Member of the European Parliament for Bulgaria
2007 - 2009
(first direct EP elections in Bulgaria);
LEED to OECD partner (Nanotech)
Oxford diversity jumps *
A record 70% of Oxford University’s undergraduates next year will come from state schools. Five years ago state school applicants to Oxford received just 56% of undergraduate offers and 43% went to those educated at independent schools, despite a substantial imbalance in the numbers applying. The university found itself regularly criticised for ignoring well-qualified, state-educated students, especially from black or disadvantaged backgrounds. Target Oxbridge – a diversity recruitment programme which has the author Zadie Smith as a patron – says it has helped a record number of British students of black heritage gain places at Oxford and Cambridge. Naomi Kellman, one of its founders, said: “We started with just six students in 2012, and so it is amazing to see the programme now supporting over 70 black British students to secure Oxbridge offers.”
*The Guardian
How to be Human: The Manual by Ruby Wax*
Probably as many science-fiction books will tell you, it was all part of the ‘bigger plan’ that we evolved to this moment in time to build computers that can take over from the old worn-out models called ‘us’. What’s coming in the future is coming. You can’t stop evolution, and the technological add-ons that are here, or almost here, are becoming extensions of us. Continue reading
Facing the Unknown: Does ICT exclude or include?*
As we probably all know by now, the digital transformation is not a trend but a deep change in our societies, economic models and ways to communicate and consume; a rising world of robotics to replace human muscles and artificial intelligence (AI) to replace human brains. Everyone is facing this revolution, all sectors, all people, all countries. Everyone is feeling the consequences: jobs will evolve or disappear, knowledge is available to all for the best and the worst and relationships and social hierarchy are being shaken up. Continue reading
The future of work is now*
Through the “I am the Future of Work campaign”, the OECD is seeking to contribute to a positive future of work. We are gathering people’s perspectives and ideas about work and fostering solutions-oriented conversations across sectors and countries. Together, we can build a better world of work for all.
| Have your say http://newsletter.oecd.org/q/143OPr5b44moDuhMZ7iDm/wv |
*OECD newsletter
Going Digital Toolkit*
The Going Digital Toolkit helps countries assess their state of digital development and formulate policy strategies and approaches in response. Data exploration and visualisation are key features of the Toolkit.
*OECD
People power: Collective intelligence in the new era of international co-operation*
We live in stark times: times when the values of openness, collaboration and global integration are being questioned; times when the notion of citizenship and engagement are being reframed; times when information sharing, meaning and truth take on a new dimension, in a digital, direct and fast paced 21st century. As an Organisation emerging from the rubble of the Second World War, we know only too well that peace cannot be taken for granted. On a daily basis, we live and breathe how dialogue and co-operation can help strengthen a peaceful world and improve people’s lives.
Today, we are communicating in an environment where public opinion is divided based on very different experiences of life. If we want to get through to people, we need to speak a language that resonates with their experiences…
The 10th anniversary of the global financial crisis provides us all with the opportunity to pause and reflect on the distance between classical economic thinking, and the models it was based on, and the reality of people’s everyday lives — lives that are still feeling the effects of the Global Financial Crisis a decade later.
Please follow the article here: https://www.oecd-forum.org/users/40211-anthony-gooch/posts/40876-people-power-collective-intelligence-in-the-new-era-of-international-co-operation.
The changing landscape requires us to broaden the spectrum of our engagement, acknowledging, once and for all, that, in a multifaceted and multistakeholder world, policy making is no longer the sole remit of governments. A plethora of influential voices are rising to the fore, whether organised civil society or spontaneous citizen movements, joining forces to spark creativity, inject disruption and instill sustained change. Such voices are not only helping in designing and implementing global solutions: they play a key role in adapting them locally so they have real impact on people’s lives.
*OECD, Anthony Gooch
Going up?*
“All human beings are born equal. But on the following day, they no longer are,” said French author Jean Renard in 1907. This is because sticky floors and ceilings–or rags to rags and riches to riches–define the bottom and top income distributions. Today, it takes four to five generations, on average, for children from the poorest 10% of the population to reach median income levels. Meanwhile, about 50% of children of wealthy parents will themselves remain rich in countries like Germany and the US.
Worse, every four years, a fifth of the middle class’ poorest fall down to the bottom of the income distribution while its upper half enjoys much greater security, as shown in A Broken Social Elevator? How to Promote Social Mobility.
What’s more, in countries like Brazil and South Africa where income inequality is high, there is a state of “permanent inequality”, with an underlying feeling that social mobility is but a broken promise. Indeed, low upward mobility increases people’s sense that their voices do not matter and that the system is neither fair nor meritocratic.
Still, mobility is not all about money. It can range from jobs to education and health, and it changes when viewed through each of these lenses. These distortions create unique situations within each country: in places like Japan and Korea, educational mobility is higher than income mobility, but it’s the other way around in Norway and Spain. In the US, job mobility is higher than earnings mobility, while in Finland it’s the reverse, with lower educational mobility on top.
Yet there is nothing inevitable about socio-economic status being passed down between generations. Equal access to quality education is one way to enhance social mobility: countries that spend more on public education tend to achieve higher educational mobility. The same goes for health. Moreover, progressive taxation on wealth, inheritance and combatting tax avoidance leads to less sticky ceilings, while money transfers or benefits to low-income families and improving the school-to-work transition unsticks the floors. And as the report shows, policies that address the likes of residential segregation and sudden unemployment, or aim to improve the work-home balance can enhance social mobility across the board.
*The OECD Observer
53 developing nations promised to increase spending
Positive news: “The emerging story from a major education summit in Senegal is about developing countries investing even more in education. Donors such as the UK, US, France and Canada pledged $2.3 billion to help the Global Partnership for Education’s work over the next three years. On the same stage in Dakar, 53 developing nations promised to increase spending on their own school systems by a total of $110 billion. And Senegal became the first African country to become a donor to other developing nations.” (theirworld.org, February’18)
