Richard Attias: ‘We don’t need to rely exclusively on Western countries to level up the less developed ones’
Channeling regional support from better-developed countries in developing regions could be the best way to address global challenges, says Richard Attias.
It’s no secret the world is in a precarious position—arguably more so than in nearly a century. There are currently more than 100 active armed conflicts worldwide, and Western governments are battling slow growth and high inflation, causing them to turn inward.
The global South, including more developed economies like those of Argentina and South Africa, is battling its own economic and political troubles, reducing these countries’ ability to support less developed neighbors. This year, over half the world’s population is electing new governments, adding to a general sense of flux and change.
It is thus unsurprising and understandable that many Western countries are preoccupied with domestic issues and challenges. After all, governments and their leaders can only handle a certain number of priorities at any given time.
This harsh global context will eventually improve. In the meantime, we must adapt to the new reality, no matter how temporary we think it will be. This means finding new ways to meet our collective global obligations towards the global South. To do this, we must be unafraid to think outside the box and come up with solutions, including leveraging public-private partnerships to focus on AI, education, and healthcare.
Large parts of Africa, Asia, and South and Latin America continue to lag in terms of socio-economic development. Education and health, two areas I am passionate about, are particular concerns. Although education levels and access to healthcare in low-income countries have increased since the 1960s, we cannot take this progress for granted. Risks are on the horizon. For example, if not managed correctly, the advent of AI could undo this positive work by restricting access to information to the richest in society, and, as COVID-19 revealed, the lack of vaccine access in the global south is worsening inequality.
Given the current global context and the limits of government support, we must harness global private capital to address these challenges, including via public-private partnerships.
This approach has many advantages. Private capital tends to be nimbler, with sponsors able to move faster without worrying about bureaucracy and politics. It also provides a unique chance to empower individuals and populations by reducing dependency. Rather than feeling like victims, recipients of investment focus on the potential for future growth.
I speak to global business leaders regularly, and many tell me how desperate they are to invest in the global South, attracted by its young, growing, intelligent, and entrepreneurial populations.
To unlock investment, we need to create the enabling conditions. This means getting the right people in the room and creating forums where we can bring both political and business leaders together rather than one or the other, as is so often the case.
We also need an international investment strategy for the global South, ratified by developed nations and global businesses. This could be overseen by The World Bank or IMF, but it must clearly identify the areas of focus where we would see the greatest return on investment.
With these conditions in place, we need to encourage developing countries to invest more in healthcare, including through private capital. A healthy population is the prequel to economic development. In 2020, we estimated that an additional 5% of gross domestic product invested in the healthcare systems of developing countries could lead to almost a decade of additional healthy life expectancy on average. We also expect that integrating AI and robotics into healthcare systems could increase the efficiency of this investment by 20%.
When it comes to education, all the evidence shows that the route to improving outcomes is to increase teaching standards. This means making the profession more attractive through better pay and conditions that reflect the critical work of teachers. There is no reason why the private sector can’t play a role here, too, by partnering with high-performing schools and colleges and providing funding, as well as a path to employment via apprenticeships. It’s also crucial to prioritize STEM subjects and continue to close gender disparities in terms of access to education.
Perhaps most importantly, we must apply AI for good. A crucial part of the investment strategy mentioned above would be to create a global AI knowledge hub funded through public-private capital, ensuring access to crucial information that will support the development of AI solutions across the global South. Additionally, we cannot let unintentional Western biases restrict access to AI in the developing world. This includes ensuring models recognize a wide range of languages and are tested on a wide range of people.
Alongside these steps, we must continue to channel regional support from better-developed countries in developing regions. In South America, Brazil, as a relative success story within its region and host of the next G20 and COP, will play an essential role in supporting this agenda. I recently hosted a major summit in Rio, which was bursting with talent and ideas, and it gave me great confidence that we don’t need to rely exclusively on Western countries to level up the less developed ones.
Addressing poverty and leveling up the global South is one of the great challenges of our time. In light of shifting global priorities, we must be bolder and more innovative in our approach. I am under no illusions about the scale of this task and wouldn’t for a second claim that private capital and the solutions outlined above are a panacea, but hopefully, they can at least start a conversation.
More must-read commentary published by Fortune:
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
