uniting individual action through social media for global change
DESCRIPTION
Globally we are becoming aware of how the individual choices we make affect the collective wellbeing of the 7 billion who coexist on the planet. Individuals want their decisions to act positively towards the end of inequality and are ready to work with those that help them achieve this. Organizations in both the nonprofit and for profit industries are beginning to capitalize on this desire for meaningful action. Social media is a tool for change, creating upheaval in industries from music to marketing and recently, the way individuals are involved in global change. Used in conjunction, social media and gamification could give individuals a platform to connect all of their actions for change and partner with organizations that are giving them social options for action towards global human rights goals.TRANSCRIPT
Uniting Individual Action through Social Media for Global Change
Caitlin Fader
ABSTRACT Globally we are becoming aware of how the individual choices we make affect the collective wellbeing of the 7 billion who coexist on the planet. Individuals want their decisions to act positively towards the end of inequality and are ready to work with those that help them achieve this. Organizations in both the nonprofit and for profit industries are beginning to capitalize on this desire for meaningful action. Social media is a tool for change, creating upheaval in industries from music to marketing and recently, the way individuals are involved in global change. Used in conjunction, social media and gamification could give individuals a platform to connect all of their actions for change and partner with organizations that are giving them social options for action towards global human rights goals. The United Nations offers such actionable goals to end global inequality through the Millennium Development Goals. The United Nations would be capitalizing on a large opportunity to further these goals beyond their time-‐bound end date if it were to partner with such a platform. This thesis examines these social trends in philanthropy, business, economic change, and individual action to propose a new approach to individual action through a socially enabled platform and game with a broad plan for the United Nations to support the proposed platform.
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Table of Contents
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3
2. CURRENT STATE OF INDIVIDUAL ACTION FOR GLOBAL CHANGE 6 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 6 PHILANTHROPY 8 CONSUMPTION 10 CREATING NEW DEMAND 10 SHAPING EXISTING DEMAND 13 THE NEW CONSUMER 14 THE BLURRING LINES OF FOR-‐PROFIT AND NON-‐PROFIT INDUSTRIES 17 CONCLUSION 20
3. SOCIAL MEDIA AS A TOOL FOR CHANGE 21 FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS 22 SOCIAL MEDIA AS A SCHUMPETERIAN NEW PRODUCT 23 SOCIAL CHANGE 24 SOCIAL GOOD 25 KONY 2012 26 INDIVIDUAL DIGITAL ACTION 27 CONCLUSION 28
4. GAMIFYING SOCIAL GOOD 29 GAMIFICATION 29 COMMON GOALS 31 UNITED NATIONS 32 MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS 32 INDIVIDUAL ACTION THROUGH GAMIFICATION OF THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS 34 MY DEVELOPMENT DASHBOARD 35 CONCLUSION 36
5. UNITED NATIONS SUPPORT 37 UNITED NATIONS SUPPORT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT DASHBOARD 38 GOAL 1: UNITED NATIONS INTERNAL PARTNERSHIP 39 GOAL 2: BRAND REVITALIZATION 42 GOAL 3: AWARENESS AND ENGAGEMENT 45 CONCLUSION 51
6. CONCLUSION 52
APPENDICES 55 APPENDIX A: THE UNITED NATIONS MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS BRAND ASSETS AND RESEARCH 55 APPENDIX B: FACEBOOK DATA 61 APPENDIX C: UNITED NATION DEVELOPMENT GOAL LOGO’S 61 APPENDIX D: UNITED NATIONS MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND TARGETS 62
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APPENDIX E: MY SLAVERY FOOTPRINT 68 APPENDIX F: THE DEVELOPMENT DASHBOARD 69 APPENDIX G: DEVELOPMENT DASHBOARD PARTNERSHIPS 72 APPENDIX H: THESIS STRUCTURE 75
WORKS CITED 76
1. Executive Summary
Worldwide, over one billion people are hungry, 70% of these are women and
girls. Every year, 536,000 of those women and girls die as a result of complications
during pregnancy, childbirth or the six weeks following delivery. More than one
billion people lack access to basic sanitation (United Nations 2). Everyday 5,000
people die from AIDS, in large part due to lack of prevention (USAID). Sixty seven
million children of primary school age are not enrolled (Catalysts for GOOD 2).
More than one billion people, one quarter of the developing world, live below the
international poverty line of $1.25 a day (UN Department of Public Information 1).
At the start of 2011, all the UN’s programs had available $4.00 to serve each of the
world’s 6.8 billion people in contrast to an average per capita cost of $225.00 on
military spending (Kegley and Blanton 147).
At the beginning of his book We First, Brands and Consumers Use Social Media
to Build a Better World, Simon Mainwaring asks, “Is this the world you want? I hope
it’s not” (Mainwaring 9).
The idea of the golden rule or treating people as you would want to be
treated as an essential personal practice has been explored by historical figures
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from Confucius through altruism and reciprocity to Benjamin Franklin in his four
precepts for a rational morality (Jones Jr. 45). Emanuel Kant proclaimed that
“freedom is the only original right belonging to every man by virtue of his
humanity… human beings naturally desire happiness and may be expected to use
their freedom, however imperfectly, in the pursuit of it” (Kant 30). He surmised that
because our own happiness depends on the assistance of others when we are in a
“strained condition” the “duty of beneficence” directly flows as a necessary
individual practice (Kant 202). On a larger scale, Plato discussed the roles different
individuals play in a just city in his work The Republic (Plato). Government as a
whole in its varying forms is an attempt to add order to the collective 7 billion
people who live on planet Earth. Former United States President John F. Kennedy Jr.
once said, “with great power comes great responsibility” (Kennedy, City Upon a
Hill). The future is yet to be determined by how we use our power and freedoms.
How will we close the disparities we see? How will we revolutionize the existing
state where these inequalities exist? It starts with individual action for collective
change.
This thesis examines what current trends and the destructive force of social
media mean for the future of the role of the individual in acting towards the end of
global inequality. The first two sections, The Current State of Individual Action for
Global Change and Social Media as a Tool for Change create a foundation for
understanding the current landscape of how world actors and individual action are
tied together and examines social media as a force for change in individual action.
This foundation is established in order to put forth a potential next iteration of
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individual action for global change: a social platform that uses gamification. This is
presented in the third section, Gamifying Social Good which details how this tool for
change would tie individual decisions together toward The Millennium
Development Goals, United Nations goals aimed at making global change. Lastly, in
Action for the United Nations, a plan of how the United Nations could support this
platform for change and seize on the opportunity presented by a consumer
community is explored. (Figure 1 from Appendix H)
Figure 1
Current State of Individual Action for Global Change
Social Media as a Tool for Change
Gamifying Social Good
Action for the United Nations
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2. Current State of Individual Action for Global Change
“The world is a stage, and the players in the drama are many” (Kegley and
Blanton 16). Affecting change requires an understanding of the current world stage.
Although economists have trouble with a concrete definition of the study of
economics, it is broadly the study of actors and resources (Backhouse and Medema
222). Because most individuals make decisions every day with their resources,
whether it be money, time or voice, this creates an opportunity for people to use
that decision to reduce inequality. A broad view of the current economy helps us
understand how individual’s decisions with monetary resources are currently
affecting inequality. Then, a look at individual’s philanthropic decisions will show us
how individuals are currently using decisions with their resources to act specifically
to reduce certain inequalities. Finally, the lines begin to blur between economics and
philanthropy in the private sector and consumer trends show that people are ready
to embrace a private sector that does empower them to use their decisions to affect
the world’s inequalities.
Economic Inequality
On April second, the United Nations published a document titled: Urgent Call
for High-‐Level Meeting on “Happiness & Wellbeing: Defining a New Economic
Paradigm” in which they state:
“Our global economic system is in rapid melt-‐down, starting with the financial collapse of 2008 and now manifesting in Europe’s severe and spreading debt crisis. That economic system, based on the totally unsustainable premise of limitless growth on a finite planet, is the direct cause of the very policies that the IEA says are leading us to calamitous end as evident in the growing frequency and magnitude of
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man made and natural disasters. And that economic system has produced ever widening inequalities, with 20% of the world’s people now consuming 86% of its goods, 84% of its paper, and 87% of its cars, while the poorest 20% consumer 1% or less of each and emit only 2% of the world’s greenhouse gases. The gap, coupled with the deep economic crisis, led the International Labor Organization to warn on 30 October that the world faces years of social unrest as economies falter.” (URGENT CALL FOR HIGH-‐LEVEL MEETING ON “HAPPINESS & WELLBEING: DEFINING A NEW ECONOMIC PARADIGM”)
This statement directly links the current “economic paradigm” with many of
the largest inequalities present in our world. Jeffery D. Sachs, Director of The Earth
Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-‐
General Ban Ki-‐moon, also clearly draws the connection in his book Commonwealth
Economics for a Crowded Planet: “the sustainability of the environment, the
stabilization of the world’s population, and the end of extreme poverty” are the
“greatest economic and political challenges of our time” (Sachs 12).
Joseph Schumpeter a famous Austrian economist believed that change in
economic life always starts with the actions of a forceful individual and then spreads
to the rest of the economy (Swedberg xi). This change he believed is the “essential
point to grasp about capitalism”, which is “by nature a form or method of economic
change and not only never is but never was stationary” (J. A. Schumpeter 82).
World Politics recognizes “the essential building block units, of course, are
people” whose every day actions affect what happens in the world: “every day,
whether each of us choose to litter, light a cigarette, or parent a child affects in small
measure how trends in the world will unfold” (Kegley and Blanton 16). Each one of
us makes economic decisions every day. In the current economic paradigm,
companies produce what sells; politicians spend time garnering our donations. Each
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one of us can use our economic decisions to say something about what we demand,
and do. This demand acts as a vote to companies and governments about what we
want and what we stand for. A person’s choice to give their resources to
philanthropy is a current vote for filling a gap where society, government, and
business have been unable to provide an answer.
Philanthropy
Sir Francis Bacon, the first English author to write about philanthropy in a
modern sense posits the word to encompass more than the goodness of nature but
“goodness affecting the weal (sic) of men” (Sulek 204) or the habit of doing good.
Although there is not only disagreement over key aspects of the current definition
among leading scholars but also how it is generally understood by society at large,
there is agreement that a decisive transition from “charity, understood as giving
between individuals, to philanthropy, understood as an institutionally channeled
humanitarian response to conditions of the poor” (Sulek 14) is a tenant of the
modern practice. For the purposes of this thesis, I will use Robert Payton’s, former
Professor Emeritus of Philanthropic Studies at Indiana University and Senior
Research Fellow of the Center for Philanthropy, definition: “voluntary action for the
public good” (Payton 2) “in its most obvious manifestations of voluntary giving and
voluntary service, (and) … voluntary association” (Payton 326).
The distribution of philanthropic funds or “active efforts to promote human
welfare, such as charitable gifts” (Payton 13) has become a primary emphasis in
many of the latest definitions of philanthropy. The current state of charitable giving
as reported by The Giving USA 2011 Report confirms that philanthropic participation
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in the form of voluntary giving declined overall in 2011: “many individuals,
corporations, and foundations cut back on giving as their income, profits, and
endowments fell” (The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University ii).
Participation in voluntary action defined as “an activity that is relatively
uncoerced, intended to help, and is done without primary or immediate thought of
financial gain” (McCurley and Lynch) decreased from 26.8% to 26.3% over the last
year although the amount of hours, 8.1 billion, remained the same over both years
(Corporation for National and Community Service 2). Volunteering in America
Research and Highlights suggests that this decrease is due to volunteer retention
that they claim can be helped with creating a better experience for volunteers
(Corporation for National and Community Service ).
Payton uses the term voluntary association to discuss a form of “mutual aid,
in which people contribute as a form of group insurance against the needs of
members-‐ assuming some equity of distribution, but not insisting on it” (Payton 71).
This is a broad definition which is perhaps why in 1988 The Independent Sector
Committee, a “leadership network for nonprofits, foundations, and corporate giving
programs committed to advancing the common good in America and around the
world” (Independent Sector ), saw this area as “’a seedbed for new ideas, new art
forms’… and a setting for experimentation” particularly in expanding the “diversity
of personal options” to take philanthropic action (Payton 123). Mutual aid is
characteristically distinct from Kantian ethic, which posits that cooperation is the
direct result of a moral conclusion, a duty. In contrast, mutual aid views it as a
strategic choice. The mutual aid principle advocates that “in certain economic
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situations, individuals will widen their space of strategies, including elements able
to promote cooperation, to overcome dead-‐ends, created by individualistic
behaviors” (Caparros, Pereau and Tazdait 104). In essence, in economic situations,
for example, people choose cooperation over individualistic behavior because it is in
the end, better for everyone. Again, it is a strategic choice.
Consumption
Currently, there are two major ways in which people are using economic
strategic choices, consumption, to be involved in global change. Firstly, people are
deciding to consume products that contribute and advocate for a social cause, in
essence, they are creating new demand for these products. Secondly, consumers are
realizing that their current demand already influences global issues. This form of
consumption focuses on shaping current demand patterns to affect global change.
Creating New Demand
The first pattern of consumption, creating demand for new products, is best
exemplified through efforts like Product (RED), TOMS Shoes, and Falling Whistles.
These organizations all use the money made through consumer decisions to
contribute to a specific social cause. The organizations ask people to contribute to
that cause by creating demand.
Product (RED)
In 2007 Bobby Shriver and Bono walked into a meeting with a Cabinet
official for the Clinton administration looking for a solution to “engage the power of
the business community and the vast number of people who were not committed
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activists but who would want to help if the ask was simple” (Moon , Norton and
Chen 2). The two wanted to apply this force to the growing emergency surrounding
the AIDs epidemic but thought that “selling something people are excited to buy
feels better to both sides than hawking raffle tickets or token charity wares” (Moon ,
Norton and Chen 2). The official advised them to “be like Nike… Brands like Nike go
out and tell their story. They’re on TV, in the malls, and everyday life. They
understand how to create emotional impact. That’s the way to get people’s attention
in America… Iconic brands understand how to create real impact” (Moon , Norton
and Chen 4).
The two took this advice and founded Product (RED). This organization is
about “doing what you enjoy and doing good at the same time” (Moon , Norton and
Chen 2). People purchase the products RED teams up with leading brands to create
and the proceeds are then redirected back to AIDs prevention. Product (RED) was
trying to tap into something different. Tired of the sympathy-‐driven charity model,
the founders wanted to reach people on a different level, they visualized that the
“(RED) brand would attempt to leverage consumerism to reveal the better aspects
of human nature” (Moon , Norton and Chen 4).
To date, (RED) has raised more than $180 million over 6 years for AIDS relief
in Africa (Product (RED)). Possibly this has something to do with the 1,288,001
people who “like” (RED) on Facebook, or the 4,541 people “talking about this” on
Facebook, or even the 1,056,142 Twitter followers (Twitter). (RED) is a connector
between philanthropy and business using branding and marketing knowledge to
procure resources from the individuals who have purchasing and donating power to
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redirect those resources to the actors who are working in the field bringing relief to
those affected by AIDs. The company continues to work with what they call the
“inseparable but sometimes opposing goals” of “building (a) brand and making fast
money to save lives” (Moon , Norton and Chen 2).
TOMS Shoes
TOMS shoes has used contributory consumption to brand itself for social
change. The business model is very different from the connector model employed by
(RED), instead, TOMS is its own brand and product. It does not partner but has built
a company around its own products. Through its one-‐for-‐one model of giving, it has
been able to donate over 1 million pairs of shoes and elicit 1 million people to
market for them by wearing their product and donating at the same time. This six-‐
year-‐old (TOMS Shoes ) for-‐profit company with a social overlay has been able to
engage a community of 1.4 million Facebook followers (TOMS) and 1.3 million
Twitter followers (toms) in supporting the idea of giving a pair of shoes to an
individual in need by purchasing a pair themselves.
Falling Whistles
Falling Whistles is a nonprofit company that asks people to make the
decision to buy a whistle for $40.00 to $50.00 through social enterprise to further its
mission of peace in Congo. The whistle is then worn as an accessory around the
neck. Branding of the whistle and everything that the nonprofit does is a core value.
The founders aim to create a brand that empowers “whistleblowers for peace” to do
something about the conflict in Congo through the first step of the purchase of a
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whistle. As a nonprofit it not only acts as a brand but also as an aid provider through
six partners who are Congolese visionaries. In just three years the organization has
sold 50,000 whistles (Falling Whistles). The innovative use of a consumer group of
50,000 people who will put $40.00 to $50.00 towards Peace in Congo has garnered
founder, Sean Carasso a nomination to the Forbes 30 Under 30 List for Law and
Policy (Forbes).
Product (RED), TOMS Shoes, and Falling Whistles are just three examples of
how organizations are having success in asking people to use their economic
decisions to create demand for a product that calls for global change. Other
organizations are asking people to look at the products they already buy and
examine how they are currently affecting world issues effectively reshaping current
demand patterns.
Shaping Existing Demand The economic choices we already make every day are creating demand for
products and services that have global impact. When I buy a phone, a computer, a
portable music player, a gaming system, I am buying products that I am unsure if the
minerals inside are conflict free or not. I am unsure because the majority of
corporations are also unsure (Enough Project ). Global supply chains for parts that
go into the products I use every day potentially contribute to conflict and inequality
in far reaching areas of the globe. If I decide to structure my consumption choices
around products that I know are ethical or are attempting to adopt ethical
procedures, I am using my consumption to affect change. Slavery Footprint is an
organization that aims to use this power.
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Slavery Footprint
Slavery Footprint attempts to “use the free market to free people” by
“allowing consumer to visualize how their consumption habits are connected to
modern-‐day slavery” (Slavery Footprint). This nonprofit organization provides
people with a mobile application and online action center as a means to use their
voice. After taking a lifestyle quiz you are given the number of “slaves that work for
you” and then given the option to email companies that they have identified as
affecting these issues. An example of my consumption choices can be seen in
Appendix E.
Whether through creating new demand for products or shaping existing
demand, consumers are showing an impetus for using their economic choices to
affect change by partnering with the organizations mentioned above. This
phenomenon is echoed in several studies conducted recently in America and
globally by advertising agencies studying this consumer segment.
The New Consumer
In March 2011, BBMG, a branding agency that “helps organizations embrace
innovation, forge new markets, discover new products and services, create new
experiences and drive real cultural change” (BBMG 15), released a comprehensive
study titled Unleashed: How New Consumers Will Revolutionize Brands and Scale
Sustainability. This report was based on an ethnographic study of more than 2,650
conversations over three years from what they call “The Collective”. This is the
firm’s “private social network, the first to broker real-‐time conversations between
New Consumers, sustainable brands and related organizations” (BBMG 14). It
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examines the New Consumer in America: “shoppers who unite pragmatism and
purpose with an unmatched level of brand participation” (BBMG 5). The company
claims these consumers make up 30 percent of the U.S. population, 70 million
adults, who are “poised to help sustainable brands enter the mainstream” who see
“themselves as active participants who are helping shape brand’s practices” (BBMG
8). They are “constantly on the hunt for innovative brands that will resolve their
buyer’s remorse and deliver The Triple Value Proposition: uniting (1) practical
benefits like cost savings, durability and style; (2) social and environmental
benefits; and (3) tribal benefits that connect them to a community of like-‐minded,
like-‐hearted individuals” (BBMG 22).
These findings are echoed by studies done by Edelman Digital through the
Good Purpose Report, a global study, and the Cone Cause Evaluation Report,
conducted in America by Cone Communications. Across these studies, four trends
emerge from the data: people want to act for social change, they are looking to
brands and companies to help them act, whether a corporation does or does not
help them will affect their purchasing decisions, and it already is affecting their
decisions.
These studies show that people want to act to affect global change. When
asked, “which one of the following entities do you think should be doing the most to
support good causes?” the response “people like me” rose 5% from the year prior to
13%, third to government (42%, down 10 percentage points from the previous
year) and corporations (12%). Also notably higher than each of the following:
charities (9%), NGOs (8%), media (6%), religious institutions (4%), product or
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service brands (4%), and academia (2%) (Edelman). The Cone Cause Evolution
Study calls these consumers “cause shareholders” because “they have more than
just a stake in a company’s responsibility efforts – they have a vested interest in the
outcome… they look to the company and its management to take both a short-‐term
and long-‐term view on how to achieve the greatest bang for their buck, but along the
way, they still want to have a say” (Cone 19).
These studies also show that people are looking to brands and companies to
help them affect global change. The Edelman Good Purpose study found that 71% of
consumers “believe brands and consumers could do more to support good causes by
working together” and “63% want brands to make it easier for them to make a
positive difference” (Edelman). Also, “83% of Americans wish more of the products,
services and retailers they use would support causes”, “88% of Americans say it is
acceptable for companies to involve a cause or issue in their marketing”, “90%,
more than 278 million people in the U.S., want to know what a company is doing to
benefit a cause” (Cone 13). When prompted, Americans said they wanted companies
to give them the opportunity to: “81%-‐ buy a cause-‐related product”, “80%-‐ learn
about a social or environmental issue”, “78%-‐ change their behavior”, “75%-‐ offer
ideas/feedback on company efforts”, “75%-‐ donate to company-‐identifies
nonprofit”, “72%-‐ advocate for an issue”, and “72%-‐ volunteer” (Cone 13).
The studies also showed that people indicate a company’s involvement with
a social cause will affect consumer involvement with a brand. According to the
Edelman Good Purpose Report, “66% of consumers will buy, 66% of consumer will
recommend, 64% will share, and 62% of consumers say they would help a brand to
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promote their products or services if there is a good cause behind them”. People
also indicate they would interact negatively with a brand that is not supporting a
social cause: “37% of consumers would refuse to buy its (a company that does not
engage in social purpose) products or services”, “37% would criticize it to others”,
“38% of them would share negative opinions and experiences”, and “46% wouldn’t
invest in it” (Edelman). Further, purchase intent is affected: “80% are likely to
switch brands”, “92% want to buy a product that supports a cause”, “61% are
willing to try a NEW brand or one they’ve never heard of”, and “19% are willing to
buy a more expensive brand” when a company is involved (Cone 13).
The last trend that emerges from the data was that people are already
making consumption decisions based on an organizations involvement with a cause.
The Cone Cause Study found that “41% of consumers bought a cause
product/service in the past 12 months”.
In all, consumers show a desire to partner with corporations and
organizations to act for change through consumption decisions. Are corporations
and organizations responding?
The Blurring Lines of For-‐Profit and Non-‐Profit Industries
In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, Michael Porter and Mark
Kramer advocate that what is on the horizon for the for-‐profit sector is “not social
responsibility, philanthropy or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve
economic success ” (Porter and Kramer, Creating Shared Value 4). They say that
what is on the horizon will “offer corporations the opportunity to utilize their skills,
resources, and management capability to lead social progress in ways that even the
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best-‐intentioned governmental and social sector organizations can rarely match”
(Porter and Kramer, Creating Shared Value 17). This article discusses redefining
corporate value as what they term “shared value”:
“The concept of shared value can be defined as policies and operating practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates. Shared value creation focuses on identifying and expanding the connections between societal and economic progress. The concept rests on the premise that both economic and social progress must be addressed using value principles. Value creation is an idea that has long been recognized in business, where profit is revenues earned from customers minus the costs incurred. However, businesses have rarely approached societal issues from a value perspective but have treated them as peripheral matters. This has obscured the connections between economic and social concerns.” (Porter and Kramer, Creating Shared Value 6) The first point the authors bring to light is that this is the next iteration of a
history of corporate involvement in social wellbeing otherwise known as corporate
philanthropy. This practice originally enacted as a voluntary response, then as
mandated corporate involvement, and more recently as an investment by
corporations (Varadarajan and Menon 59), is now defined by Porter and Kramer as
shared value: “the next stage in our understanding of markets, competition, and
business management” (Porter and Kramer, Creating Shared Value 17). This next
stage brings us to the second point, that more than any marketing or public
relations strategy, corporate philanthropy department, or corporate social
responsibility effort, “creating shared value (CSV) should supersede corporate
social responsibility in guiding investments of companies in their communities”, it is
a “business imperative” (Porter and Kramer, Creating Shared Value 17). By defining
CSV as a lens to apply to every part of a corporation not just in one department,
Porter and Kramer are showing a shift to a business mutual aid approach where
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more than philanthropy, it is a strategic choice to be aware of the larger inequalities
that the business is affecting.
With this approach, value becomes the main focus which Porter and Kramer
claim brings industries together: “it does not matter what types of organizations
create the value, what matters is that benefits are delivered by those organizations-‐
or combinations of organizations-‐ that are best positioned to achieve the most
impact for the least cost” (Porter and Kramer, Creating Shared Value 7). This
ultimately results in the “cut(ting) across the traditional divide between the
responsibilities of business and those of government or civil society” as well as the
“blurring of the boundary between successful for-‐profits and nonprofits” (Porter
and Kramer, Creating Shared Value 7). This is supported by the “proliferation of new
legal structures… that are intended to allow entrepreneurs to meet financial, social,
and environmental bottom lines” (Fruchterman). Not only are the lines blurring but
also “as governments and NGOs begin to think more in value terms, their interest in
collaborating with business will inevitably grow” meaning that the potential for
“combinations” and partnerships will grow as “growing social awareness of
employees and citizens and the increased scarcity of natural resources, will drive
unprecedented opportunities to create shared value” (Porter and Kramer, Creating
Shared Value 17).
One example of how this move to shared value is playing out through the
proliferation of new legal structures is one particular new structure, the Benefit
Corporation. This type of corporate legal structure is “the corporate structure that
best meets the needs of the growing number of entrepreneurs and investors who
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seek to use business as a tool to solve social and environmental problems” (B Lab ).
This structure adds a requirement of purpose: “corporate purpose to create a
material positive impact on society and the environment”, accountability: “expand
fiduciary duty to require consideration of interests of workers, community and
environment”, and transparency: “publicly report annually on overall social and
environmental performance against a comprehensive, credible, independent, and
transparent third party standard” to the traditional corporation. Currently there are
521 B Corporations that bring in $2.9 billion in revenues across 60 industries (B Lab
).
The new evolution of corporate philanthropy that applies a social filter to all
actions of a company provides the individual many different ways to partner with
different kinds of organizations to have an impact on world inequality.
Conclusion
The United Nations points out that our current economic paradigm does not
aid in the closing of the many inequalities the world faces claiming that it was
devised prior to an understanding of finite global resource limits and the emerging
science of wellbeing and happiness (United Nations 2). Schumpeter asserted, the
essential piece of capitalism, the economic system we live in, is that it is a force for
change. Schumpeter also asserts that change comes from the individual: you and me.
Our everyday decisions about where we place our resources have broad
implications for the world’s inequalities.
Individual action for social causes has traditionally manifested in
philanthropic giving of time and resources however the field is ripe for new
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innovation particularly through mutual aid. This kind of action comes from the
understanding that action is a strategic choice. The use of economic decisions
through consumption, whether by creating new demand or affecting existing
demand, has been an increasingly popular way for individuals to take action for
change. Studies show that people want to make ethical decisions and are asking for
help in doing so. The lines of philanthropy and business are blurring to use the best
legal structure available to provide shared value to society at the consumer’s
request. As consumer sentiment shifts to a desire to make economic choices that
positively affect the world, what tools does the new consumer have to enact these
changes and partner with organizations and corporations?
3. Social Media as a Tool for Change
To determine a tool that individuals can use to affect change, we need a
framework to think about this change. The change that emanates from the forceful
individual in Schumpeter’s theories when applied to large-‐scale equilibriums is
termed “the process of creative destruction” (J. A. Schumpeter 81). This process
creates change “whereby new products and processes displace old ones” (Elliott
xxxviii) and is the framework we will use to analyze how social media is a
Schumperterian new product that is redefining the current equilibrium in many
industries. This will build a basis for postulating how social media will change the
current way individuals interact with philanthropy and their economic decisions to
affect world change.
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Framework for Analysis
In Schumpeter’s theory, economic development is synonymous with
economic change:
“development in our sense is a distinct phenomenon, entirely foreign to what may be observed in the circular flow or in the tendency towards equilibrium. It is spontaneous and discontinuous change in the channels of the flow, disturbance of equilibrium, which forever alters and displaces the equilibrium state previously existing” (J. A. Schumpeter 64)
This development comes from the competition created through new combinations
(J. A. Schumpeter 66). New combinations consist of:
“(i1 the introduction of a new good – that is one with which consumers are not yet familiar-‐ or of a new quality of a good. (2) The introduction of a new method of production, that is one not yet tested by experience in the branch of manufacture concerned, which need by no means be founded upon a discovery scientifically new, and can also exist in a new way of handling a commodity commercially. (3) The opening of a new market, that is a market into which the particular branch of manufacture of the country in question has not previously entered, whether or not this market has existed before. (4) The conquest of a new source of supply of raw materials or half-‐manufactured goods, again irrespective of whether this source already exists or whether it has first to be created. (5) The carrying out of a new organization of any industry, like the creation of a monopoly position” (J. A. Schumpeter 66)
Schumpeter claims that it is the “competition from the new commodity, the
new technology, the new source of supply, the new type of organization-‐
competition which commands a decisive cost or quality advantage and which strikes
not at the margins of the profits and the outputs of the existing firms but at their
very foundations and their very lives” (J. A. Schumpeter 84). It is that competition
which is possible through the widespread adoption of a new combination. It is that
competition that is brought about by the forceful individual through a new
combination and it is that competition which brings about economic development
and change.
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Social Media as a Schumpeterian New Product
In The Digital Economy: what is new and what is not? Bo Carlsson argues that
“the Internet, a new level and form of connectivity among multiple heterogeneous
ideas and actors, (is) giving rise to a vast range of new combinations” that “give rise
to new products and new industries” (Carlsson 262). He demonstrates how the
Internet and digitization of information have created new products in each field that
have altered the oil industry, the banking industry, the airline industry, the
automobile industry, the defense industry, and communications. He defines change
in each of the industries he researches as: “(1) change in delivery (electronic rather
than some other way) of existing products, (2) real-‐time connectivity, (3) collection,
use, and distribution of information, and (4) specialized knowledge in the form of
software to organize data and organization” (Carlsson 262). In all, Carlsson terms
the movement, the “New Digital Economy” (Carlsson 262) and adopts Tapscott’s
definition for this term:
“information in all its forms becomes digital-‐ reduced to bits stored in computers and racing at the speed of light across networks … The new world of possibilities thereby created is as significant as the invention of language itself, the old paradigm on which all the physically based interactions occurred” (Carlsson 253)
Although Carlsson only briefly discusses the disruption in personal
communications which these new combinations have brought about: “E-‐mail is
changing the ways in which people communicate with each other, replacing regular
mail, and to some extent also voice communication” (Carlsson 260), Bob Garfield
and Doug Levy of AdAge further discuss the “upheaval that is violently altering the
landscape” (Garfield and Levy 1) in marketing and communications. They claim that
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digital tools including social networking sites are “taking the power of the heavily
capitalized Few and distribut(ing) it to the Many” (Garfield and Levy 1). They call
this, “The Digital Revolution” (Garfield and Levy 1).
Social networking sites are defined as “web-‐based services that allow
individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-‐public profile within a bounded system,
(2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view
and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system”
(Boyd and Ellison). Simon Mainwaring claims that “the impact of social media is an
example of what Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter famously called ‘creative
destruction’-‐ the idea that some innovations advance the world while
simultaneously destroying the archaic industries they replace” (Mainwaring 20). He
sites the upheaval in the music, movie, media, and publishing industries as examples
of industries that have been affected by this destructive force (Mainwaring 21).
Social networking sites are a Schumpeterian new product, how will they be used to
affect change and particularly social good.
Social Change
Social networking sites have already, as TIME Magazine states “changed the
course of history” (Andersen). The author explains just how essential the new
product was for the periodical’s “Person of the Year”: The Protestor
“All over the world, the protestors of 2011 share the belief that their countries political systems and economies have grown dysfunctional and corrupt-‐ sham democracies rigged to favor the rich and powerful and prevent significant change… Two decades after final failure and abandonment of communism, they believe they’re experiencing the failure of hell-‐bent megascaled crony hypercapitalism and pine for some third way, a new social contract… This year instead of plugging in headphones, and quietly giving in to hopelessness, they used the Internet to find one
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another and take to the streets to insist on fairness and (in the Arab world) freedom… The Web and social media were key tactical tools in all three instances. But they seemed at the time to be one-‐offs, not prefaces to an epochal turn of history’s wheel… In short 2011 was unlike any year since 1968-‐ but more consequential because more protesters have more skin in the game. Their protests weren’t part of a countercultureal pageant, as in ’68, and rapidly morphed into full-‐fledged rebellions, bringing down regimes and immediately changing the course of history.” (Andersen 2) From Egypt to Russia to Greece to New York, social networking has become
the medium people turn to empower their voice and organize with people who feel
the same way to create movements. Your voice is a resource, you make the decision
to use it for one issue or another and that has the possibility to change history.
Social Good
In September of 2010, Zachary Sniderman published an article in online tech
blog Mashable with the title How Social Good Has Revolutionized Philanthropy in
which he offers a definition for this new term, social good: “equal parts online
fundraising and advocacy via social networks” (Sniderman). The article focuses on
the use of social networking for non-‐profits in “community building, pubic advocacy,
wide-‐reaching awareness, and low-‐cost social impact” although he does concede
“it’s impossible to suss out every nuance of the phrase”. One article quickly turned
into a category within the blog and then into a large-‐scale event: the annual Social
Good Summit.
The second Social Good Summit, sponsored by the UN Foundation, took place
in New York over the last week in September. It featured Archbishop Desmund
Tutu, Muhammad Yunus, Ted Turner, Lance Armstrong, Mandy Moore, and Beth
Comstock (CMO of GE), among many others as speakers. It received over 110,000
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livestream views in 8 different countries and the hashtag #socialgood was tweeted
over 30,000 times during the summit (Peters). We can conjecture that “social good”
is not only one of the newest buzz words but an idea that has captivated some of the
brightest entrepreneurial, governmental, technological, and philanthropic minds of
our time. Professionals in the fields of academics, economics, government, nonprofit
administration, corporate philanthropy and branding have released books
discussing the subject. Sniderman and the Social Good Summit bring together the
heavy hitters, the big players, but remember, we are looking at the individual to
change the current state of inequality here through their economic and
philanthropic decisions. The presence of the big players is significant because they
respond to the consumer demand and have the reach to make impactful decisions,
but it is a partnership and the individual can not wait for the big players to make the
decisions, coincidently, they are not. They are taking action. This can be seen in both
the Kony 2012 campaign and statistics about how people are taking individual
action through social media.
KONY 2012
On March 5th 2012. The nonprofit organization, Invisible Children, released
Kony 2012, a thirty minute video on Youtube that tells the story of Joseph Kony,
leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Central Africa who is responsible for using
child soldiers and rape as a war tactic to intimidate and terrorize people in the
region. It became the most “viral” video ever created reaching 100 million views in
just 6 days (Wasserman). Writer for The News Tribune, Brian O’Neill, summarizes
the video as “a plea for international help to right decades of injustice in Uganda and
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an attempt to use the massive power of the Web-‐connected world for a single-‐
minded project: To arrest the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony” (O'Neill). This timely
example shows how people are willing to learn about global issues and interact with
them through social media.
Individual Digital Action
The 2011 Social Change Impact Report from Walden University claims
“digital technology is a game-‐changer in the world of positive social change … laying
a foundation for individuals to empower themselves and create positive social
change” (Walden University 5). According to the study, four in five adults (84%)
agree that thanks to digital technology, “people are getting involved in positive
social change issues faster and more frequently than ever before” and that 65% of
adults do not believe that using social media to get involved in positive social change
is “just a fad” (Walden University 5). When surveyed, “47% of consumers said they
has expressed an opinion on a social change issue on a blog or web site”, “43%
joined or created a group on a social networking site that was dedicated to an issue”,
and “37% texted to make donations, vote, or organize and demonstrate” (Cone 12).
The Economist has identified both the power of sharing and desire for a better
world as a growing trend in 2012.
“The strength of social media is that it empowers individuals to amplify and broadcast their voices. The truer that voice, the louder it will sound and the farther it will reach… We’ll also see the emergence of something new-‐ a ‘corollary of caring’-‐ which asserts that as we increase the amount of social information online we will also increase our response to that information in both words and actions. Greater sharing around the world is inevitable. Deeper and richer caring will be profound.” (The Economist )
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From this information we know that digital technology and social media is
encouraging people to be involved in social change and that is manifesting in joining
social networking sites, donating digitally, voting, and organizing. What about
through economic decisions?
Simon Mainwaring believes that “If consumers put their desire for a better
world to work using these technologies, brands will increasingly follow suit, and we
could be well on our way to achieving the level of purposeful social engagement and
contributions that are urgently needed to mend our world” (Mainwaring 26). The
authors of Marketing 3.0 argue “the emergence of new wave technology enables
people to turn from being consumers into “prosumers” (Kotler, Hermawan and
Setiawan 7). Kevin Kelly of Wired credits the mass adoption of social networks with
the “shift in power to the consumer (is) one of the most fundamental and enduring
characteristics of the modern digital world” (Kelly).
Conclusion
Social media is a tool for change. We have demonstrated how it is a
Schumpeterian new combination and destructive force for change. Greater
connection and ability to share is allowing individual people to amplify their choices
through social media to make a collective effort and statement. Individuals are
ready to use that power towards a more equal and fair world. Social networks are
acting as a force for democracy and industries, governments, and world leaders are
now paying attention to #socialgood. More importantly, people are ready to use that
voice and decision power through a “corollary for caring” (The Economist ). How do
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we take advantage of the current trends and this destructive force at a key junction
in history to make them work for the individual and for the world?
4. Gamifying Social Good
The Internet is a platform for Schumpeterian new products because it allows
for real-‐time connectivity, change in the collection, use and distribution of
information (Carlsson 262). Social networking sites are a Schumpeterian new
product that allows people to construct public or semi-‐public profiles within a
system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view
their list of connections and those made by others (Boyd and Ellison). Utilizing the
Internet and social networking sites as this new Schumpeterian product to
revolutionize the way individuals partake in affecting world inequality could mean
increasing real-‐time connectivity between people who want to use their economic
decisions to do so. It could mean improving the collection and distribution of
information pertaining to what companies are doing for or against inequality. What
are current trends in social technology that could also be capitalized on?
Gamification
At the F8 Developers Conference, a conference sponsored by Facebook for
application developers who use the Facebook platform, a panel of app developers
was asked “What are the most important trends you are seeing?” The response:
“play and gaming” (Facebook ). This observation might come from the fact that
much of the “$7.3 billion interest in virtual products is coming from social gaming”
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(Greengard 19). It’s clear that people are willing to pay real money for all sorts of
virtual goods in games. A researcher at the Helsinki Institute for Information
Technology and visiting scholar at the University of Tokyo, Vili Lehdonvitra.
“believes it’s possible to use virtual goods and money within games to affect social
change” (Greengard 21).
This was exactly the premise for WeTopia, released from Sojo Studios in
November 2011. This game is “designed to get players to do good, see that good in
action and enjoy themselves while doing it… nearly everything the players do in the
game produces Joy” that when spread ”increases the actual funding those charities
receives through what WeTopia earns via a combination of advertising dollars and
direct profits from in-‐game purchases using Facebook credits” (Osborne). In two
months, the game had 470,000 monthly active users on Facebook and has fully
funded 2 projects for Help Heal Haiti (Haiti Hot Meals, and Haiti Medicines), 1 for
BuildOn (Haiti Moline School) and 1 for Save the Children (U.S. Summer
Enhancement) (Sojo Studios). This game has been effective at giving people a
compelling, new and innovative way to interact with philanthropy through
donations. Gamification uses elements of gaming but expands the scope of a game
into everyday actions.
Gamification is a relatively new term however has been academically defined
on four levels: “(1) interface design patterns such as badges, levels or leaderboards,
(2) game design patterns or game mechanics, (3) design principles or heuristics, and
(4) conceptual models of game design” (Deterding, Khaled and Nacke 3). With over
15 million users, Foursquare has been able to capitalize on this emerging trend
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particularly in an interface design that uses badges, levels, and leaderboards. People
have checked in more than 1 billion times and 500,000 businesses are using the
Merchant Platform. With the slogan “makes the real world easier to use,” the
company claims it “builds tools to help you keep up with friends, discover what’s
nearby, save money and unlock deals” (Foursquare). This is all incredibly
impressive especially because the points accumulated on Foursquare don’t
necessarily correspond to any real world value. There are deals from companies for
checking in places and the more check-‐ins you have you can become the mayor or
get a special badge. However, mostly, the user continues accumulating points
without any real goal and still there are over 1 billion check-‐ins!
This kind of gamification could be used to show people how their individual
actions are contributing to global change and also give them incentive to engage
further. Although not all games have goals, in 2000, the United Nations identified
eight goals it claims are the root cause of poverty. Why not take advantage of the
potential these goals offer for individual action through gamification on social sites
towards common goals?
Common Goals
Part of the power of the Kony 2012 movement was the use of a single-‐
minded project (O'Neill), it names one person, one goal. The United Nations is an
organization that has unprecedented support from governments around the world
and the private sector as well as knowledge in the area of closing gaps of inequality
through humanitarian aid. It has also named eight goals that are simultaneously
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successful at encompassing much of the UN’s knowledge and experience with world
issues and boiling it down to understandable goals.
United Nations
In 1945, World Leaders established the United Nations: an
intergovernmental organization “committed to maintaining international peace and
security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social
progress, better living standards and human rights” (UN at a Glance ). The United
Nations is unique as an intergovernmental organization due to its “nearly universal
membership of member states across the Global North, Global South, and Global
East” (Kegley and Blanton 142) and because of this universal membership is “well
positioned to formulate policies with global relevance and application” (Kegley and
Blanton 149). As former UN Secretary General Kofi-‐Annan said: “Only a global
organization is capable of meeting global challenges” (Kegley and Blanton 142). I
argue that, because the UN is the closest actor to a global peace keeping body with a
focus on human rights that is currently present in our world systems, it is best
situated to identify and define the greatest inequalities that currently exist. In 2000,
the UN did just that with the formation of the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
Millennium Development Goals
These eight goals are the “world’s commitment to ending the terrible
conditions in which so many people live” (Better World Campaign ). Developed to
“fight the root causes of poverty, hunger, disease, and inequality”, these goals were
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set to be achieved by 2015 and “marked the first time all member states agreed to a
common framework for improving the lives of the world’s poor” (Better World
Campaign ). The complicated issues that make up this complex problem have been
pulled together through these goals to unite people, organizations, governments and
countries around: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal
primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing
child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases,
ensuring environmental sustainability and creating and supporting a global
partnership for development. (The Milennium Developmnt Goals Report ) The full
list of goals and their individual targets can be found in Appendix D.
In the eleven years since these goals were taken on as a global challenge, “the
MDGs have helped lift millions of people out of poverty, save lives and ensure that
children attend school. They have reduced maternal deaths, expanded opportunities
for women, increased access to clean water and freed many people from deadly and
debilitating disease” (United Nations 3). There is an agreement that “the past two
decades have delivered unprecedented progress in quality of life across the
developing world… (and) The Millennium Development Goals have provided an
important motivational force and yardstick for this progress” (Overseas
Development Institute 9). Simply “the fact that many countries will achieve a
significant number of the goals and transform quality of life of hundred of millions
of people” (Overseas Development Institute 9) is testament to the potential for
change that these goals embody.
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Although there has been progress “at the same time… we still have a long
way to go in empowering women and girls, promoting sustainable development,
and protecting the most vulnerable from the devastating effects of multiple crises:
conflicts, natural disasters, or volatility in process for food and energy” (United
Nations 2) At the beginning of the MDG campaign, “the U.N. asked 22 of the world’s
wealthiest countries to donate .7 percent of their Gross National Income (GNI), an
amount calculated to be enough to fund the estimated $195 billion per year needed
to meet the goals. As of the end of 2010, only 5 of these 22 nations have met their
agreed-‐upon donation” (Mainwaring 15).
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals have been a success
however, there is still room for improvement. In taking on the largest inequalities
that face the global society, every effort to achieve these goals should be embraced.
Social media could bring individual voice and collective action as an innovative way
for people to engage with the Millennium Development Goals through their
decisions.
Individual Action Through Gamification of the Millennium Development Goals
Social media has the ability to connect, gather, and share that is needed to
allow individuals to connect all of their actions for larger goals as well as their
voices to affect change. Gamification has the potential to engage people through the
every day actions they already take. What are the possibilities when you combine
this knowledge toward goals for global change like the MDGs?
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My Development Dashboard
Overview
The Development Dashboard would be a socially enabled site where users
could create a profile through a number of different social networks. The more
networks linked to the site, the more actions could be pulled in across a users social
graph. Through the site, the user would be given a visual representation of what the
actions they choose to link to the site are doing for or against the Millennium
Development Goals (Appendix F Figure 1). For example, if a person purchased a
(RED) product, by talking about it on any of the sites they have linked to the
platform and using a certain hashtag like #goal6 or even #RED this action would be
pulled into their dashboard. When it is pulled in, the individual would receive points
from the site. If the purchase of this product then inspired her to read an article
about the AIDs epidemic, by also sharing the article and using the hashtag again, this
could also be pulled in and used as a basis for giving points, potentially different
kinds of points, for example education points or action points. Another example
would be riding a bike instead of driving: if she announced on one of her networks
that she was biking, potentially verified through a photo, she could receive more
points for altering a behavior, which would also be pulled in to goal number 7
(Appendix F Figure 2). The potential for organizations to partner with The
Development Dashboard is discussed in Appendix G. Every action from volunteering
to viewing Kony 2012 could be shared, pulled in, and gamified.
The dashboard would show the individual everything she has done for a
certain goal and, if she chose, to see everything her friends have done. She could set
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her own goals: how many points she wants to accumulate for each goal or together
with friends, or be incentivized through awards at certain point levels potentially
sponsored by brand partners or simply bragging rights of being the leader
(Appendix F Figure 3). She could also browse a database of actions that can be taken
for each goal and create a plan of how to achieve their point goals.
On a larger scale, the communities actions could be aggregated and measured
against some larger target for the goals collectively which is set by the site, or users.
This could be a number of points to reach in a certain amount of time: a month or
year. This becomes the communities’ goal to reach this level of points for change.
(Appendix F Figure 4)
Product Offering
Using social gamification as a tool or for the Millennium Development Goals means
being able to see every individual action taken put towards the large goals created
by the UN. It is a personal gauge but also a collective measure of how we are using
our decisions to affect change. By creating a compelling way for people to share
their individual action, the collective network also acts as a place for people to help
each other learn what can be done and to see collectively how the community is
working towards the end of inequality.
Conclusion
The United Nations has unprecedented knowledge and reach in human rights
and equality. With the unique insight and abilities the organization has, it created
the Millennium Development Goals to guide actions internally and externally to act
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against the largest inequalities facing the human race on a global scale. These goals
have been a success in aligning governments and organizations however have not
been fully extended to the individual yet through the tool that brings the power of
the many to the few, social media.
A consumer movement that utilizes a individual actions by bringing them
together through social media would provide a platform for people to aggregate all
of their actions against inequality. Gamification of that platform would allow people
to see the exact impact of their actions and applies game mechanisms to actions. All
of the data that is brought together acts as a statement for global change. Those
organizations and corporations that do want to partner will find an educated group
of people ready to interact with them through a game if they are willing to educate
and enable them to know about their particular ethical practices. If a social platform
like the Development Dashboard was to be developed, it would ideally work closely
with the United Nations, the organization that created the goals and has the global
scale to spread knowledge of the platform and global issues.
5. United Nations Support
The Millennium Development Goals have been part of the United Nations
agenda since their inception in 2000 and, as previously stated, have been and will be
a success even if all targets are not reached. That being said, their success as part of
a consumers’ social conversation as seen when comparing size of social
communities to social communities like (RED) has not reached its full potential.
Such a large initiative is missing the opportunity to engage and educate members.
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The United Nations has a global presence and, if it chooses to use that presence to
educate and spread awareness for the MDGs in ways that invite participation, there
is potential to increase the impact the MDGs have. If a consumer movement were to
arise, the United Nations would have the ability to provide the support and visibility
such a movement would need to grow rapidly. The following is a plan of goals the
United Nations could adopt in order to support individual effort for global change
through the Millennium Development Goals.
United Nations Support for The Development Dashboard
There are five broad goals suggested here for the United Nations to support a
platform like The Development Dashboard and engage with people of a community
who are interested in individual action for the Millennium Development Goals. First,
an internal partnership between four United Nations sub-‐programs would provide
different areas of expertise that are each relevant to individual involvement in the
goals. Second, in order to increase adoption of the goals, the United Nations would
benefit by examining the current MGD brand, evaluating the future of involvement
with a rebrand and brand property consolidation. Third, consumer awareness and
engagement would give The Dashboard global audiences who have taken a first step
towards involvement with the goals. Fourth, the United Nations as an organization
has unmatched knowledge about action for global human rights and towards the
end of inequality, curating the content in a way that is compelling for individuals to
interact with could increase global understanding and interaction. Last, this is a
long-‐term commitment, and as such requires long-‐term commitments towards
individual action with the Millennium Development Goals.
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Goal 1: United Nations Internal Partnership
An internal partnership within the United Nations would bring together
essential expertise and knowledge. The Millennium Development Goal Campaign,
The Global Compact, The United Nations Development Program, and The United
Nations Foundation would each hold different support roles for the Dashboard.
The United Nations Millennium Campaign: Marketing Support
The United Nations created the United Nations Millennium Campaign to “support
and inspire people from around the world to take action in support of the
Millennium Development Goals”. The campaign claims that, “It’s up to us to make
sure leaders follow through on these commitments”. They ask people to “join the UN
Millennium Campaign and be part of the generation that puts an end to poverty”
(About the Campaign ).
An effort like the Development Dashboard would compliment this sub-‐
organizations goal perfectly. Both the Dashboard and The Millennium Development
Goal Campaign aim to empower action in support of the goals. In the partnership,
The Millennium Development Goal Campaign would be in charge of working with
the Dashboard to reach people with the message of a new way to make their actions
work towards global change.
The Global Compact: Organizational Partnership Support
In 2000, the UN launched The UN Global Compact: “the largest corporate citizenship
initiative in the world” and, as of 2010, more than 8,000 companies from 140
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countries, as well as over 700 hundred civil society, international labor
organizations and academic institutions has signed on to “working to promote
responsible corporate citizenship, ensuring that business is a part of the solution to
the challenges of globalization” (The UN Global Compact 1).As the Compact
highlights:
“Partnerships have become an increasingly vital tool in helping to reduce poverty and advance human development as well as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While existing efforts have made great progress, there is a need to engage in dialogue to create more scalable, innovative and sustainable solutions to global problems. Finding these solutions will only be possible through a dynamic synergy of ideas, resources and competencies between the private and public sectors… For companies committed to making a different, the United Nations has the universal reach to help sustain these efforts on a global scale.” (The UN Global Compact 4)
The Compact provides support and guidance as well as a monitoring system that
holds members accountable for their commitment to sustainable social
responsibility.
The Global Compact is a base of organizations that are already working with
the UN towards human rights goals. The Dashboard would provide these
organizations with a way to partner with their consumer to further their efforts and
the goals. The UN has already been assisting in measuring the progress these
organizations have been making, something the Dashboard could use for
recommended companies for individuals to partner with through their consumption
choices.
The United Nations Development Programme: Data and Measurement Support
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The Millennial Goals are monitored, coordinated, and brought to life through
the United Nations Development Programme which
“partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone.. Because of its mandate and its strong, continuous and neutral presence in most developing countries, UNDP coordinates all United Nations (UN) development activities at the country level as manager of the UN Country Team.” (United Nations Convention to Combat Dessertification)
In order to show people how their actions are affecting world change, a
partner like the United Nations Development Programme would be essential. This
United Nations sub-‐organization would provide the data and measuring that would
be needed to report back to individuals on how their actions are actually impacting
global change through the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
The United Nations Foundation: Networking and Marketing Support
The United Nations Foundation aims to “connect people, ideas and resources
to help the United Nations solve global problems” (United Nations Foundation ).
They believe that
“It takes all nations and all sectors to make progress on the most important and far-‐reaching international challenges. We are an advocate for the UN and a platform for connecting people, ideas and resources to help the United Nations solve global problems. We build partnerships, grow constituencies, mobilize resources and advocate policy changes to support the UN’s work for individual and global progress.” (United Nations Foundation )
This organization also has sponsored The Mashable Social Good Summit for
the past two years, and is an advocate of social good. It also has many partnerships
and global connections that would be beneficial to both the Dashboard as far as
awareness and adoption towards individual action for the MDGs.
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With support from each of these United Nations sub-‐organizations, the
Development Dashboard would be able to truly bring global change to the individual
level through a social platform and gamification. The Dashboard would also be a
strategic investment for the UN because of the potential to introduce and involve a
wide audience with change to ultimately further the goals it presents.
Goal 2: Brand Revitalization
Strategy 1: Rebrand
With the goal of sustaining the MDG campaign moving forward, the United
Nations should examine its current brand to create a cohesive message for the
future. A consumer movement of individuals who are ready to work with the UN to
solve these issues need to be able to understand what the MDGs are in an intuitive,
compelling way. To do this, the United Nations could do a brand purpose audit to
assess and recreate a brand that is true to its core values and goals for the future.
Also, a consolidation of brand messaging and imaging as well as brand platforms
across channels would make it easier for people to understand what the goals are
truly about.
Tactic 1: Brand Purpose
Tom Bernardin and Mark Tutssel, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Leo
Burnett Worldwide recently published their marketing philosophy in a book called
Humankind: “Humankind is not about advertising or brand positioning or selling
products, but a story about people, purpose, and changing behavior. It’s a look at
marketing that serves true human needs and not the other way around” (Bernardin
and Tutssel Foreword). One tenant of Humankind branding is purpose:
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“Purpose shifts the conversation from what a product does to what it means… Purpose tells us what the brand believes and what it’s going to do about it… Purpose tells us how and where and why and when the brand fits into a persons life-‐ and the value it provides… To be real, to be authentic, you can’t apply a purpose to a brand. Nor can you choose a purpose because you like the way it sounds. The purpose lurks within. It already exists. It’s just waiting to be unearthed.” (Bernardin and Tutssel 107-‐110)
So how do we unearth it? We begin with what Leo Burnett calls a Purpose
Workshop to determine the Human Brand Purpose. This workshop is built to
involve key stakeholders in the current brand and the goal would be to conduct a
workshop with the internal stakeholders. Details of the purpose workshop can be
found in Appendix A.
At the end of a Purpose Workshop, the partners involved develop their
humankind brand purpose. From an unofficial brainstorm through the purpose
workshop, the following is a summary of what could potentially be the humankind
purpose.
Humankind Brand Purpose
The UN Development Goals are truly in the business of human potential.
These eight wildly ambitious goals put faith in human potential. By choosing to be
part of them and believe in them, countries, companies, leaders, and people
empower themselves to believe that they hold within them the ability to achieve the
goals which some would call impossible. The brand says that there are inequalities,
but within the human spirit lies the keys to bring a solution to them.
Brand Core Competencies
1) Belief in the power for good of the individual and collective humanity
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2) Provide people with the ability to act immediately and easily to be part of the
global human community
3) Measurable results for world change
Brand Promises
1) We promise to be true to the fundamental values of the United Nations: the
belief in freedom, equality, solidarity, respect for nature, tolerance, and
shared responsibility.
2) We promise to be as transparent as possible and do our utmost to provide
timely actionable information to those who chose to work with us.
A complete purpose workshop and list of brand competencies and promises should
be created after the purpose workshop.
Tactic 2: Redesign of Logo
A person should be able to look at the logo of a company or organization and
take something away about the company but also be intrigued to learn more. A logo
should also be visually appealing. It is the chance for the organization to quickly
communicate its mission to a person. The current logos are confusing from an
outside perspective (Appendix C). There is one logo for the brand overall, which
focuses on just one goal, ending poverty, with text and makes 2015 the central
image. This, however, is not the most important, enduring aspect of the brand and
should not be focused on if the campaign seeks to extend itself beyond 2015. There
are also tiles for each individual goal that do depict each goal in an image. However,
they are not extremely elaborate. I recommend creating a unifying logo that plays
off each of the goals that can then be separated out into their own logos to talk more
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directly about on. The logo could play off of different colors for each goal as has
already been done with the current logos. If this is the case, there should be a
unifying logo that also depicts this, bringing all the colors together.
Strategy 2: Consolidation
Vying for attention in the crowded industry of advertising means that it is
important to present a clear concise brand that people can understand quickly in
order to be intrigued to discover and engage further. It is imperative to create a
brand that is easy to understand
Tactic 1: Brand Property Survey
The United Nations should survey the current properties that support the
Millennium Development Goals and be certain that they are presenting a clear
concise message. Currently the Millennium Development Goals have two Facebook
pages that support the initiative. Although one is for the Campaign and one is for the
goals, this is confusing from a user standpoint. These pages should be consolidated
into one central home for every person who chooses to engage with the overarching
Millennium Development Goals. Separate pages or tabs could be created for each
individual goal or different aspects of the campaign however; one primary page
should be used.
Goal 3: Awareness and engagement
Strategy 1: Interactive Displays
Heightening awareness and engagement of the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals could be aided by bringing them into consumers every day lives
through prominent digital and physical locations. Interactive displays could be
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placed in these iconic locations with which people can start learning, engaging, and
taking action towards the end of global inequality with.
Tactic 1: Major City, College Main Square, and Mall Interactive Displays
Position large displays in major city squares all over the world that are compelling,
intuitive, educational, and social. One way to do this would be to have the tagline in
white lettering on a backdrop of black screen with a QR code and pre-‐launch site
address/ text number below. Being in such a conspicuous spot invites people to
engage with the screen display which is interactive and as soon as a person texts,
visits the site, or scans a QR code, color starts to grow on the screen slowly filling in
the new logo that ideally has the colors of all eight goals. People could be given the
option of signing into a site with their social platforms or sign up via email or text
which then sparks a continued engagement that begins to hint at the things they can
do and we can do as a humanity for the goals.
In partnership with the Dashboard, points could be awarded for engaging
with the signage and with educational materials after the first point of engagement.
This tactic would aim to create large-‐scale buzz about the goals and also lead to the
realization that even a small action, checking in somewhere, on a large-‐scale says I
am interested in this issue.
Strategy 2: Utilize partnerships to increase reach and awareness of message.
Tactic 1: Product Wrapping
To capitalize on all of the partners provided by The Global Compact, the
campaign could create customized product wrapping for each business with the
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same overall look and message to engage people at the moment they are making a
purchasing decision. Consumers have indicated that they would switch brands if
they knew one was affecting global issues positively over one that was not. Using the
Dashboard as a way to convey that message would be advantageous to the
organizational partners and the Dashboard.
Example 1:
Imagine a consumer walking around IKEA. One particular product could be
wrapped in black packaging with a QR code/ text number in white standing out on it
prompting them to take action. If the consumer did scan or text in, he would receive
points and be on his way to learning how that product and IKEA in general is
working towards the Millennium Development Goals.
Example 2:
Product wrapping would also apply to advertisements for an organization.
One example would be a TV spot: the content could explain what that organization
is doing in conjunction with the Millennium Development Goals giving people the
option to scan a QR code or use Shazaam to be linked to the Dashboard.
Strategy 3: Large Event Takeover
Large events like The Super Bowl, The Grammys, The Oscars, The World Cup, and
The Olymics bring large numbers of people together and command high amounts of
viewers and press. Each of the organizations that sponsor the events endorses
charity work and engages in some form of philanthropy. Partnering with the United
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Nations would align with their charitable goals and allow the United Nations to
leverage that platform of viewership to reach people with the MDG message.
Tactic 1: Media Involvement
The Global Compact already works with a host of organizations that have the
marketing scope to participate in Super Bowl advertising. To capitalize on these
partnerships, the United Nations could choose a group of partners who usually have
a commercial spot and TV network to put spot money towards goals and air
interactive commercial culminating at a pivotal point: half time, opening
ceremonies, etc. Everyone involved via social media would receive messaging and a
video of how to use the Dashboard. A second commercial aired after half time would
talk about goals and reiterate next steps.
Tactic 2: Player Engagement
Through Fantasy Sports teams or special arrangement people can put points
players earn during a game towards the Dashboard or a particular player can
champion a particular goal.
Goal 4: Commitment to education.
People are looking to brands and organizations to partner with them to make
decisions that positively impact the world. The United Nations is in a unique
position in having a wealth of knowledge about the largest issues facing society.
Partnering with a consumer movement to provide them with the educational tools
they need to make those decisions and advance the development goals would fulfill
both a consumer need and a need for the goals.
Strategy 1: Educational Materials
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Tactic 1: Media Partnership Calls to Action
Articles are written about the Millennial Development Goals every day. Each
of those articles could feature a button, similar to a tweet button, directing the user
to educational materials about the goals. These buttons could work in partnership
with the Dashboard across the social graph awarding points to readers who choose
to learn more about the issues. For print articles QR codes could be employed to
have the same effect.
Tactic 2: Class Challenge
In order to reach a youth market and educate that market, the United Nations
could partner with educational institutions throughout the world to bring
educational materials into classrooms. Each classroom could partner with a class in
a different area of the world to work together to make an impact in each of their
communities. Every year there could be a challenge for a student to submit projects
demonstrating what they are doing individually and with their classmates to work
towards ending the inequalities. Certain students could be selected and brought
together with other. MDG points could be awarded for different activities.
Tactic 3: Livestream Lectures
Leading universities have been experimenting with online courses that are
open to the public. In this fashion, The United Nations could bring together leading
experts and academics in each of the issues the development goals focus on to hold
livestreamed lectures and discussion. In addition, watchers could opt to enroll in a
course to have access to educational materials.
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Goal 5: Sustained Engagement
It is important to provide people ongoing interaction with the brand and
issues as the intricacies of world inequality evolve and as actions that people can
take to influence them also evolve. Providing innovative ways to get people involved
by presenting them in a new way could also increase the number of people who
would take interest in the goals and ultimately learn more about world issues
because of that interest.
Strategy 1: Sustained awareness through ongoing programming
Tactic 1: The UN Development Goal Show
According to Nielson as reported by The New York Times, “Television is
America’s No. 1 pastime, with an average of four hours and 39 minutes consumed by
every person every day” (Stelter). In total, “Americans spend more than 33 hours
per week watching video across the screens” (Nielsen 2). Across screens in this
context means: mobile devices, laptops and tablets, and traditional television.
Hearing the statement “Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger”
sounds great but what does that look like and what does it look like when people are
empowered to take action against it? Using the art of storytelling and showing
people what this means, how people are empowering themselves to stop it, and
what their actions and contributions could mean provide that motivation and fuel a
fire of involvement. Acting as education, entertainment, and a marketing tool, a
show broadcast online for mobile, tablet, laptop, and television consumption that is
interactive much like shows like the X Factor, Dancing with the Stars, So You Think
You Can Dance, American Idol and others that are atop the TV ratings (TV Guide )
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would have the potential to show people what these issues really look like, what
they can and are doing to change inequality, and would also recognize everyone who
is working together toward these goals, brands and partners included.
Strategy 2: Award Celebration
In recognition of reaching key milestones for the MDGs that the global community
could help set, the United Nations could assist in throwing an awards ceremony and
celebration. This could truly be an opportunity to showcase the amazing
achievements of the global community and provide a unifying platform for people to
recognize the achievements and shortcomings yet to work on toward the MDGs and
towards the end of inequality.
Conclusion
The United Nations would seize an opportunity to further the Millennium
Development Goals if it were to adopt an initiative that spoke directly to people who
are ready and willing to make change in the world but are searching for help in
determining what individual actions would be meaningful. By utilizing the impetus
for action that is being demonstrated by individuals and organizations, the United
Nations could play a key role in working with people to take action for positive
change. First by creating an internal partnership to support such an effort that
brings leading minds together in the fields of sustainable business, measurement of
global inequality, and innovation they could create a solid base of support. Secondly,
the UN could concisely represent the Millennium Development Goals to the public
through a rebranding process that helps people understand the true humankind
purpose behind the goals. Raising awareness and helping people engage with the
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goals by using large mainstream events and media would increase individual action
that could lead to large consensus and public voice for change. This movement
would be showcased through sustaining tactics like a show or awards ceremony.
6. Conclusion
How will you change the inequalities that you see and hear about? How will
you use your every day actions and decisions as a vote to bring an end to global
issues? The complications of a planet of over 7 billion people are many but the
opportunities to create a global society free of suffering that is caused by inequality
are perhaps even greater.
The United Nations has declared that we can no longer live as we do. Our
economic decisions within a system that is not built to recognize finite resources are
not only not helping stop inequality they are widening the gaps. That same
economic system however, according to Schumpeter, is a force for change and the
change agent is the forceful individual. Research shows that these individuals exist
and are poised to take action for change. People want the companies that surround
them every day and have become masterful at communicating with them to also
help them engage in a new form of philanthropy that is not just giving money.
People want to understand how they fit into this global puzzle. They support
innovative solutions that reflect their belief in mutual aid: I am strategically better
off when we are all better off.
Corporations and organizations are beginning a movement of their own in
part to respond to consumers but in part as an evolution of corporate philanthropy.
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Corporate shared value applies a social lens to every part of an organization, not just
one department, and refocuses importance on value. When value is the main
priority, the legal structure of the way you achieve your main goals in business
matter less as we are seeing through a proliferation of new legal structures for
achieving societal value. Organizations are determining the best way to meet their
needs to achieve value whether that be as a nonprofit, for-‐profit or something in
between.
Social media is a demonstrated Schumpeterian new product and therefore a
force for change. People are starting to use this tool to take action against inequality.
Social media connects and aggregates data but also allows for rapid sharing of
information. Applying this force to the intersection of philanthropy and economic
decision will bring about a new way for the individual to be involved in world
change. It already is starting to do this through social good.
The United Nations is a unique organization due to its expertise in
humanitarian issues and commitment to work together from the largest number of
governments any single organization has achieved. With this expertise, they have
identified the Millennium Development Goals that look at the root of global
inequality and define eight goals to reduce global inequalities. Since their inception
in 2000, they have been widely successful at uniting and directing governments, the
private sector, and other actors for change however they have not been successful at
uniting individuals. Social media offers an incredible opportunity for an
organization such as this to take advantage of the consumer sentiment and desire to
be part of change.
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Consumers must decide they want change and empower themselves to use
the decisions they make to enact that change. Through a product like the
Development Dashboard, social media has the potential to pull actions across a
users social graph and gamify them to create a compelling, educational, interactive
experience for people to use their actions for change. It also has the potential to
influence wide-‐scale change if enough consumers decide to participate. One voice
becomes many and the decision-‐makers start to listen. When consumers decide to
pull together, the United Nations should be there to support them with educational
and information material that can help them make informed actions. The United
Nations can do this through five goals: creating an internal partnership that can
execute the suggested tactics, ensuring people can understand what the brand is by
illuminating confusion with a rebrand., applying marketing knowledge to raise
awareness and engagement with the MDGs using its expertise to educate, and finally
the UN should use its global presence to help a consumer movement sustain a
presence and relevancy with world issues.
The tools for empowerment are at our finger tips. Social media is the new
product for the individual to use in redefining industries and in partnering with
world actors. It can be used to bring the global population together to unite behind
the most pressing issues of our time. It can be used to bring together and inform the
decisions we make every day so that they are used as a collective statement. The
choice is ours, individually and together.
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Appendices
Appendix A: The United Nations Millennium Development Goals Brand Assets
and Research
The United Nations is a prominent international organization built with a strong
mission and foundation:
“The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the
Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace
and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social
progress, better living standards and human rights.” (United Nations)
The fundamental values which are reiterated through United Nations documents
are:
“Freedom-‐ Men and women have the right to live their lives and raise their children
in dignity, free from hunger and from the fear of violence, oppression, or injustice.
Equality-‐ No individual and no nation must be denied the opportunity to benefit
from development.
Solidarity-‐ Global challenges must be managed in a way that distributes the costs
and burdens fairly in accordance with basic principles of equality and social justice.
Respect for Nature-‐ Prudence must be shown in the management of all living species
and natural resources in accordance with the precepts of sustainable development.
Only this way can the immeasurable riches provided to us by nature be preserved
and passed on to our descendants, The current unsustainable patterns of production
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and consumption must be changed in the interest of our future welfare and that our
descendants.
Tolerance-‐ Human beings must respect one another in all their diversity of belief,
culture, and language. Differences within and between societies should be neither
feared nor repressed, but cherished as a precious asset of humanity. A culture of
peace and dialogue among all civilizations should be actively promoted.
Shared Responsibility-‐ Responsibility for managing worldwide economic and social
development, as well as threats to international peace and security, must be shared
among the nations of the world and should be exercised multilaterally as the most
universal and most representative organization in the world, the United Nations
must play a central role.” (The General Assembly )
They have also been described as follows:
“The UN’s Millennium Development Goals are the world’s commitments to ending
the terrible conditions in which so many people live.” (Better World Campaign )
“The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a symbol of our common
humanity. They are a declaration of the world’s commitment to eradicating extreme
poverty and hunger, achieving gender equality, and extending hope and opportunity
to millions across the developing world. They eight goals, organized around
internationally agreed targets, have provided a framework to translate our highest
ideals into concrete action. They also have helped mobilize unprecedented political
support and resources for development.” (Better World Campaign )
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Purpose Workshop (Bernardin and Tutssel 112-‐113)
Who
Who has it reached in the past? Are some of those people no longer within reach?
Alexa, a service that gives limited demographic information for websites, shows us
the demographics for un.org however not specifically for
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/. It compares user data against the general
Internet population to determine how popular the particular site is with each of the
audiences below. According to this service the audience that has been engaging with
the goals through this digital avenue are:
Age:
More likely to be over the age of sixty five than the general Internet
population.
Education:
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More likely to be in graduate school than the general Internet population.
Gender:
More likely to be female than the general Internet population.
Have children:
More likely to not have children than the general Internet population.
(Alexa )
Who does it want to connect with in the future?
Millennials
“A person born between the years 1982 and 2005.. They are ‘sheltered, confident, team-‐
oriented, conventional, pressures, and achieving’… They have been prophesized as builders
of new institutions that actually work (who) do not worry about tearing down old
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institutions… They are considered to be multitasking exerts as well as addicted to social
networking services-‐ they post to their friends, they tweet to their tribes, and they pretend
in their profiles.” (Howe and Nadler )
The Cone Cause Evaluation Study singles out this consumer segment as one of the
two most sought-‐after by marketers because
“They have nearly $40 billion in discretionary income to spend… Ninety-‐four percent of
respondents ages 18-‐24 find it acceptable for a company to involve a cause of issue in its
marketing (versus 88% average). As the chart indicates, these Millennials are only slightly
more likely to switch brands, but they are much more willing to try new products because
of a cause affiliation. They are also particularly attuned to causes outside of their shopping
decisions as they seek opportunities to become more deeply engaged and advocate on
behalf of important issues. And more than any other cohort, cause plays a significant role in
where this age segment chooses to work. A company’s commitment to a cause helps drive
their decisions in and out of the store. Millennial’ passion for supporting causes presents
significant growth opportunities for companies as these young adult’s income and
purchasing power grows.” (Cone 12-‐13)
Moms
The other most sought-‐after consumer marketing segment named by the Cone
Cause Evolution Study:
“Moms control about 80 percent of the household shopping (and) really are the
epitome of the cause consumer. Perhaps because they control the purse strings
and have socially minded youth influencing their buying decisions behind the
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scenes, they are open to being marketed to when it comes to cause brands, and
they are virtually unanimous in shopping with cause in mind: 95% find cause
marketing acceptable (versus 88% average); 93$ are likely to switch brands
(versus 80% average); and 92% want to buy a product that supports a cause
(versus 81% average)” (Cone 12-‐13)
Does it want to continue talking to the same people?
The current people who are engaging digitally with the United Nations are not
necessarily the target consumer to be the early adopters of a new effort on part of
the Millennium Goals.
Why?
As demonstrated above, Millennials, Moms, and New Consumers already are more
engaged in causes than the average consumer and are perfectly situated to adopt a
new social technology.
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Appendix B: Facebook Data
(Facebook)
Appendix C: United Nation Development Goal Logo’s
Brand Logo:
(UN Millennium Development Goals )
Individual Goal Logo’s:
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(United Nations )
Appendix D: United Nations Millennium Development Goals and Targets
1) Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
a. Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people
whose income is less than one dollar a day
b. Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people
who suffer from hunger
i. Proportion of population below $1 per day
ii. Poverty gap ratio (incidence x depth of poverty)
iii. Share of poorest quintile in national consumption
iv. Prevalence of underweight children (under five years of age)
v. Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary
energy consumption
2) Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
a. Target 3: Ensure, by 2015, children everywhere boys and girls alike,
will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
i. Net enrollment ratio in primary education
ii. Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5
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iii. Literacy rate of 15-‐24-‐year-‐olds
3) Goal 3: Promote gender disparity and empower women
a. Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary
education, preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no later
than 2015
i. Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary
education
ii. Ratio of literate females to males of 15-‐to-‐24-‐year-‐olds
iii. Share of women in wage employment in the non-‐agricultural
sector
iv. Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
4) Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
a. Target 5: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-‐
five mortality rate
i. Under-‐five mortality rate
ii. Infant mortality rate
iii. Proportion of 1-‐year-‐old children immunized against measles
5) Goal 5: Improve maternal health
a. Target 6: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the
maternal mortality ratio
i. Maternal mortality ratio
ii. Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel
6) Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
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a. Target 7: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of
HIV/AIDS
b. Target 8: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of
malaria and other major diseases
i. HIV prevalence among 15-‐to-‐24-‐year-‐old pregnant women
ii. Contraceptive prevalence ratio
iii. Number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS
iv. Prevalence of death rates associated with malaria
v. Proportion of population in malaria risk areas using effective
malaria prevention and treatment measures
vi. Prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
vii. Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under
directly observed treatment short course
7) Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
a. Target 9: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into
country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of
environmental resources
b. Target 10: Halve by 2015 the proportion of people without
sustainable access to safe drinking water
c. Target 11: By 2020 to have achieved a significant improvement in the
lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers
i. Proportion of land area covered by forest
ii. Land protected to maintain biological diversity
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iii. GDP per unit of energy use (as proxy for energy efficiency)
iv. Carbon dioxide emissions (per capita) [Plus two figures of
global atmospheric pollution: ozone depletion and the
accumulation of global warming cases]
v. Proportion of population with sustainable access to an
improved water source
vi. Proportion of people with access to improved sanitation
vii. Proportion of people with access to secure tenure
8) Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
a. Target 12: Develop further an open rule-‐based, predictable, non-‐
discriminatory trading and financial system; Include commitment to
good governance, development, and poverty reduction-‐ both
nationally and internationally
b. Target 13: Address the special needs of the last developed countries;
Include tariff and quota free access for least developed countries’
exports; enhanced program of debt relief for HIPCs and cancellation of
official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA for countries
committed to poverty reduction
c. Target 14: Address the special needs of landlocked countries and
small island developing states (through the Program of Action for the
Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the
outcome of the twenty-‐second special session of the General
Assembly)
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d. Target 15: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of
developing countries through national and international and
international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long
term
e. Target 16: In cooperation with developing countries, develop and
implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth
f. Target 17: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide
access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
g. Target 18: In cooperation with the private sector, make available the
benefits of new technologies especially information and
communications
i. Net ODA as percentage of OECD/DAC donors’ gross national
product (targets of .7% in total and .15% for LCDs)
ii. Proportion of ODA to basic social services (basic education,
primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)
iii. Proportion of ODA that is united
iv. Proportion of ODA for environment in small island developing
States
v. Proportion of ODA for transport sector in landlocked countries
vi. Proportion of exports (by value and excluding arms) admitted
free of duties and quotas
vii. Average tariffs and quotas on agricultural products and textiles
and clothing
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viii. Domestic and export agricultural subsidies in OECD countries
ix. Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity
x. Proportion of official bilateral HIPC debt cancelled
xi. Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services
xii. Proportion of ODA provided as debt relief
xiii. Number of countries reaching HIPC decision and completion
points
xiv. Unemployment rate of 15-‐t-‐24-‐year-‐olds
xv. Proportion of population which access to affordable drugs on a
sustainable bases
xvi. Telephone lines per 1,000 people
xvii. Personal computers per 1000 people
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Appendix E: My Slavery Footprint
(Slavery Footprint)
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Appendix F: The Development Dashboard
Figure 1:
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Figure 2
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Figure 3
Figure 4
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Appendix G: Development Dashboard Partnerships IKEA, The Millennium Development Goals, and Me
IKEA is a global retailer of home furnishings established in 1943. Its mission
focuses on good product design and function at affordable prices. IKEA is highly
committed to Corporate Social Responsibility and is one of the industry pioneers in
establishing and monitoring codes of conduct and standards of operation in its
supply chain. With the knowledge that 200 million children are engaged in child
labor today, IKEA sought to find a way to live out their commitment and partner to
be part of the solution (United Nations Global Compact ).
In 2000, through The Global Compact, IKEA and UNICEF joined forces in
India to “help prevent and eliminate labour in ‘the carpet belt’ in the state of Uttar
Pradesh, the country’s largest, most populous state, where a high level of child
labour is known to exist. Both parties are convinced that child labour is best tackled
by addressing root causes, such as indebtedness in marginalized communities, adult
unemployment, poverty, disability and ill health, and children’s lack of access to
quality primary education”. Therefore, the IKEA initiative was undertaken to focus
on creating awareness and mobilizing these rural communities around strategies to
prevent child labour which “complimented the governments efforts to enroll all six
to twelve year olds in the project area into primary school”. By 2006, the IKEA
initiative had reached almost 22,000 women with messages about child rights
through 1,600 self-‐help groups that were established. Women from these groups
also had the opportunity to earn income from embroidering cushions sold in IKEA
stores. As a result of the larger child rights project more than 800,000 children
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previously out of school in the 500 villages in Uttar Pradesh can now attend primary
school (United Nations Global Compact 62).
What a wonderful partnership, in fact, it is not the only partnership which
IKEA has created in accordance with their social commitments: they also partner
with Save the Children, WWF, Better Cotton Initiative, Building and Wood Workers’
International, Business for Social Responsibility, Clean Cargo Working Group,
European Retailers Round Table, Forest Stewardship Council, Green Power Market
Development, International Labour Organization, Rainforest Alliance, Refrigerants
Natuarlly!, The Network for Transport and Environment, and UTZ Certified (IKEA).
IKEA is answering the growing need of the New Consumer, however unless I
the consumer is extremely interested in social responsibility, it would be hard to
know that the corporation is doing these things. An individual partners with them
through purchasing products at IKEA without knowing that they are doing so.
Each one of the organizations IKEA partners with can be aligned with a goal:
(IKEA)
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One strength of the UN Development Goals is their all-‐encompassing nature,
it is not hard to make the connection between any organization that a company is or
is not already working with and matching that up with a Goal. The next step, is the
communication and involvement of people with the company, the goal, and the
organization.
Organizations could offer additional points in alignment with the
organizations and projects they support. The social site would alert people what
organizations are offering points. Potentially a person is sent geo-‐targeted alerts
when near an organization like IKEA and the platform knows that organization has
points the user needs to accomplish a preset goal.
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Appendix H: Thesis Structure
Cu
rre
nt
Sta
te o
f In
div
idu
al A
ctio
n
for G
lob
al C
ha
ng
e
Soc
ial M
ed
ia a
s a
To
ol f
or C
ha
ng
e
Ga
mify
ing
So
cia
l Go
od
Ac
tion
for t
he
Un
ited
Na
tion
s
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