The elea Way - Preview

elea’s FOUNDATION AND OPER ATING MODEL

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environmental damage, both of which threaten the sustainability of planet earth, are two of the major challenges that have already been addressed twice by the leading global governance mechanism, the United Nations (UN). In 2000, the UN had agreed on and established eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015. These have since been replaced by the previously mentioned 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 (agreed on in 2015). On the negative side, however, the globalization process has led to disorientation, uncertainty, and uneasiness due to its accelerating pace, increasing complexity, and unknown risks. Take for instance modern technology, which provides us with universal access to instant and effec- tive information but makes the differences in income, wealth, and live- lihoods among individuals and countries even more evident. This has fostered the worrying notion that the benefits of globalization are une- venly distributed and that globalization is producing both winners and losers. It was exactly this asymmetrical distribution of globalization’s ben- efits that the founders had in mind when creating elea. They wanted to help others benefit from globalization as they have. 3 .1.2 Fighting absolute pover ty with entrepreneurial means Along with the motivational factors driving the thought process for set- ting up elea in the years 2004–2006, the founders also had to determine its specific purpose. “Fighting absolute poverty with entrepreneurial means” turned out to be the essential phrase describing elea’s purpose, its very reason for existence. Why? Historically, poverty has been regarded as a fateful destiny that is struc- turally determined. In the 1970s and 1980s, efforts to understand and fight poverty were mostly seen through highly ideological left-wing/ right-wing lenses that were shaped by the Cold War and were, therefore, more often than not politicized. Since then, the focus has shifted to a much deeper understanding of the root causes of poverty and to debating what works and what doesn’t in practice in terms of impact and results. At the macroeconomic level, the work of Acemoglu and Robinson looked at the crucial role of political institutions with regard to the origins of pov- erty, which is in opposition to more traditional theories that look at geog- raphy, climate, or colonial history. They analyzed areas that have very