Anticipating the needs of 8 billion people and beyond There is perhaps no greater and more enduring problem facing our world today than our ability to satisfy basic human needs for the world’s population. Preparing for our civilization’s future is more challenging than ever given accelerating demands on the planet’s resources. Consider that between now and 2030 we expect that worldwide population will increase from 7 billion to over 8 billion people, life expectancies will continue to rise, over 500 million people will move into cities and over 1.5 billion people will join the middle class. WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO SUSTAIN A GLOBAL POPULATION OF 8 BILLION PEOPLE? How much energy will be needed in India? How much new housing will be needed in Brazil? How much food will China need to feed its population? immediate aid programs and longer-term sustainable development solutions, our ability to close critical gaps rests in part on our collective ability to put high-quality metrics into the hands of the decision-makers, business. However, today’s knowledge of future human needs is: HIGHLY FRAGMENTED HIGHLY VARIABLE CHALLENGING TO ACCESS AND NAVIGATE / much of the world’s understanding of future human needs isn’t readily accessible to both public- and private-sector leaders. Alternative future scenarios for any human need category usually remain in discrete silos, unavailable for purposes of comparison. We are creating an open, global, digital information community where people come together to share, compare and discuss structured and unstructured data and perspectives on future demand for basic human needs. A DIGITAL DEMAND COMMONS FOR BASIC HUMAN NEEDS There is no silver bullet that will close the intelligence gap, nor one group of datasets that can provide all the answers. Instead, we are creating an open data project focused on forecasts of human need that will aggregate intelligence from many sources and create a digital community, a commons, for those developing and working with human needs forecasts. Project 8 will bring these forecasts together into one online community — a “Digital Demand Commons” — that allows experts all over the world both to contribute and to access this essential knowledge and to discuss and drive collaboration around it. By cataloging existing human needs forecasts and methodologies from many sectors in one place for the first time, we will begin to create a body of knowledge that helps the world prepare to meet the needs of 8 billion people in 2030 while supporting the community of researchers advancing the science of human needs forecasting. As the world rallies around a shared, Post-2015 Global Development Agenda, the Project 8 Digital Demand Commons will support the planning and implementation of strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. As part of the broader “Data Revolution,” Project 8 will bring new sources of information, new cloud-based analytical capabilities and new levels of research collaboration to the development community. PROGRESS In Spring 2014, Project 8 organized a series of consultations for experts to guide the vision and framework for Project 8. Through this process, Project 8’s overall goals were guided by the careful input of UN agencies, the NGO community, leading academics and the private sector. In Summer 2014, Project 8 collaborated with the Salesforce Foundation and Accenture to develop a successful Proof of Concept of the Project 8 cloud-based analytics collaboration platform using data from the United Nations Population Division and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In Fall 2014, Project 8 organized a workshop for stakeholders inside and outside of the United Nations to co-create a user-centered design concept for the Project 8 Digital Demand Commons. The result was a dashboard-focused platform design meant to foster contribution, collaboration and celebration. NEXT STEPS In 2015, we are building a prototype of the Project 8 Digital Demand Commons Focused first on food and agriculture as a fundamental human need and a key Sustainable Development Goal • An invite-only group of beta users from across the global food security, agriculture and development rm and provide feedback on the user experience • Monitoring activity and outcomes, we will evaluate whether users are creating value for one another and their organizations • Growing as a lean social startup, we will remain agile, curious and iterative as we tackle a complex but exciting opportunity atform up to additional users and incorporate additional categories of human need. THE POWER OF COLLABORATION Foundation and The Demand Institute (jointly operated by The Conference Board and Nielsen). KATHY CALVIN, CEO of The United Nations Foundation MARK LEITER, JON SPECTOR, CEO of The Conference Board DAVID CALHOUN, Executive Chairman of Nielsen Project 8 is powered by Salesforce, a leader in cloud analytics, with the generous implementation services of Accenture. Project 8 is led by Nic Covey, Executive Director of United Nations relationship at Nielsen, on loan to Project 8. Functional leadership and support comes from a talented team of professionals across collaborating organizations. JOIN PROJECT 8 A cornerstone of the Post-2015 development agenda and the “Data Revolution” is an increased ability to unite public- and private-sector interests to solve the world’s biggest problems. Project 8 embodies that opportunity to bring together the unique knowledge, capabilities and assets of public and private sector • Domain experts with perspectives on future demand for food and agriculture, which is where we are starting our journey • Foundations, individuals and private sector organizations help scale the project • Communications organizations to drive engagement with the Digital Demand Commons by users and producers of data from all 193 UN member states • Related initiatives that could collaborate and coordinate to accelerate progress Participating organizations will be contributing to a project of enormous importance to planning work across the United Nations system, the public and private sector development community and, consequently, the world. LEARN MORE Get in touch with Nic Covey, Executive Director, Project 8, at +1 513 394 5003 or [email protected] or Ilze Melngailis, Director, Global Partnerships, UN Foundation, at +1 212-907-1318 or [email protected] FOUNDERS The United Nations Foundation links the UN’s work with others around the world — mobilizing the energy and expertise of business and non-governmental organizations to help the UN tackle issues including climate change, global health, peace and security, women’s empowerment, poverty eradication, and energy access. www.unfoundation.org The Demand Institute illuminates the way in which consumer demand is evolving around the world. We help government and business leaders align investments to where consumer demand is headed across industries, organization and is jointly operated by The Conference Board and Nielsen. www.demandinstitute.org COLLABORATORS LEARN MORE Get in touch with Nic Covey, Executive Director, Project 8, at +1 513 394 5003 or [email protected] or Ilze Melngailis, Director, Global Partnerships, UN Foundation, at +1 212-907-1318 or [email protected]