8 ways to make the future brighter: from battling misinformation to honoring grandmas

Kudos to the United Nations for convening a “Summit of the Future.”

At this fall’s General Assembly, the summit brought together great minds to discuss issues that bedevil the world.

The summit boldly pledged to consider: “peace and security, sustainable development, climate change, digital cooperation, human rights, gender, youth and future generations, and the transformation of global governance.” And issued a lengthy pact that included … well, pretty much everything that’s in need of repair on our planet.

But … did they overlook anything or perhaps not give enough priority to certain subjects?

We asked global thinkers, movers and shakers to take a look at the U.N. agenda and nominate an overlooked or underemphasized issue. Here are their suggestions.

And readers, we’d like to hear from you. Is there an overlooked global issue you think should be a must-discuss in any future Summit for the Future? Send your ideas to goatsandsoda@npr.org with the word “Future” in the subject line for a follow-up story.

Solve the 'it’s their problem' attitude

During COVID, there was a positive momentum around this topic but it soon dwindled. And yet before we even have enough time to breath, we have another global health threat in the form of mpox, and the cracks are even wider. Again, the “it’s their problem” attitude is back.

Dr. Isaac Chikwanha, an infectious disease and public/global health practitioner from Zimbabwe, now living in Japan, who says he is “passionate about equitable health services for everyone.”

Devote more attention to mental health

I reviewed the Adopted Document from Summit of the Future and am surprised to find that while numerous global challenges are addressed, from sustainable development, peace and security, to governance, the Summit does not focus enough on mental health issues — even though mental health impacts one in four people globally and is crucial for achieving sustainable development goals. It is promising to read that global leaders are committing to "universal health coverage" but the Summit does not seem to highlight the unique role of mental health. This omission is significant given the global prevalence of mental health disorders, their punishing economic impact (including reduced productivity and increased health-care costs), the stigma and lack of awareness surrounding them (leading to underreporting and inadequate treatment), limited resources for treatment (especially in low and middle-income countries), and interconnectedness with other global health/development issues (poverty, education, and physical health).

Dr. Junaid Nabi, public health researcher specializing in health-care reform and innovation and a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute and a Millennium Fellow at the Atlantic Council

To understand disease spillover, look closely at rural communities

As part of my research on Marburg virus spillover, I have traveled to quite a few rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa and spent time speaking to communities that have very close interactions with wild animals. Examples include hunting animals for food and using animal poop, including bat guano, for fertilizer. They have lived this way for a long time; but their needs, in my view, are poorly understood or addressed. There has been a lot of attention on the human-animal interface due to the recent outbreaks of COVID, Ebola, Marburg and mpox. But we need to avoid seeing these communities as vectors of disease to broader society. Instead, we need to understand the challenges they face at the local level. That way, better measures to prevent infection can take account of the reasons that these communities are closely interacting with animals in the first place.

Dr. Abraar Karan, infectious disease fellow at Stanford University.

Don’t forget ‘hidden hunger’

There is as you’d expect an emphasis on malnutrition in the Summit documents. But I’d like to see more attention given to “hidden hunger” — a phrase used to describe the lack of micro-nutrients in the diet. An effort to address this issue is one reason that the grain millet has been highlighted in recent years. An NIH report praises this grain as rich in “vitamins, minerals and bioactive compounds that aid in the recovery and well-being of human health.”

Esther Ngumbi, professor, the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

Take a hard look at the scourge of misinformation

Our global information environment is being poisoned. We are facing a range of different threats to information integrity that include bias, hate speech, misleading information, infrastructure interference, deep fakes and poor design choices that are undermining all the best efforts to tackle the world's many problems.

From genocides driven by social media manipulation to biases in hiring algorithms, the cost is billions of dollars, millions of lives and an erosion of trust in science, our institutions and each other.

We have come to think of misinformation as the existential threat that prevents action on solving all the other threats, crises, and complex humanitarian disasters we face.

Phil Howard, co-founder and president of the International Panel on the Information Environment

Worry more about plastics

The topic of plastic pollution and waste management is frequently debated, yet little is known about the long-term impacts of microplastics on ecosystems and human health. 

Dr. Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri, neuro-psychiatrist and psychotherapist

Pay more heed to neglected tropical diseases

Neglected tropical diseases {NTDs) are a group of approximately 20 diseases that do not receive the funding of more well-known illnesses such as malaria and dengue. Yet these neglected health threats affect 1.7 billion people, 600 million in Africa alone. These are diseases like hookworm, leshmaniasis and Hansen's disease (what leprosy is now called). They result in sickness, disability and death. But according to the World Health Organization, of the world’s 178 countries where there is at least one neglected disease, fewer than 1 in 10 gather data on the scale of the problem so they can establish guidelines, protocols and policies to address NTDs and their cost to society.

Francisca Mutapi, professor of global health infection and immunity at the University of Edinburgh and Deputy Director of the TIBA (Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa).

Give it up for grandmas

As indigenous people from Amazonia say: The future is ancestral.

I believe that grandmothers contribute to the well-being of families and the future would be brighter if we support grandmothers by:

1.⁠ ⁠Bringing them to the center of decision making.

2.⁠ Researching and sharing their key knowledge (maybe in a Netflix documentary?)

3.⁠ Creating (or supporting existing) forums of grandmothers on both a regional and global level so they can share their knowledge and organize action agendas.

4.⁠ Bring the stories and mentorship of grandmothers into school systems.

Edgard Gouveia Jr., Brazilian game inventor and co-founder of Livelab

Ari Daniel and Gabrielle Emanuel contributed to this report.