easily send a student to try to pick up the best practices in the academics, as well in the administration, that makes Harvard such an outstanding organization. Some of them can be replicated at home without many efforts, such as the curriculum of many courses.

As previously mentioned, culture can follow.

61. Economic and political cooperation

In the framework of human development programs financed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the decentralized cooperation modality was developed and promoted. That means, for example, that an Italian Municipality was helping an Albanian Municipality, an Italian Region was helping an Albanian Region and so on. International cooperation was happening therefore through homologues.

Taking into consideration this approach and trying to widening this experience, international economic and political cooperation might be promoted as well.

When I am making reference to economic cooperation, I mean cooperation between enterprises. For example, a leader in an advanced country, such as Apple, could help enterprises in the technology sector in Albania.

When I am making reference to political cooperation, I mean instead cooperation from State to State. We can imagine, for example, an international cooperation link between the Italian Parliament and the Albanian Parliament.

This new approach would have 2 advantages. First, it would promote new sources of cooperation between advanced and developing countries. Second, it would promote cooperation between actors that don't receive this sort of assistance at present.

62. A foundation for a city of basic income

Some problems regarding homelessness and extreme poverty are relatively limited in cities. If the problem is not too widespread, basic income can be a solution to solve the issue of scarce resources for a limited component of the population. It is also a kind of intervention that can solve the problem, if we are discussing about a number of extremely deprived people consisting of few hundreds. This solution of a problem is also an important signal for policymakers, since it sends the message that problems can and should be solved.

In this case, a possibility is to create a foundation that distribute a basic income to the poorest members of the population. A foundation has the advantage of being able to attract financial resources from both public and private actors. That might be a good option in an environment where there are possibilities of fund-raising from both public and private subjects.

The foundation can take care of an entire city, in order to create a "city of basic income". In this way, an important social experiment is promoted, in order to study the effects of a city where everybody has a living income available. A city that is characterized by no homeless and no beggars, where everybody have finally a dignified way of living.

63. Stock traders for the poor

Many lists of successful stock traders are available online. Some of them are famous and difficult to access, others are not. They can be contacted easily.

These stock traders can manage the portfolio of the poor with success. They can be subcontracted by international organizations and NGOs or by the poor themselves, maybe united in a common effort.

The approach is to make successful financial strategies works for the poor as well.

This is extremely important in a period where emergencies rise regularly, due to climate change, conflicts and many other reasons. These emergencies bring with them the impoverishment of part or entire countries, with the necessity to develop and identify new innovative strategies to support the people stricken by humanitarian disasters.

Using successful stock traders in order to manage the portfolio of the poor is one of them. It can be done easily through simple organizational efforts and online networks.

The best approach is probably to subcontract several stock traders and identify those who are most successful among them in terms of returns. Only licensed stock traders, with the license to provide financial advice, must be employed.

64. Cryptocurrencies for humanitarian purposes

Cryptocurrencies can be created by anyone who has the necessary technical skills. If successful, a cryptocurrency represents a considerable amount of wealth.

On the other hand, fund-raising is not obtaining the expected results of addressing the many emergencies around the world. Therefore, international organizations, NGOs, philanthropists and interested individuals should try to create new sources of wealth for humanitarian purposes.

One of them is humanitarian cryptocurrencies. The idea is to create cryptocurrencies and keep part of them into the portfolio of the creators. The creators of the cryptocurrencies can then finance humanitarian causes, directly or indirectly, that is to say through their own organizations or through others.

This idea can be replicated through other digital assets, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or other instruments that can be developed in the future.

The approach deals therefore with the creation of your own wealth to contribute to humanitarian causes, not only to deal with them through fund-raising, a technique that has proven not successful enough in order to address the many humanitarian emergencies that plague the world.

65. Connecting the dots in favour of vulnerable groups

A smart stick has been created for visually impaired people. The smart stick combines sensors to avoid obstacles, as well as machine learning to identify journeys and can be connected to smartphones to use street maps. Although it is a technologically advanced product, it is not very well-known in many developing countries, where necessities of visually impaired people are equal or even greater than in advanced countries.

There is therefore the possibility to help vulnerable groups through information about a new helpful product, given that the existence of a product plus the availability of information plus having a budget at disposal leads to implementation. In this case, product and budget may be available to vulnerable groups, but what is lacking in instead the information concerning the existence of the product itself.

Interested organizations and individuals can therefore help vulnerable groups with information concerning new products, which serve pressing needs, in a different way from traditional no-profit assistance. This is especially true in a period where Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are revolutionizing products and services. Another example is the glucose monitoring k-watch, that will be released soon and can be of utmost help for diabetics.

The simple connection of vulnerable groups to the information about the existence of a useful product can bring huge support, if the product satisfies critical needs such as in the cases of the smart walking stick for visually impaired people or the glucose monitoring watch for diabetics.

66. How to deal with extreme hunger outside of famine scenarios

There may be situations of extreme hunger in countries not affected by famines. An example is India, a country which is characterized by a rapid process of development, but where children are still at risk of dying from hunger. In these cases, food is available and we are not in the middle of a famine crisis.

A possible way to intervene for international organizations and NGOs is the following.

An hot-line is created by the humanitarian organization. The parents of the children at risk of dying can call the hot-line in order to signal the condition of the baby. Following the call at the hot-line, a physician is sent to visit the baby and to witness the actual state of emergency. If the doctor witnesses a dangerous level of food insecurity, money is transferred to the parents in order to be able to purchase food for the child.

In this way, it is possible to overcome the problem of localization of the children at risk of life, which is an issue shared by other vulnerable groups as well. In fact, the international organization or NGO often don't know the localization of vulnerable groups, such as the extreme poor or the very sick.

Through the hot-line, it is the parents of the children suffering from extreme hunger that proceed to the localization of the children themselves. Once the children are localized and the case of extreme hunger is certified by a physician, the humanitarian organization can then proceed, by sending money to purchase food and other first-aid assistance.

67. Persistence of big problems over time

Basically, some problems keep their dimension unchanged over time. Examples are people suffering from hunger in the world or the level of unemployment in Italy.

People suffering from hunger at world level have been around 700 millions for decades. Recently, the situation got worse due to the Covid pandemic, but the level was basically unchanged for many many years.

The same can be said for unemployment in Italy, stable at around 9% for decades.

That means that these systems, such as developing countries realities and the Italian job market, inclusive of positive interventions to fight these problems, are very much stable over time.

The consequence is that, in front of this phenomenon, new innovative solutions must be developed and tested.

One of them is basic income for extremely poor people in Italy, provided by the national Government since few years ago.

A similar approach through basic income can be experimented in developing countries as well, but as this website witnesses, other new innovative solutions can be identified.

New efforts should therefore be implemented in this search for new solutions by politicians, academic, researchers and other concerned individuals.

68. Can the World Food Program capitalize on its skills?

The world is facing unprecedented food crises, mainly due to phenomenon such as climate change and conflicts. WFP, the UN agency in charge for food security, doesn't manage to provide food assistance to all the people in need.

Sine fund-raising strategies have demonstrated their limits over the years, new ways of creating wealth to support the extreme poor must be explored.

One way is to use the skills that the World Food Program has developed over the years. Since this agency has considerable expertise in the fields of food acquisition, logistics and transportation, they can enter international food markets to commercialize food products and make profits to support their fight against world hunger.

Although this proposal won't be very well accepted by the private sector, it must be taken into consideration that the situation is really dire. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), one out of four Africans is food insecure. In addition to that, new regions that were not previously affected by food insecurity are starting to be badly hit, such as relevant parts of Kenya and Ethiopia.

If we put these problems into perspective, climate change will affect Africa even more in the future.

Therefore, we have to compare two options: either accept extreme level of food insecurity, with the deaths and sufferings related, or develop and implement new ways of feeding starving people.

The commercialization of food products on international markets by the World Food Program is one of them.

69. The value of a tree

The value of a tree is not a very debated topic in economics. Perhaps because a tree has not only an economic dimension, but many others, such as, for example, natural, beauty, use and so on. Nevertheless, a tree has also an economic dimension.

From this point of view, the value of a tree is equal to its cost of being planted and grown. If a tree is destroyed, another tree should replace it, if possible in the same location or its surroundings. Therefore, if a building is built and trees are destroyed in the process, the same amount of trees should be planted and grown in the surroundings, in order to keep unchanged the natural qualities of the area.

The value of the tree is therefore equal to the cost of replacing it in the surrounding areas where it was destroyed.

When a permission is issued to construct, for example, a new building, the builder should replace the same amount of trees in the surroundings. The release of the permission by the Municipality should be subject to replace the trees originally present in the area, at the expenses of the builder.

70. R&D for Governments and other public organizations

Research and development is crucial for innovation in private firms. A department specialized in research and development is fundamental for creating the new products and services the world needs.

Strange enough, Governments and other public organizations, such as the United Nations, have no research and development department.

This idea concerns therefore the creation of a R&D department in Governments as well as at the United Nations.

In fact, innovation is crucial in the public arena as well, new ways of solving new problems are necessary. Instead of relying on public officials for innovation, a specialized department in research and development could relied on a staff specialized in research, such as scientists and Ph.D. As this website witnesses hopefully, innovation in public policy is possible.

The idea of creating specialized departments embedded in Ministries and UN agencies goes into that direction, about promoting innovations in health, environment, economics and other many fields.

71. Getting ready for famines

Famines don’t happen overnight. They normally need years before they manifest in their full impact. In the case of the one in Madagascar in 2021, four seasons of drought preceded the famine. In the other one in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia in 2022, we are heading into the fifth seasons of drought and a famine will probably materialize this year. We are discussing therefore of a time span of four or five years.

There is therefore the time span and the possibility of getting ready for a famine by international and humanitarian organizations.

The present idea concerns the allocation of funds in the budget of international and humanitarian organizations gradually since the first drought happens. Funds are then allocated in the budget of international and humanitarian organizations with more intensity when the successive droughts happen. The approach is to get ready before a famine happens and be eventually able to intervene when it strikes.

We have to remember that, even now that we are in a condition of crisis and famine is not declared yet, there is a death every 38 seconds due to extreme hunger in the region of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. This data was provided by Oxfam on its website. It would necessary and possible to act even now and the cost wouldn’t be to high, given that we are discussing of less around 3.000 casualties per day. Even if we imagine a cost of assistance of 5 US$ for each person at risk of life in the region of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, we are discussing about 15.000 US$ per day, an amount of money easily available for an international organization.

Savings can be allocated during the first period of drought in order to act if a crisis or a famine finally arrives. In alternative, a re-allocation of the funds available can be implemented internally in the budget of international organizations each year, in order to get ready and be able to intervene if a famine finally strikes.

72. Should the UN sanction member states on environmental treaties

Environmental treaties at the UN should be an important instrument to fight climate change and in general preserve the environment.

Some of these environmental treaties became widely known in the public opinion, such as the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and Paris Agreement (2015), just to mention a few.

Although they are generally very ambitious in their objectives, they are normally not respected by the member states signing these so-called multilateral agreement protocols (MAPs).

MAPs are also not containing mechanisms of sanctioning for the member states signing but not respecting the treaties.

The present idea regards the introduction of sanctions for the member states not respecting these environmental treaties. Sanctions to be applied should be relatively high. The objective is in fact twofold. First, to provide an incentive for member states to respect these environmental treaties. Second, if environmental treaties are not respected and punitive sanctions are therefore applied, the United Nations would have enough financial resources to implement activities in protection of the environment, that could help to reach the objectives foreseen by the environmental treaties themselves.

This situation therefore would be a win-win situation for the living environment.

Either the member states respect the treaties and protect the environment, or the United Nations are endowed with the financial resources necessary to protect it.

The environmental cause has been so much neglected that it is necessary to proceed in a way that the achievement of objectives in guaranteed.

It is in our own interest, both in developing and advanced countries. From flooding in Pakistan to drought in Somalia, the list of environmental catastrophes is long enough in 2022.

If we consider that, given that the number of member states is very high, a system of relatively high sanctions applied on a large number of countries can endow the United Nations with the financial contributions necessary to prevent and address environmental disasters, that will surely be more common in the future.

73. An unit for advanced countries at the UN

The traditional system of assistance from rich countries to poor countries at the United Nations does not manage to reach its aims. The financial contributions from rich countries that are destined to the poor ones are not enough to provide the necessary level of assistance. After all, rich countries do not receive any service out the financial contributions made.

A possibility is to change the current system and create an unit in charge of advanced countries at the UN, in order to provide services to these rich countries.

The objective is to increase financial contributions from rich countries to the poor, but also to provide advanced countries with some value services in front of the financial contributions provided.

The services to be provided would not be in terms of financial resources. They would be instead of advice and technical assistance, in order to improve the functioning of the economy, health, education systems of rich countries. The United Nations are working in all these sectors, so they would be able to provide this kind of assistance to rich countries.

An unit for advanced countries could therefore be created at the UN. Since the level of advice and assistance to be provided is at a very high technical level, given that we are discussing about advanced countries, new experts should be hired, mainly from politicians and academics working regularly on advanced countries. We would therefore have an expertise that is specialized in advanced countries and works regularly on their issues.

The unit could be created at the UN Secretariat level and have the Secretary General as its chief. The approach is to create an unit at the highest level, giving the necessary importance to this initiative and having the Secretary General itself involved in the provision of advice and technical assistance to advanced countries.

74. A redistribution of resources from middle to low income countries

According to the World Bank, countries can be classified in four categories: high income, upper-middle income, lower-middle income, low income. During 2021-22, middle income countries represent the greatest majority, being 110 in total. Low income countries are instead only 27.

Given that life-threatening situations, such as wars and famines, occur normally in low-income countries, there is a necessity for international organizations to focus more on low income countries.

If we take into consideration that, according to the World Bank, Albania received 309 million US$ in Official Development Assistance in 2020 (last data available), it is self-evident that there is room for resources to be transferred from a middle income country to a low income country, such as Somalia, where a famine which could cost hundreds of thousands of life is looming.

The international humanitarian system should not eliminate completely its presence in middle income countries, but reduce it strongly, by helping situations in much more higher need of assistance, such as Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen, Madagascar and Nigeria, where wars and famines are under way.

A reduction of half the financial resources at present available in middle income countries would be therefore enough to save hundreds of thousands of lives.

This strategy concerns not only the United Nations, but also the European Union, all bilateral donors, such as USA, Great Britain, Japan, Italy and so on, as well as main NGOs.

The entire international community could be involved in this shift of priorities, that would rightly make a priority those life-threatening situations, such as war and famines, that normally impacts low income countries.

75. A new multilateralism to solve humanitarian emergencies

The present system of humanitarian assistance needs a revision. The United Nations are normally underfunded , while bilateral assistance, carried out by national Governments, does not manage to reach its aims either.

This failure happens in the framework of a rising number of emergencies due to war and poverty, but also to new growing threatens, such as pandemics and climate change. In this scenario, emergencies will surely multiply in the near future.

A new multilateralism is therefore needed, given that solutions to such problems are out of reach by a single national Government. Yet, a new multilateralism is feasible, given that it allows to solve new and emerging problems through small individual contributions provided by each national State, if the number of actors involved is high enough.

Let’s take into consideration the possibility that humanitarian emergencies are solved at continental level. A famine in Africa is addressed through the financial contributions of all national countries in the continent of Africa. Given that there are more of 50 nations in the African continent, a small financial contribution by each of the 50 states can solve the famines that at present are troubling Africa such as the ones in Madagascar, Somalia, South Sudan and North Nigeria.

If we imagine that a sum of 3 billion US$ is necessary to solve the four famines above mentioned, that means a contribution of 60 million US$ for each country. That is feasible even taking into consideration that most African countries are not affluent. The involvement of a high number of actors makes possible to solve problems that would be otherwise unsolvable by a single State.

This is the evident potential of a new multilateralism.

The same is true for Latin America and Asia, given that the number of countries compounding these continents is very high, being above 30 and 40 countries respectively. Again, these continents are regularly impacted by humanitarian emergencies, but the high number of actors potentially involved in a new multilateralism make it possible to offer solutions to crises.

The point is to overtake the present system of humanitarian assistance with new and effective multilateral strategies that spread the burden of addressing humanitarian emergencies among the many and not the few.

76. Can Africa's solidarity save Somalia?

Heterodox monetary policies can be the solution to Somalia’s famine. As mentioned in the framework of another idea, a coordinated effort among African countries can save Somalia by the looming famine in 2022.

Let’s imagine that the cost to save Somalia by the famine is equal to 2 billion US$. Given that there are 54 countries in Africa, each country would have to contribute around the amount of 40 million US$. Each Central Bank, in coordination with its Government, would have to print that amount. As said, the best solution is, in coordination with Governments, to just print money and not to create debt. In alternative public debt could be created.

When split among 54 countries, the total amount to be contributed by each country is reasonable. The whole sum could also be divided in a different way, given the diverse dimensions and structure of economies in Africa.

By using international workers and international products in Somalia, no inflation would be created. Inflation is created if local workers and local products are employed in Somalia. Some financial limitations, while addressing the famine, could also be included in Somalia’s economy. Given that money would be printed by 54 countries, no devaluation would be created either.

The best place to discuss this initiative, which has an utmost urgency and potential, is instead the African Union (AU).

77. Youth and opportunities

Opportunities for youth are limited in the public and private arena.

Yet, the creation of a new socialism, that is implemented in the framework of this website, is an opportunity for youth. The Fridays for Future is a great chance for young people, Greta Thunberg has in fact given life to a remarkable movement.

But there are chances besides the environmental arena, there is chance for economic justice too.

If previous generations have battled for economic justice, the new generation is the first to fight for the environment. But this website shows there are still possibilities to obtain a more just society as well.

Young people, starting from a free website, can start new battles. Their free time can be dedicated to that. So a free website united to free time can contribute to create a society that is not only environmentally sound but also economically more just.

The present idea wants therefore to design an opportunity for youth, in times where opportunities for fighting for a more just societies are limited, mainly due to the fall of Communism and the lack of alternative models.

At the same time, the private sector should increase opportunities for youth. It was suggested by Marcela Tringaj, the creator of the website and translator in Albanian. Internships and jobs for young people, including teenagers, are the modality proposed. An internship or a short-time contract are opportunities to gain specific experience, but also to see as a business works. They are an invaluable opportunity to have a youth perspective on the business world, that can bring to positive change for everyone.

78. A solution for famine in Somalia

Heterodox monetary policy can save Somalia from the looming famine in late 2022. At present, it is calculated that hundreds of thousand of people could die, due to a drought linked to climate change. This famine could be worse that the one Somalia experienced in 2011, when 260.000 people died.

Yet, there is hope if, as previously mentioned, heterodox monetary policies are utilized in the Somali context.

If printing money can obviously create inflation, it will happen if money are handed to local workers and for purchase of local food. It will not happen if foreign workers are used and the food and medical supplies necessary for assistance to Somali people are instead purchased on international markets. Some financial regulations should be also included, when employing foreign workers, in order not to create inflation. Let’s not forget that half of the people at risk of famine are in the north of Somalia, which is not under terrorism threat, so that foreign workers could be employed in assistance activities.

The Somali Central Bank could print money for the purchase of food and medical supplies, by employing foreign workers in the framework of assistance activities and by purchasing food on international markets. The best way to proceed is to coordinate with the Government and not to create public debt.

If the governance conditions in Somalia, doesn’t allow to do that, there is an alternative. Another African Central Bank, in cooperation with their Government, could print money and save Somali people. A network of African Governments could do that do, by sharing the burden of assistance and the risks associated.

This idea could obviously be tested and implemented in Somalia, but later on applied on famines elsewhere.

79. The reconstruction of Pakistan

During 2022, Pakistan was hit by heavy flooding, in the period of the monsoons season. A third of the country was covered by water. This kind of phenomena are connected to climate change and will intensify in the future. According to the Government, the damages are about 10 Billion US$.

As usual, the Government asked the help of the United Nations and World Bank, which have not the financial resources to assist.

Yet, another possibility exist. The Central Bank of Pakistan can print the money necessary for the reconstruction. The best option is that it channels money directly. In alternative, it can create debt through Government. In both cases, theoretically, that would bring to inflation. The monetary supply would in fact increase by 10 Billion US dollars. But it would bring to inflation if the money for the reconstruction are given to local workers for their activities and the purchase of local products for reconstruction on the local market will increase prices.

If, international workers, such as for example, from Bangladesh, India, Thailand and Burma, are employed and products for the reconstruction are purchased abroad in many different countries, as well as some financial limitations are introduced in the economy, no inflation will be created. The point to employ workers from many different countries and products from many different places is related to that. So that inflation will not be exported either. It will take time to reconstruct Pakistan in this way. But a chance now exists.

80. Public debt and GDP

An usual indicator in economics is the ratio between public debt and GDP. Although it is very common and widely used in newspapers and TVs, it has limited significance. In fact, although it is a measure of magnitude, it doesn’t make much sense to relate public debt and GDP. It would make more sense to relate public debt and savings or public debt and demand each time public debt titles are issued on the market. The relevant indicator to compare public debt with is not therefore GDP, but more logically the demand (general and potential in terms of savings, or specific and concrete during each Central Bank operation). It would make therefore more sense to compare the potentiality that public debt has to be subscribed each time by private borrowers, although that doesn’t mean that public debt should grow indefinitely.

81. The Foundation of Basic Income

The concept of the redistributive enterprise, which transfers part of its profits to vulnerable groups as basic income, can be applied in other ways, such as through foundations. The approach is relatively similar, being the main difference the fact that capital is created and managed by a foundation.

Let’s imagine that Bill Gates decides to create a foundation, endowing it with 100 billions US$. The remaining 10 billion US$ compounding his personal wealth will be devoted to personal expenses.

If we take into consideration Harvard returns on endowment, a foundation can easily gain 7% a year. That would amount to 7 billions US$ per year.

According to official data, the population of homeless in US was equal to 553.000 people in 2018. If we imagine that the Bill Gates Foundation would provide 1.400 US$ to each homeless people per month, the total amount would be close to 8 billions US$.

Therefore, a single individual, Bill Gates, would be able to solve the problem of homeless in US, through a foundation. This organization could then fund-raise and be open to other external resources.

The best approach is probably that a rich individual create a foundation and then is open to other contributions from external sources. Nevertheless, different models can be envisaged, both in the creation of wealth and target groups. As for the creation of wealth, it is possible that the foundation is created by a single, not affluent, person or group of people. While, as previously mentioned, target groups can range from homeless people to gypsies, from people at risk of dying of hunger to handicapped people.

82. How to improve the well-being of the working-class

The improvement of working-class well-being is important, given that it’s a large category of workers and it generally has a low level of well-being. In the present idea, we will focus on how entrepreneurs can improve working-class lives, given that the topic is too wide otherwise.

The model will be called the 6-s model.

The first s stands for Safety. The tragedy of workers deaths on work is too well-known to be described in detail. It is enough to say that, in an advanced country like Italy, they are around three per day. So the first point is to focus and improve the safety of workers.

The second s stands for Security. Many short-term contracts and internships negatively affect the lives of workers. So, the extension of long-term contracts is definitely a value in itself.

The third s stands for Salary. Workers must be paid a fair salary. Very often, they are underpaid in many working positions. In particular, the difference is compensation between management and workers has begun huge in recent times.

The fourth s stands for Support. If entrepreneurs must support workers in their challenges, including those regarding their private lives, proper structures must be envisaged so that workers can support entrepreneurs in their business strategies, by participating in their definition and execution.

The fifth s is Sharing. The entrepreneur must share his culture with the worker, in any possible way. That would help to increase the workers well-being. From a good meal to the possibility to listen to good music on the workplace, everything helps.

The last s stands for Satisfaction. The entrepreneur must improve the working class satisfaction in any possible way, for example by making them participate in ambitious and meaningful business objectives.

The full implementation of the 6-s model can increase the working-class well-being.

83. Monetary policy for pandemics and crises

The Covid pandemics, that started in 2020, brought an economic crisis with itself, with bankrupts and lay-offs spread around the world. To fight the economic crises, Central Banks increased money supply, but created inflation during the process. In August 2022, inflation stands at more than 8% on an annual basis in USA and more than 7% in Albania.

The present idea deals with the concept of fighting a crisis without creating inflation. The approach is to keep consumption at the pre-crisis level, so that the economy cannot overheat.

In this approach, the monetary supply must be calculated in a very precise way, through econometric models, so that it brings to a general level of consumption equal to pre-pandemic levels, when there was no inflation.

This idea is relevant since inflation reduces the income level for an amount equal to 7-8% per year in USA or Albania. At the same time, it also affects wealth, given that people are not able to have a return of 7-8% normally.

The present approach, which as said aims at keeping consumption at pre-crisis level, can be useful for other sorts of economic crises too.

84. Inequalities and prices

The present idea concerns an intuition, a different way to see the economy and, in particular, the level of prices.

Although it is not highlighted by the literature in economic science, the level of prices is affected by inequalities. Rich people play a role in defining the level of prices by increasing demand, on a wide range of goods and services, such as houses, cars, food and so on. Their wealth creates additional demand, which in turn put pressure on prices.

This phenomena affects poor people. An example is the level of prices of houses in Albania, where the cost of houses is extremely high if related at the level of salaries.

Although it is not easy to solve this issue, since price caps are not very efficient in economics, this observation provides an interesting insight on the economic system: rich people affect the level of prices for poor people in an economy, on a wide range of goods and services.

85. G20 and the United Nations

According to Wikipedia, “the G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development”.

Given its composition of advanced countries and developing countries, the G20 would be suitable to include the United Nations. The G20 is fact already including another international organization, the European Union (EU).

The United Nations, in a new vision, would offer services to advanced countries as well, in the framework of the G20, but not only. Many public policy ideas included in this website are in fact applicable to advanced countries as well. We can imagine a special unit of the United Nations in charge of advanced countries, with topics covered ranging from fiscal to monetary policy, from environmental policy to sustainable development.

At the same time, the United Nations would cover its more traditional role of assisting developing countries in the framework of the G20. Finally, it would serve its usual role of bridge between advanced and developing countries.

It must therefore be highlighted that a reformed and enhanced United Nations could cover all themes covered by the G20, previously mentioned above, with a particular new focus on rich countries, which therefore would receive top-notch services in front of their annual contributions to the UN.

86. Problem-solving and illnesses

As mentioned before, problem solving is a very unusual approach in public policy. The complete elimination of a problem is simply a very uncommon concept in public programs. As mentioned by Professor Matt Andrews, at Harvard Kennedy School, public policy promotes “successful failures” very often, that is public programs that get some results , so that continue to be financed by the Government, but basically represent a failure, unable to solve the problems they are supposed to.

Yet, problem solving can be a very useful, if the approach is radical and aim to get rid of the problem. In this case, we would like to extend it the concept to health, so that it can be evaluated properly by professionals in this field. A radical approach to diabetes, aiming at reducing sugar in blood, can be an inspiring concept, by developing drugs in addition to Metformin, which reduces the glucose produced . The same is true for other illnesses, such as some kind of cancers, as mentioned by Maurit Beerit, an expert in medicine who attended Harvard Kennedy School. The approach that is applied to many ideas in this website can therefore be applied to health. Opportunities are man, they just must be explored.

In particular, the United Nations could finance research for new medicines at elite Universities, such as Harvard Medical School, by aiming to improve lives of people in advanced countries as well. In this way, advanced countries would receive valuable services in exchange of their regular contributions to the organization.

87. The United Nations and diffusion of research in health

Research in the health sector is heavily concentrated in advanced countries, in particular USA and Europe. Nevertheless, it could have high impact in developing countries as well, if properly distributed and made available. If, for example, a new scientific article says that raspberries are good for diabetes or that walking 5 minutes after lunch reduces glucose, this sort of information is relevant and readily useable in developing countries as well.

The idea is therefore that the United Nations translates the scientific articles produced in advanced countries in the languages more widely spread in developing countries. A database concerning main illnesses and related scientific discoveries could be created.

The objective is to make the new research available in the best ways possible in developing countries, ranging from TV to radio, from websites to press.

This approach is particularly suitable for the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN organization in charge of health in developing countries. Through prevention and better management of illnesses, this idea can easily save tens of thousands of lives.

88. How the UN can focus on famines and health emergencies

As previously described in the framework of another idea, the United Nations should focus more on vulnerable groups at risk of dying, for example due to famines and health emergencies. The UN should elaborate a ranking of vulnerable groups, in terms of gravity of their vulnerability, so that those are risk of dying are prioritized in comparison with those with lighter vulnerabilities. Therefore, a child at risk of dying because of famine should be prioritized in comparison with a child who has no access to school.

The present idea focus on how this approach can become operational. Since famines normally occur in low-income countries, it would be necessary to put a limit on the amount that donors can give to the United Nations in middle income countries. For example, if there is a limit on the amount of money that can go to Albania, a middle income country, money will automatically go to Madagascar, a low income country, where there is a famine at present.

This would revolutionize the work of the UN, which would become an organization that focus more on emergencies. This is a positive change, because it would be possible to save more lives, an obvious objective for an humanitarian organization.

It is an objective that makes particularly sense because the budget of the United Nations does not allow to focus on all priorities that the organization have. Therefore, to focus on famines and health emergencies instead of education makes sense, at least in relative terms.

The United Nations would not therefore abandon middle income countries, but limit its presence, so that the majority of the funds could go to low income countries. Calculations should be made, so that a ceiling is determined in middle income countries and there is an abundance of funds for intervening on famines and health emergencies in low income countries.

At present, a famine is arising in Somalia, where last one, around 12 years ago, costed 250.000 lives. Given that the famine today could bring to similar results, due to a prolonged draught in the country, the United Nations should find a way to allocate more funds to Somalia. Asking more money to donors bring to the usual result, that necessities are not cover. An internal re-organization would instead allow the UN to address the coming famine in Somalia and in other countries in the future.

89. The need of a strategy for the State

An academic course in strategic management, normally taken at the Master of Business Administration (MBA) level, gives a very clear picture about the strategy of a private enterprise.

It starts with the objectives of an enterprise, its activities, the resources (internal and external) that make possible to pursue the objectives and implement the activities, the execution phase, control and monitoring.

It is a very rational and logical description of the different phases of functioning of a private enterprise. There is also a description of the competitive and cooperative initiatives that a private enterprise develops in its sector.

There is a coherence between all the items described above, from the objectives to the activities, from the resources to execution, to control and monitoring.

It is an added value for the private enterprise, that benefits from the logic and coherence of a strategy.

The present idea concerns the necessity of having a similar framework for the public sector. This strategic framework should concern the same functioning of the State.

In fact, there is a lack of clarity (and even of public discussion) about the objectives, the resources, the execution of activities, the control and monitoring of the State.

In particular, there is a lack of clarity concerning the same objectives of the State, that makes the State a sort of “disorganized organization” without a clear and well-reasoned definition of its own objectives.

An analysis such as the one concerning the private sector with regard to the strategy of a private enterprise would make the State a much better institution than it is generally at present.

In particular, a discussion among high-level policymakers, business leaders and academics about the strategy of the State would make public governance much more functional and well-structured than it is at present.

90. Life-long companions for blind people

The necessity of assistance for blind and other vulnerable people in the developing world in definitely higher than in advanced countries.

Blind people risk to be left to themselves when their parents die.

In Albania, it happened to the author to see blind people getting out from their houses alone, without a companion, a dog or even a walking stick. Their difficulties in getting around are obviously simply staggering.

The present idea concerns therefore the provision of a life-long companion for blind people in developing countries. It is an interesting and not very well-covered area for philanthropists as well as humanitarian organizations.

The provision of a life-long companion can be implemented in two ways.

The first concerns the payment of a monthly salary to the companion of the blind people.

The second concern the endowment of a fund to the blind so that, through the interests generated by the fund, he can pay for a life-long companion.

In this case, a contract must be signed between the blind and the philanthropist/humanitarian organization so that the interests produced by the fund are actually utilized for getting a life-long companion.

The cost of living, normally not very high in developing countries, makes this initiative possible without sacrificing major financial resources.

It is instead a sign of civilization through the assistance provide to one of the weakest component of our societies.

91. Venture Capital for distributive enterprises

As described in the framework of another idea, the distributive enterprise is a kind of private enterprise which hands out part of its profits as basic income to vulnerable groups. For example, we can imagine a private enterprise located in San Francisco which hands out 2% of its profits to homeless people in S.F., as basic income.

Of course, the percentage can vary from enterprise to enterprise as well as the beneficiaries, ranging from homeless to gypsies, from disabled people to pensioners in developing countries. The economic sector where the distributive enterprise operates can differ too.

The present idea regards the creation of a fund of Venture Capital in order to promote distributive enterprises. The Venture Capital fund and the entrepreneur would make an agreement that part of the profits of the future enterprise would be assigned as basic income for vulnerable groups. That contribution would be in exchange of the funding that the entrepreneur receives to start the distributive enterprise.

We can imagine that the fund is located in the advanced world, in USA or Europe, in order to exploit the high productivity of rich countries. Nevertheless, it could be established in developing countries as well, although venture capital is not very much present normally in poor countries.

The probability to promote a big enterprise, such as Apple or Google, that could give a great contribution in terms of basic income to vulnerable groups are obviously very low. Nevertheless, there is a chance to promote several distributive enterprises, that could help make aware the big ones.

If several Venture Capital funds are established for this purpose at international level, a real movement could be initiated on a large scale.

92. The problem is the poor, not the rich

If we analize the economic life of the people from a human point of view, we would understand that the problem is the poor, not the rich. In fact, the rich has no economic problems, so that the one that is regularly dealing with economic hardships is the poor.

From an operational point of view, it means that we have to concentrate on solving the economic hardships of the poor ones.

That would mean to work in different directions.

From stimulating economic growth to providing the poor with a basic income, from providing subsidies to workers to create jobs for the poor, the options available are many and well differentiated.

The best option is probably to pursue them all together at the same time, instead of focusing on only one of them.

The possibilities are extremely numerous, since for example there are many ways to stimulate the economic growth of a country or to create jobs for the poor.

The best option available for policy makers is probably to identify a multi-pronged strategy in support of the poor, execute it and monitor it. Studies could be conducted concerning the results obtained.

It must also be highlighted that many best practices are available at international level. For example, India is providing the possibility to work for a certain number of days in a year in the public sector to the poor. Nevertheless, this interesting approach has not become a praxis at international level.

Yet, these best practices are available, so they could be easily adopted. A study could in fact be implemented at international level concerning strategies that could be adopted in support to the poor.

At the same time, new best practices could be devised too, through the work and new contributions of policymakers and academics.

93. The people's solar geoengineering

According to Wikipedia, "Solar geoengineering, or Solar Radiation Modification (SRM), is a type of climate engineering in which sunlight (solar radiation) would be reflected back to outer space to limit or reverse human-caused climate change...The most studied methods of SRM are stratospheric aereosol injection and marine cloud brightening."

Solar geoengineering possibilities are deeply limited by who should be the actors that implements such a solution. It is deeply unlikely that all the world's governments agree in implementing such an approach, while the United Nations appears too weak to do that. Yet, under certain points of view, SRM is the only realistic solution to the phenomenon of climate change, in front of the consumption of fossil fuels that grows and grows over time.

Nevertheless, a chance exists. This chance is linked to private individuals and their properties. Let's imagine that cars are used in order to insert some substances that cool the climate in the atmosphere. The solution would be decentralized and central governments would be bypassed. In addition, cars would are present everywhere all over the globe. A similar approach, linked to individual properties, has the chance to provide a feasible solution to the problem of climate change.

The present idea wants therefore to push research into which kind of substances could be added to fuel, which have the effect to cool the external environment. This idea is basically researching an input from chemical and environmental engineers, but we must highlight that the solution should have an economic and commercial profile as well. If necessary, governments could regulate the issue. Too much or too little of these substances could be inserted in the atmosphere. Governments could also sponsor research in this area, together with academia.

What I call "people's solar engineering" is therefore one step away from providing a solution to the problem of climate change, by identifying the substances that could be added to fuel which area able to cool the climate.

94. Reserves at the Central Bank to fight famines

According to Investopedia, a website, central banks hold reserves “to diversify their portfolio. By holding different currencies and assets in reserve, a central bank can diversify its risk and provide protection should one investment decline”.

The present idea concerns the use of reserves by the central banks to fight famines. Although it must be considered an heterodox monetary policy, it would be of great use to utilize the reserves of the central bank should a famine arise in the country.

Of course, this initiative should not be implemented by the central bank alone, but in cooperation with the government, which should provide the necessary support for the implementation of the necessary humanitarian activities.

It is a sort of last resort for public organizations, such as the central bank and the government, in order to deal with humanitarian activities that could save hundred of thousands of lives if a famine should arise in the country. In fact, the last famine in Somalia, which took place about ten years ago, costed 260.000 lives. The present famine in Somalia in 2022, after five years of drought, could cost hundred of thousand of lives again. This kind of phenomenon, such as drought and famines, will be more and more likely in the future, due to climate change.

After the humanitarian intervention, reserves should be reconstituted in order to play their normal role.

Therefore, only in front of a serious humanitarian emergency, they could be utilized for assistance purposes by the public organizations that could play a role in dealing with the famine, that is to say central banks and governments.

95. The concept of basic freedom

The present idea concerns the introduction of a new concept, such as basic freedom for vulnerable groups. For example, if we take into consideration the case of a blind person, it is easy to see that his/her freedom is limited by the disability.

For a blind person, it is difficult to get out of the house without a companion or a dog. We can consider to get out of the house as an expression of basic freedom.

Although, it is difficult to substantiate what basic freedom means, it is obvious that activities such as getting out of the house or cooking can be considered as basic freedoms.

The problem is that, even a simple activity as cooking can be considered difficult for a blind person, since he/she has problems to know the temperature of the ovens of the kitchen, as it was suggested to me by Mr. Emiliano Lule, a bright blind person living in Tirana, Albania.

The present concept of basic freedom aims to overcoming these difficulties for a blind person or another vulnerable group member, providing a companion to get out or ovens with microphones in the kitchen, so that basic freedoms are ensured.

Nevertheless, it must be highlighted that the concept of basic freedom does not relate to vulnerable groups only, as intended in the classical concept of the term.

If we consider the case of a person living under a dictatorship, he/she might have no vulnerability intended in the classical term of the word, but still lack basic freedoms. In this case, the concept is related to the fact of living in a system that does not allow basic freedoms and underperform in this specific sense.

The present idea aims therefore to introduce this concept and to stimulate additional studies on the subject, as the author is convinced that the deep exploration of a such a concept can bring interesting and relevant results.

96. To privilege sectors where all are well-paid

In order to favour workers, the Government should privilege sectors where all are well-paid. Examples of main interventions that a Government can implement in this sense are fiscal policy and the promotion of economic infrastructure, just to name a few.

If, for example, tourism is a sector where all workers are well-paid, the Government could establish a favorable tax system for those promoting entrepreneurial activities in the sector. Otherwise, the Government could create an airport of a touristic port, like it is happening at present in the city of Vlore, Albania.

The point is therefore to study the retributions in all main sectors of the economy, in order to know clearly which sectors are paying the most. After studying the dynamic of the retribution systems in the economy, the Government can decide to provide support to specific sectors, in order to benefit workers. The interventions of the Government in the economy should then be properly monitored and evaluated.

Nevertheless, the criteria of retributions should not be intended alone, given that other factors, such as the impact of a specific sector on the environment should be taken into consideration as well.

97. United Nations to launch BRAC model

According to namati.org, a website, “BRAC, based in Bangladesh is (as of May 2010) the world’s largest non-governmental development organization…BRAC is present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh, with over 7 million micro-finance group members, 37500 non-formal primary schools and more than 70000 health volunteers”.

The main features of BRAC, that makes it a success in the world of non-governmental organizations are three: its dimension, its level of innovation, the fact of being largely self-financed through commercial initiatives.

The present idea concerns the replication of BRAC model in developing countries by the United Nations.

If BRAC is so successful and its programs so important and impactful in Bangladesh, the advice is to replicate its model in developing countries.

The United Nations could nurture similar NGOs and in particular similar organizations that shares the 3 features that makes BRAC a success: dimension, innovation and commercialization programs.

The advantage would be to have in many developing countries an NGO of the power and impact of BRAC, created and sustained, until it becomes self-sustainable by the United Nations. The objective should be clear: a large and powerful non-governmental organization is going to be created by the United Nations.

Capital, technical assistance, capacity building should be offered by the UN with this specific objective. In particular, the United Nations should focus more on low-income countries, where the needs of the population are higher.

98. Study how not to create problems

Although the search of solutions to problems is a valuable exercise, it should be deepened the study on how not create problems as well.

This peculiar approach normally deals with the identification of problems as well, but focus on prevention.

If I avoid obesity in order to reduce the probability of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, I am always focusing on the problem, but with the prospective of avoiding it and prevent it.

This is a sort of ideal situation, where you don’t have to solve a problem, which might be difficult, but you manage to avoid it and prevent it.

Additional studies should be implemented on how to prevent climate change, famines and most of the problems that have been described and tried to tackled in this website.

For sure, education plays an important role in that, but it is not the only key, since prevention generally passes through the implementation of practical activities.

The present idea wants therefore to represent an initial seed in the studying of how not to create problems in the social atmosphere, convinced that this approach also represents an interesting perspective in other fields as well, such as in the sector of health, as witnessed by the example provided above.

In particular, environmental problems seem to be very difficult to solve, so that an effort in the field of prevention should be proposed when intervening in this specific sector.

99. Realistic Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

As described by Wikipedia, “The Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by 2030.”

As witnessed by the Global Goals no.1, that is No Poverty, as well as by Global Goal no.2, Zero Hunger, the Sustainable Development Goals are simply not achievable.

SDGs are over ambitious and don’t take into consideration the reality of things. Even the most prosperous countries in the world, such as the USA, didn’t manage to eliminate poverty and hunger during their history.

The present idea concerns therefore with the introduction by the United Nations of so-called “realistic SDGs”, that simply aims at what developing and developed countries can realistically achieve for the people and the planet.

That would demonstrate maturity and wisdom by the United Nations, that would finally represent an organization which set up reachable objectives instead of utopian ones.

It would represent a new and promising way of working by the United Nations with member states.

100. Theory of gradual sectors

As described by Erik Reinert in his book “How rich countries got rich…and why poor countries stay poor”, the leading sector of the economy determines the salary of people working in services, such as hairdressers and bus drivers.

We can imagine a situation where the people working in the industry in the capital of Tirana have an impact on the salaries of people working in the touristic sector in the coastal city of Vlore, Albania.

From this interesting analysis, we have therefore an important indication concerning economic and industrial policy.

The Government should promote new advanced economic sectors, such as Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, biotechnologies, in order to have an impact on the salaries on the touristic sectors, as well as on other services compounding the economy.

The Government will probably not be able to create a leading sector, but many small advanced economic sectors, which all together could have an impact on the service economy. That would be a relevant objective of advancement and betterment of the society, to be obtained through the classical instruments offered by economic and industrial policy.

101. Law and vulnerable groups

Some times, the law can provide specific support for vulnerable groups. An example is the National Rural Program Guarantee Scheme in India, that provides the ultra-poor with 100 days of paid work in the public sector per year. That is an extremely interesting anti-poverty initiative, which provides a basic income to the ultra-poor. Another example is a judge in New York that ruled that no homeless should be sleeping in the streets at night. That decision obliged the New York Municipality to arrange shelters for all homeless. That represents another specific initiative which supports vulnerable groups.

Since these examples show the great potential of the State in solving complex humanitarian emergencies, the topic concerning the law and vulnerable groups should be explored more.

Since possibilities are endless, given that for example the law could offer a support to blind people by providing a companion to them by law or oblige constructors to build anti-seismic buildings in developing countries, this topic should be studied more by experts. In particular, an international conference on the theme could be an interesting starting point to discuss existing best-practices and advance new proposals. 102. Fund-raising on specific projects

As we see fund-raising strategies implemented by international organizations and NGOs, we notice that the whole development and humanitarian world fundraises basically with the aim of benefiting the organization as a whole. It is easy to notice that this is the most common modality of fund-raising by simply checking the main organizations websites. In fact, their websites normally have a Donate button, transferring resources from private donors to the organization as a whole. Fund-raising strategies should be instead also implemented for specific projects. In fact, some projects deserve to continue over their deadline. In addition, it is interesting to see which projects are picked up by private donors, since that is a clear sign of how donors would like an organization to work and what particular aspects of development it should focus on. By offering the possibility to donate to specific projects, it is also possible to link new funds to specific project results, an option that is only vaguely present by simply linking new funds to the organization in general. As an example, it should be possible to put the Donate button not only for the organization as a whole, but also to 5 specific projects described in depth on the website. These projects could change over time, so that all the projects implemented by an organization have an equal possibility to fundraise. In conclusion, new strategies should be implemented by international organizations and NGOs, given that, in front of escalating needs both in the developing and developed world, it is possible to notice quite a high level of donor fatigue.

103. Discriminating on talent

People, particularly in their economic lives, discriminate regularly on the basis of talent. Every job interview and every hiring are basically based on a discrimination of talent. Talent is, to a certain extent, a nature’s gift. This discrimination is something that we all do in such a systematic and continuous way, that we don’t even realize that we are doing it.

104. UN online streaming

The present idea concerns with the proposal to have all General Assembly and Security Council meetings of the United Nations transmitted in online streaming. It is a matter of transparency on one hand, as well as a matter of allowing the participation of people to the GA and SC meetings that regards the making of peace, the promotion of development and the management of emergencies around the world. Transparency is important to certify that decisions are not taken above our heads and are taken instead under the public eye. Participation is instead crucial, so that people can be acquainted with UN decisions at top level. The idea can be easily implemented, given that it only needs political willingness to offer a clear perspective of world affairs to the general public, as well as an Internet connection.

105. Poverty trap in a wider sense

According to Investopedia, a website, “A poverty trap is a mechanism that makes it very difficult for people to escape poverty. A poverty trap is created when an economic system requires a significant amount of capital to escape poverty”.

Poverty is therefore linked to a lack of financial capital, that makes it problematic to escape this condition.

The present idea wants to highlight that a poverty trap should be intended in a wider sense. The concept should not be restricted only to financial capital.

The person in poverty could be in fact lacking health, so that his/her illnesses bring to the situation of poverty. In fact, according to the Economist, the vast majority of people that are poor in China are sick.

The person in poverty can lack motivation, due to the hardships of life, and that could bring to poverty too.

Or he/she can lack skills, network or many other factors that can create a situation of poverty.

From a theoretical and practical point of view, the poverty trap should therefore considered in a wider way, not making reference only to the lack of financial capital, but to the possible lack of many other factors that brings to the condition of poverty. The term “capital” should be therefore intended in a wider way, such as “health capital”, “motivation capital” and so on.

That brings to relevant policy implications, so that the individual assistance can be devised, according to what is specifically lacking to a person.

106. Sellers for small producers

This idea concerns an opportunity for unemployed or underemployed people. They could actually work as sellers for small producers.

Everyone needs to have its product sold. In particular, small producers.

This initiative could be organized by an NGO or a Local Economic Development Agency (LEDA). These organizations could make a mapping of small producers in the area and put them in contact with unemployed or underemployed people. In this way, you create a mechanism for the creation of jobs.

That could also be organized by a single individual, who put in contact small producers with unemployed and underemployed people for a fee, which can be paid by both parts.

But it can be organized directly by unemployed and underemployed people who can offer their services as sellers directly to producers. That can be done also through one's network of friends.

It is an opportunity alternative to micro-credit that can be implemented in areas where micro-credit initiatives are not present or the capital available is not enough.

Since small producers are many, if the mechanism get spread, the impact on the unemployment rate can be high.

This idea can be implemented in developing countries as well as in advanced countries.

107. Be an entrepreneur

Alumni from Harvard Business School have created the Be A Leader Foundation, which provides support to young people to become a leader. It is active in USA and one of the objectives, among others, is to provide support to get admission to Harvard Business School.

Taking inspiration from this example, support can be provided to young people in order to be an entrepreneur.

The idea can be implemented in different ways, such as through a Foundation, but also through the United Nations, given their widespread presence in developing countries as well as in advanced countries. In this way, no additional structure and financial capital has to be found. This idea can be the focus of a global program at the United Nations. Although, given the general need to fight unemployment, this idea can be implemented in advanced countries as well. This approach can be implemented through a mix of real-life and Internet-mediated support, providing aid to parents or directly to young people on how to get a business idea, where to get financial capitals, how to have on-the-job training and so on.

It represents a way to support young people in their objectives and dreams, if they wish to become entrepreneurs.

108. Names on UN projects

In order to incentivate donations for UN activities, the United Nations could offer private individuals the possibility to write their names on projects. It is a way to reward contributions, which is implemented by other organizations as well. Harvard, as well as other universities, put your name on donors’ publications if you provide financial contributions to them.

The same could be applied by the UN. Given that most contributions by private individuals to the UN are in the field of the fight to hunger, names could be put on silos and warehouses used to stock food.

It is an easy was to reciprocate on donations, which hopefully could bring to their increase.

109. Water centers in Somalia

The present idea concerns the implementation of an initiative which might be financed by the United Nations, EU, bilateral cooperations or Somali government. Any other major donor, such as the World Bank, can implement that as well.

It regards the creation of water centers in a peaceful area of Somalia, so that anyone can live up to a maximum of X kilometers from beverage. The logic of the disposition of the water centers is to be done according to an operational research approach. It will be affected also by the total amount of financial resources made available by the donor.

New methodologies could be explored in order not to have the water centers to evaporate, to be discussed with technicians.

At the same time, a microcredit program will be implemented in the area, so that new cattle can be purchased by pastoralists.

In fact, Somalia is in the middle of a drought that left the great majority of cattle dead, being the fifth season of no raining in a row.

The impact on the population has been terrifying, given that 43.000 excess deaths have been registered in 2022, according to the March 25, 2023, edition of the Economist.

The implementation of this pilot project, to be enlarged if successful, could bring new hope and new techniques to Somalia. This idea could be replicated in any other area of Africa suffering at present from drought, such as Kenya.

110. Three conditions for issuing public debt

It is a widespread habit for States to issue debt in order to provide more advanced public services. Yet, in 2020, four African States (Zambia, Ciad, Mali and Ethiopia) ended in default. Besides that, public debt has been a long-time crisis in the developing world for few decades now.

The present idea regards the suggestion that public debt is issued only when three conditions are met: small amounts of debt, promoting good projects, focusing on economic infrastructure or economic software, so that financial resources are produced to pay back the debt.

The first condition deals with issuing small amount of debt. It is a suggestion that make sense even in private life. In fact, it must be highlighted that we act in a complex world where internal or external factors can play a role, such as Covid, a war or an international crisis. “Black swans”, as these unlikely events are called by economists, are becoming more and more common.

The second condition concerns the focus on good projects. Issuing debt make sense only if financial resources are allocated to sound and interesting projects.

The third condition is to focus on economic infrastructure or economic software. Since you are creating debt, you have to produce the economic resources necessary to pay it back. The focus has to be on economic infrastructure, such as an airport that will promote tourism in a specific geographic zone, or economic software, such as training on how to create business ideas, how to get financial resources to promote an enterprise and so on.

The three conditions have to be met at the same time, if additional public debt is to be issued soundly.

This approach concerns therefore advanced countries as well as developing countries.

111. A more policy-oriented UN

The financial resources available at the United Nations are not enough to fix world problems. Besides that, it is relevant to ask yourself if financial resources are enough by themselves to fix world problems.

As Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee have emphasize in their wonderful book “Poor economics”, national governments have much more financial resources available to fix community problems. But that is not enough. Private corporations have also an amazing set of resources to help in combatting world’s problems.

Therefore, the right approach is to improve the performance of public sector, private sector and third sector at the same time.

That can be done through a policy-oriented UN, that provide support not only in the implementation of low-impact projects, but also through policy support.

It can be done through the reduction of budget allocated to projects implementation and the subcontracting of University professors from Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale and other main leading Universities not located in USA, such as LSE and SciencesPo.

The focus should be on main problems in the country. If hyperinflation is the main issue in the country, consultancies from most famous professors in monetary policy should be organized by the relevant UN agencies dealing with that topic, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The objective is to improve the functioning of the whole system, so that private, public and third sector actors can function at their best.

University professors should deal with national actors in order to identify tailor-made solutions, applicable in the country.

Studies containing feasible solutions should be the final product of these consultancies, to be delivered to national actors.

112. Should the State grow automatically?

If we take into consideration that the economy is normally growing and the taxes basically never decrease, we can safely affirm that the State is growing automatically.

Is this situation desirable? On one hand, the State needs to innovate and improve his services continuously, let’s just think about the sectors of education and health. On the other hand, financial resources are more productive in the private sector, creating wealth and incomes.

So, probably the State should increase the amount of resources employed over the long term, but not automatically. The best option is likely that the State grows at a rate inferior to the one regarding the whole economy.

At the same time, the additional resources employed in the State should be subject to careful evaluation, as suggested in the framework of another idea.

113. A proposal on how to rank vulnerable groups

In the framework of another idea, it was proposed that the UN and other humanitarian organizations prioritize their interventions according to a ranking of vulnerable groups. Yet, the ranking of these groups is not an easy task, from a scientific point of view. Without the claim of solving this complicated issue, nevertheless some hints can be proposed. The main hint is to rank the vulnerable groups according to the importance of what they lack in order not to be considered part of the vulnerable group itself. Just to make an example, seriously lacking your health, such as a famine-stricken child in Somalia, is probably worse than lacking an house and being an homeless in Mogadishu. Or lacking a job is a more lighter condition than lacking a mother country and being a refugee abroad. So, although as said before, the issue is complex (an homeless in Boston can risk his or her life due to the harsh local weather conditions), some general prescriptions can be generated about this relevant topic.

114. Spare change news model

In Boston, few journalists started a business model to help the homeless which is quite interesting. The model foresees the production of a newspaper, named “Spare change news”, which is distributed and sold by the homeless in the streets. General expenses and the work of the journalists is covered through the selling of the journal. A profit is made by the homeless through the selling of the newspapers. Through this business, the part of the homeless population selling Spare Change News in Boston gets around 15.000 US$ per month.

The newspaper was then sold in other cities of USA.

This business model is interesting because can be replicated easily elsewhere. The original content of this idea is that another sort of product can be sold by the homeless. Taking inspiration from Spare Change News business model, one or more products can be produced and then sold by homeless in the streets. This business model can be easily replicated worldwide.

115. A best practices unit at the UN

Best practices are a concept which is widely used in the United Nations system. Each Agency is dealing with and promoting best practices, from ILO to UNHCR, from UNDP to UNOPS. The present idea concerns the creation of a central unit at UN headquarters, in order to coordinate and promote best practices worldwide.

Some best-practices, in particular implemented by central governments, are worthwhile to be spread. Examples are an anti-poverty program in India that ensures the ultra-poor get a certain number of work in the public sector per year. Or the buildings able to stand earthquakes in Japan.

The point is that such best practices don’t become easily international praxis. That might be also due to the lack of coverage by international media, but in any case the creation of a central unit at the UN could help to spread best practices worldwide. This central unit focused on best practices should coordinate focal points inside the different UN agencies, so that best practices adopted, for example, in India and Japan, are promoted worldwide.

116. Products and management

Successful products are famous for some reasons. It might be that they manage to combine quality and quantity. Or they manage to increase quality by keeping quality steady. Or packaging is particularly attractive.

The point is that the reasons why products are famous can be applied to management techniques. You can increase quality and quantity of your decisions. Or the quality only. And so on.

This idea is particularly interesting because it can revolutionize management techniques. But at the same time, it can be applied to other sciences as well, giving a great contribution to science.

117. Direct support from private donors to Somali hospitals

The situation of Somali hospitals is tragic. Their number is limited, they are under-staffed and generally lack machineries and medicines. Official data from the Somali Ministry of Health witness that condition.

As a consequence, there is a high mortality for newborns and their mothers, as well as difficulties in treating serious illnesses for everyone.

Many organizations work in order to support hospitals in Somalia, from UN agencies to bilateral cooperations and NGOs.

In this framework, there would be room to target direct donations from private donors to Somali hospitals. That could be the duty of UN agencies, bilateral cooperations and NGOs. They could ask private donors to support Somali hospitals, so that there is not a calling from humanitarian and foreign agencies to support Somalia in general, but specific support for hospitals.

In this way, priority is given to the most vulnerable at risk of their lives, who address their issues to Somali hospitals.

This is particularly relevant in a period characterized by drought that has lasted for the last five years, when many children reach hospitals in Somalia to be treated for acute malnutrition that very often make them at risk for their lives.

This idea could also be implemented in other countries facing similar acute malnutrition problems and general difficulties in treating serious illnesses, such as Yemen, Kenya and Afghanistan.

118. How to make tourists enjoy

Tourism consists of many components. If some of them are  more or less given, such as the architecture and food of a city, others can be developed further.

One of them is the enjoyable activities that people can do in the city. If New York can attract tourists through its museums and shows on Broadway, that means that other cities can do the same, maybe not through long running shows such as Broadway, but through one or two shows performances as well as museums.

The point is to organize the activities that could be implemented and inform the tourists about them. The Municipality and other public institutions can play a role about that, first by looking at successful experiences around the world, then by using their creativity.

For example, the city of Genoa arranged an Oktoberfest event in town, making agreements with the organizers in Germany. Genoa made an amazing work also on architecture, by creating the Old Port and changing therefore a part of town.

Yet, the city of Genoa has untapped potential with might be developed further. An example is the monumental cemetery of Staglieno, with its amazing sculptures and art. That could be make it more known to tourists. A possibility is to create an electronic billboard where tourists tend to gather in Genoa, in areas such as the Aquarium and the Old Port. The electronic billboard could inform about the activities in town, such as the Oktoberfest, as well as untapped beauties such as the Cemetery of Staglieno.

As suggested by Ms. Dhurata Thanasi, buses could be organized in order to connect the Aquarium and Old Port with the Cemetery of Staglieno, so that a full service consisting of information and transportation is offered to tourists.

The point is therefore that the Municipality and other public organizations, such as the Region, could organize a wide range of events and involve tourists in these activities.

This idea could be replicated worldwide, promoting tourism development.

119. A best practice to be exported.

During the last few years, since when Erjon Veliaj was elected as Mayor, the city of Tirana is much cleaner. Although in the past it was not perfectly clean, today the city is perfectly acceptable under this point of view. Since the cleanness of a city is an important factor for the well-being of its inhabitants, it would be interesting to study how the Major, the administration, the enterprises, the workers managed to reach such an objective. In other words, to study the secrets and means through which they managed to make Tirana a clean city.

This is important since many cities suffer from a problem of cleanness around the world. The best practice of Tirana could be exported in many other realities, with great impact.

The secrets and means through which Tirana has become a clean city could be studied, for example, by a United Nations agency such as UNDP or by the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard.

120. Individual and collective dimension of development

The process of development has an individual dimension, that can become collective. In Albania, after the arrival of democracy, hundreds of thousands of individuals aimed at improving their income and well-being. In this way, they managed to create, in a lapse of thirty years, a much more affluent society.

This was also facilitated by the proximity with Greece and Italy, which served as a sort of example and reference point for Albania. It also has to deal with defining an objective, which is the main component of any strategy.

The same phenomenon happened in other countries of the Balkan region.

Could the same process happen elsewhere? As said, the success of Albania was facilitated by the arrival of democracy, but it would be interesting to study if individual processes could be stimulated elsewhere. It would also be interesting that one or two regional successful experiences happens in Africa and Latin America, in order to create a reference point for the other countries to follow, as happened with the case of Japan in Asia, which served as a model for many other countries in the region.

121. Marshall Plan on diseases

As reported by the USA Presidency website, www. whitehouse.gov, on February  2nd 2022, President Joe Biden has announced its plan to cut mortality regarding cancer in 25 years, through research and information. This initiative is particularly interesting because it is a problem that potentially concerns anyone. In other words, an action of this sort really concerns people.

As witnessed by a faculty newsletter, Harvard scientists interviewed on the matter said that it is possible to reach this objective, based on the breakthroughs obtained in cancer cure historically, taking therefore into consideration a statistical dimension.

The present idea concerns the possibility to apply the same approach to other diseases, through a sort of Marshall Plan on sicknesses. This initiative should be financed by advanced countries, but developing countries would benefit as well. In particular, USA should be a main player in this initiative, given the excellency of their universities, but other advanced countries could play a role. In an ideal approach, a multilateral effort could be implemented in trying to reduce the mortality caused by sicknesses. The UN could play a role in that by proposing the idea to world countries.

122. Participatory democracy

During a lesson at University of New York Tirana, I mentioned that Governments do not respect people's preferences concerning the environment. A student commented that they don't apply democracy.

This episode inspired the present idea that is about a democracy that respects people's preferences, which I named a participatory democracy.

The logic is that if people's preferences are respected the total wellbeing of the system will increase, given that you are given what you want. That's a way to increase the whole welfare of the system.

The point is how preferences can be revealed. With regard to that, technology can help since more frequent interactions between the Governments and the citizenship can be organized online.

If asked, I would say a new green park and a quality cinema is what I would like at local level in Tirana. At national level, a higher respect for the environment. At international level, more peaceful international relations with neighbouring countries.

Ideas can be organized and voted by other people, while interactions can be relatively frequent.

A participatory democracy can improve the whole performance of the system.

123. Sensibilization on famine and environment in Somalia

In the framework of PASARP (Program of Activities in Support of Albanian Regions and Prefectures), the component of culture focused on the organization of photo exhibitions, movies and concerts. At the end of 2023, Somalia is facing a severe famine, due to climate change, with extreme whether events ranging from draughts to floods in a great part of its territory. Photo exhibitions, movies and concerts could be organized on famine and environment in Somalia today. Inviting local artists, sponsored by UN agencies, such as UNESCO, several events could be implemented today in Mogadishu and other Somali cities. The UN could finance a LIVE AID focused on famine and environment, with the participation of national and local artists in the developing world. This event could be broadcasted on YouTube and other free online channels, as well as on national and international radios and televisions. Somalia could play a central role, given its potential to sensibilize on the issue.

124. Genius in psychiatric wards in Somalia

Human development programs, financed by Italy, have been implemented around the world for more than 20 years. An important component is the one concerning mental health. The author has supported one of this intervention in Vlore, Albania in the local psychiatric ward. As witnessed, genius is sometimes present in psychiatric wards. In the case of Somalia, which at present is facing multiple emergencies, including famine, the gradual opening of psychiatric wards could help the patients to participate in public life and help solve problems. The UN and other humanitarian organizations should consider the possibility to promote this sort of interventions in Somalia and other countries at risk, since it deeply benefits patients and the population at national level. From general support activities in public wards to their gradual opening, human development programs, created by Mr. Luciano Carrino, could be promoted again by Italy and other rich countries in Somalia and other countries in emergencies. It would be an innovative approach to experiment these sorts of programs in countries at high risk.

125. A new way to assist famine areas in conflict

At the end of 2023, the situation in Gaza is deteriorating to the point that a UN report talks about an “imminent risk of famine”. The present conflict started by Hamas, to be framed in the longer conflict between Israel and Palestine, is bringing an unbearable level of suffering to the local population in Gaza, including a risk of famine. In this case, that can be compared to a siege, rich and middle-income countries, particularly those belonging to the Arab World, but not only, could drop aid from the sky. Given the difficulty to access the territory of Gaza: food, medical and other first emergency supplies could be delivered from planes. The Arab World, as well as other rich and middle-income countries, could improve their emergency response capacity and intervene in this way. The UN, NGOs (such as Save the Children and other main ones) as well as national governments could play a role in providing aid as well as strengthening emergency response capacity in the Arab World and other rich and middle-income countries. That should include the diplomatic part, in this case focused on Israel, to accept this sort of assistance, as well as on the countries that should deliver it. It should be asked if creating an imminent risk of famine could be considered as torture. 

126. Puzzle in-kind donations

The present idea is linked to the fact that people are not willing to donate money easily. When asked for donations, people prefer an in-kind donation than a cash one. In other words, people are more likely to donate in-kind, since they are relatively more attached to money.

Therefore, the present idea is to focus on a food emergency, such as Somalia at the beginning  of 2024 and start to focus on collecting in-kind donations, by creating a “puzzle” that will allow to make food available, transported, distributed and consumed in Somalia.

As in any puzzle, somebody has to take a role of leadership and start to arrange the pieces of the puzzle.

We can imagine that one or more countries are targeted and food is started to be collected from people, businesses, farmers, restaurants and so on. The second step is to look for transportation, to be provided as in-kind also in this case. The logic is the same: it is more difficult to get a financial donation than an in-kind transportation donation. Ships are therefore to be identified to provide free transportation. The third step is the distribution of the food, to be provided as an in-kind service by volunteers. The final step is the consumption of food in the country in emergency situations, such as Somalia.

The logic behind this approach is therefore two-fold: on one hand, the issue that people, businesses and other organizations are more likely to donate in-kind than financially; on the other hand, it is to arrange a puzzle of in-kind donations so that food can be collected, transported, distributed and consumed.

The institutional leader that could organize puzzle in-kind donations should be a proper entity, structured and well-organized, such a UN Agency or a main NGO, like Save the Children.

127. Weight loss and statistical health advantages

It is relatively well-known that weight loss brings, among other advantages, a reduction in the risk of cancer. The present idea deals with the fact that, if you lose weight, you will be less likely to get cancer since you have less cells in your body. Since you have less cells in your body, you will be less likely to get cancer and other diseases as well. This important consideration was confirmed by Dr. Maurit Beeri, an Harvard graduate, Director General of ALYN Hospital Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation Center in Jerusalem, Israel. This idea could also be framed in the context of behavioral sciences, in particular regarding messages and inputs to be provided to people in order to change their behavior. On the other hand, it could be deepened by exploring which diseases, besides cancer, could be reduced through the reduction of cells in your body. A top University could be involved in this aspect.

128. Drones and fight to hunger

The present idea concerns the utilization of drones to identify the location of people at risk of dying of hunger through photos or films in a specific geographic area. For example, a desert in Somalia, where people live without electricity and mobile phones. The same idea could be applied for specific areas in other parts of the world where people are at risk of famine, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, North Nigeria and Yemen.

At the same time, trucks could deliver food and medicines on the spot to the people in need. This concept was developed with the support of Prof. Tarun Khanna, Harvard Business School (HBS), who name it “last-mile delivery in fighting world hunger”.

The combination of these two actions can be applied with an high rate of success in peaceful areas as well as, up to a certain extent, in war-torn areas.

According to Armando Pezzoni, management specialist at Hill International in Tirana (Albania), this idea should be developed in order to include considerations about costs, statistics and technology.

As suggested by Prof. Khanna, an enterprise which might be involved in this initiative is Zipline, that produces humanitarian and commercial drones, based in San Francisco (USA). This enterprise has an high potential, given that at present is distributing vaccines and medicines, both for people and animals. Supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it was distributed millions of doses of vaccines. At the same time, it has distributed medicines for animals in order to prevent plagues which might hit animals and people as well. A study on activities implemented by this enterprise has been implemented by Wharton, at the University of Pennsylvania.

129. Science not politics

Altough the United Nations can be considered normally as a technocracy, they are usually lead by politicians. Last two Secretary Generals, respectively Mr. Ban Ki-Moon and Mr. Antonio Guterres, were Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea and Prime Minister of Portugal. Before them, Mr. Kofi Annan was the only Secretary General who came from a career inside the United Nations, practically a UN official. It is now about time for the UN to try a new approach that promotes science instead of politics, at top diplomat level.

A development economist with a high scientific focus or an historian with a high scientific backgroun would be an innovative type of Secretary General. The organization, highly ineffective and ridden with scandals, would have the possibility to experiment a new approach based on science. That would in fact represent an opportunity. The organization might deliver much more, in terms of results, of what is doing at present. Science not politics would be therefore more than a slogan, a possibility to test new strategies in a time where multilateralism is very much needed due to wars and new imperialisms, as mentioned by historian Yuval Noah Harari. The utilization of Harvard, MIT, Wharton scientists could support this new strategy, where efficiency and innovation are finally promoted by the UN.

130. Made-to-measure shoes for workers

Some works involve a deep impact on workers' feet, such as people working in building, waiters and shops. That depends on the age, sex, race and other factors as well. The present idea concerns with the creation of made-to-measure shoes for workers involved in strenous works, so that they can limit the damages to their feet. The creation of made-to-measure shoes shuld be financed by the owners of the business, so that workers could enjoy a higher level of well-being. We have to take into consideration that workers repeat their daily working routine for a very high number of days in a row, involved in activitities that are highly stressful, one of them walking. The idea could be obviously extended to other areas of strenous work developed by workers, involving for example the use of hands, in particular in building. Anyway, the present example deals with workers' shoes. MIT has already explored the possibility that one day shoes (in their idea for sportists) could be done through the use of videos taken at people's way of walking, so to be able to create made-to-measure shoes.

131. A media campaign about acute hunger in Somalia

In March 2024, as part of the Israel/Gaza conflict, President Joe Biden approved the construction of a temporary port in Gaza, through which 2 million meals a day could be provided to Palestinians. The international focus of TVs and newspapers on famine-like conditions in the Gaza Strip was crucial for this decision to be taken. In fact, international pressure mounted to find innovative ways to deliver food, water and medical aid to Gaza.

In a similar effort, Somalia, that managed to avoid widespread famine at the end of 2023 thanks to the intervention of the international community, could undertake an international campaign to advocate over acute hunger in the country on international media. As shown by the case of Gaza, an international campaign on media is crucial for awareness on politicians and public opinion alike. It is a fundamental element of decision-making for politicians to approve assistance to countries in crisis.

This international campaign could be sponsored by a UN agency or by an international NGO, such as Oxfam. It should be aimed to main media, such as CNN, BBC, New York Times and others. The content should be carefully drafted in order to provide awareness of the acute hunger conditions in Somalia and facilitate fund-raising from all donors. A team composed by Somali national and international experts should work on this initiative, endowed with a consistent financial budget.

The international campaign should last as long as acute hunger conditions occur in Somalia.

132. An innovations database for international development

     
     

     Innovations in the field of international development are created continuously. For example, a vaccine against malaria able to reduce deaths by 13% was created in 2019, according to The Economist. Yet, these innovations are not applied enough in the framework of programs and projects simply because organizations and managers don’t know about them. Information is crucial and very often is missing for organizations and managers.

     This idea concerns therefore with the creation of a database of innovations to be applied in the framework of international development. Information and data can be collected by the United Nations at central level and made available online, so that everyone could take inspiration from them. Innovations can be organized by a team according to different sectors, such as health, education, governance and so on.

     The innovations database, both in terms of collection of information and maintenance, can be financed by the UN.

     Innovations should be sponsored according to a new ranking of vulnerable groups and at the same time the United Nations can sponsor research, for example on the cure of deadly diseases, a top priority for vulnerable or potentially vulnerable groups.