Civil society to partner with World Economic Forum to launch platform for social sector transformation

The three-year initiative, Preparing Civil Society for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, will seek to identify clear roles, responsibilities, strategies and skills to enable the social sector to transform itself as it aligns and responds to new societal and technological challenges.

The move is aimed at accelerating change and will support the transition of a sector that employs more than 350 million people worldwide and spends $2.2 trillion each year. Like all other areas of society and the economy, it has however come under increasing strain from the disruptions caused by rapid technological change.

“The world needs a vibrant, engaged and well-resourced civil society to grasp the opportunities and manage the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Civil society organizations have the power and passion to help us shape a human-centred future, and it is essential that all sectors work to support them in doing so,” said Nicholas Davis, Head of Society and Innovation at the World Economic Forum.

The initiative is receiving support from Pact and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation who have committed resources to the development of this platform.

The primary goal of the initiative will be to build a coalition of non-profit associations, donors, and public and private-sector partners committed to the sector’s reform. Using the initiative as a platform, this coalition will contribute to seven working groups, each of which will be set up in 2019. They will be tasked with launching pilot phases and working with stakeholders to implement scalable solutions in the latter stages of the initiative’s lifetime.

The seven working groups are:

· Minimizing Trade-offs in Technology for Good

· Responsible Digital Transformation for Social Impact

· Group Data and Human Rights

· Future of Trustworthy Advocacy and Ethical Technology

· Practical Digital Security Support for Civil Society

· The Future of Non-profit Work, Talent and Skills

· Future Civil Society: New Organizations, Models and Dynamics in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Accompanying the launch of the initiative, the Forum today also publishes a white paper, Civil Society in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Preparation and Response. Informed by the findings of various social sector experts and practitioners and published in collaboration with Pact, the paper maps out the civil society innovation landscape, highlights how civil society organizations are responding to it, and critically assesses how the sector uses digital and emerging technologies.

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