Context of Challenges and Opportunities for Capability Building

World over, the inherent human desire to perform better and the fast changing technological and economic advancements drive individuals to see farther and accomplish more, in every aspect of human life. The world also gets frequently unsettled by environmental, social, economic and political conflicts requiring disruptive solutions, sometimes even at the cost of challenging the entrenched ways of the society. Despite the enormous potential of the technology and economic resources, what yields impact creating results is the extraordinary human Capability to apply a range of Skills and create situation appropriate Institutions, Systems, Processes,Technology, and other Physical and Financial Resources sustainably.

In any of the Individual, Organisational, Social, Political and Cultural contexts, it is the collective endeavour of the people at the Leadership, Managerial and Operational levels that leads to Real World Results which are sustainble, inclusive and enduring. Though the efforts of the people at all these three levels are of importance in some equal mesaures, each category of the personnel has a significant Role, Responsibility and Accountability to be taken care of.

“The Great Reset” thought process, as envisaged by the World Economic Forum visualizes epochal trends in the global social and economic development trajectories marked by “stakeholder economy” based on environmental, social and governance goals. The innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterised by fusion of technologies in the physical, digital and biological spheres such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nano technology, material science, energy storage and quantum computing are predicted to result more in larger public good with wider applications in the fields of agriculture, clean energy, transportation , habitats management, nature conservation, and resulting in achieving United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Despite the technological and economic progress made through the three Industrial Revolution contributions, the modern world is strewn with any number of wide ranging problems from climate change and environmental degradation to population explosion; resource scarcity; widening rich-poor gaps; race, caste, religion, region, gender and LGBTQ based economic and social inequalities, biases and exploitation ; poor health, education, water, sanitation and civic amenities; human rights violations; suppression of democratic rights, misuse of science and technology, slowing down of economic growth, productivity and quality trends.

Covid -19 pandemic, while affecting manufacturing, trade, commerce and labour markets, taking down the world GDP and as well that of emerging markets, developing economies and the low-income countries drastically, has also exposed serious limitations in the public service delivery and governance systems. Rising inequalities, and failure of health delivery systems in fast growing and as well middle-income countries have caused serious concerns. As a specific case in point, the delivery gaps in handling pandemic related health services and economic relief measures have emphatically called for closer collaborative work from both policy making agencies (legislative and administration) and specialist service providers, who are experienced subject matter experts with practical field experiences.

Owing to the promising opportunities in technological advancements, and rising awareness and sensitivity towards the need for accelerating the environmental and socio-economic development standards, investment in developing human, systems and technological capabilities will greatly help in remedying historical inequalities and pioneer an inclusive future.