Introduction
im4u.world launched its Global Survey on April 22, 2021 (Earth Day). The survey asks what people worldwide believe are the most urgent issues. It follows up by asking how those issues affect our lives and communities, the opportunities and constraints to finding resolution, and our willingness to participate in the solution.
The im4u.world Global Survey Report 2022 is the first annual report of the results. The repo t is presented here as a series of Learn-Engage-Empower blog chapters. The series will follow the 15 questions of the survey over two months (July and August).
The report represents the results of one year of data collection and analysis. We hope you find the results thought-provoking and inspiring. The results will be the basis of engaging in productive discussion to find solutions to some of our most pressing problems facing humanity. We hope this inspires you and your communities of interest to take action and make a meaningful difference in our world.
The Learn-Engage-Empower series, What the World Told Us, to date:
Part 1 - July 7, 2022 - A Vision and Challenges
Question 1: Imagine you are now living 25 years into the future. What is your vision of the world, then? What do you hope it would be like?
Part 2 - July 14, 2022 - Your Hometown
Question 2: What problems do you have in your community today that must be solved before they could be part of your vision of the future?
Question 3: How do those problems in your community affect your life today?
Part 3 - July 21, 2022 - Local Problems
Question 4: What happened that created those problems in your community?
Question 5: What will happen to your community if it cannot, or will not, solve those problems?
Part 4 - July 28, 2022 - Eyes Forward
Question 6: How much better would the quality of life in your community be if it could solve those problems?
Question 7: Where did you learn about those problems in your community?
Question 8: What are the opportunities available today to solve them?
Part 5 - August 11, 2022 - Framing Solutions
Question 9: What are the most important questions that must be answered before those problems can be solved?
Question 10: What must change to solve the problems you identified?
Question 11: Who should be working on these solutions?
Did you know? The Global Survey is ongoing, and it is never too late to complete one. Please visit the im4u.world Global Survey today at https://www.im4u.world/globalsurvey. Every voice matters.
15 simple questions. That is all it takes for you to begin making a positive difference in the world!
The next three questions in The Global Survey are important ones because they set up the preconditions for finding solutions and help us define a future framework for empowerment and implementation.
Question 9: What are the most important questions that must be answered before those problems can be solved? (Those problems are ones identified by respondents that affect humanity globally and locally.)
Q9 Summary:
Many of the responses were broad questions about how we can change ourselves as a society (Government & Society category). Examples include: How do we reach an agreement on complex issues? How do we get free of our past? How do we overcome polarized politics? How do we unify as a community? How can we change for the better? How do you convince people to act responsibly? How do we build shared values? Why are we so paralyzed? How do we overcome hatred? Can we come together and put aside our differences?
The questions raised in other topical categories, such as Planet & Environment, were often filtered through a Government & Society lens. For example, how can we come together to stop climate change? The question to answer is not about finding technical solutions to stop climate change but how we, as a society, can work together. Based on the nature of Q9, the assumption is that if we can find a way to work together, we will solve the larger problem. Similarly, from the Housing Category, how do we build shared values to solve homelessness?
There is a tiny element of defeatism, skepticism, or uncertainty in the answers to this question. Examples include: I don't know anymore; none are truly effective; I am uncertain; no; not a lot; none; do not know; there are none; not sure; I wish I knew, and I haven't found any.
There was an element of anger in some responses, such as political fingerpointing, ideological stances, and accusations at a particular group or interest.
Question 10: What must change to solve the problems you identified?
Q10 Summary
The top 5 categories where people thought change needed to occur before addressing local problems and achieving a vision of the future were: Government & Society; Spiritual, Economic; Planet & Environment; and Education.
Together these top categories account for 80% of all topics mentioned in the responses to this question.
Fascinating is the Spiritual category 2nd place ranking at 11.01%, ahead of Planet & Environment. Respondents cited the need for individual character changes with attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs, such as greed, anger, selfishness, hatred, ignorance, and self-righteousness. Willingness, respect, acceptance, compassion, empathy, agreement, awareness, understanding, tolerance, and charity are said directly or indirectly as desirable. This finding reinforces conclusions in previous questions, suggesting that humanity could solve its problems, but it all starts with an individual, internal shift. The solution is not a technical one, primarily.
Education rises into the top 5 categories, and like the Spiritual component, all of its topics are intangible. Increasing education or changing its focus are two themes from the survey respondents.
Many people see Climate Change as a subset of Planet & Environment, and if you are one of those people, then the combined categories would rank second with 13% of the topics raised in Q10, displacing Spiritual to third place.
Government & Society related topics garner the most significant number of responses (as with every other question too). The responses"run the gamut from institutional change to personal change. There appears"to be a lot of frustration in some of the answers. You can change laws and institutions (albeit with a lot of work), but individuals seem resistant to change. One example is the topic of hatred and its combination with so many other issues, such as racism (identified separately too in Equality), politics, corporations, leaders, power, laws, and media. Sociehaven'ty appears polarized according to the responses.
Some people want the government to intervene more, while others want the government to stop interfering.'Those that wanted the government to intervene often cited the use of laws, fiscal approaches, and policy to catalyze change.'Those that wanted less government involvement cited free market approaches instead. A third minority opinion called for a continued worsening of the problems to force a solution out of necessity, a fatalist approach perhaps. Another example of this divergent opinion was in the Economic category, with some people urging more socialist, collectivist policies while others advocated more laissez-faire, free market ones.
Surprisingly, people did not cite leadership much as something that must change to solve the problems.'It is undetermined why.
Question 11: Who should be working on these solutions?
Q11 Summary
The overwhelming response to who should work on these solutions comes from the Government & Society category (69.38%).
The entities identified were diverse, from formal government and organizations at the international to the community level (United Nations, local government, organized religions) to specific professions (such as teachers) to communities of interest (civic organizations, social media) and age groups (youth).
Many people succinctly identified that ‘everyone’ should work on the solutions.
Interestingly, though respondents mentioned the government frequently as the one to work on the problem it wasn’t the sole source. People didn't offload the problems and tag the government for fixing them alone.
Survey respondents assigned responsibility to Economic entities for finding solutions (corporations, business leaders). Like the Government & Society category, people identified different scales from international to local (multi-national corporations to local businesses). People frequently called out social media separately from corporations.
People who took the survey did not mention anything related to the categories of Peace and Food and their associated topics.
Many people identified that everyone should be working on the solutions and that everyone has a vested interest in the outcomes. Within these responses, many identified the need for an internal shift in perspective, attitude, and behavior. For example, everyone should participate in the solution, and everyone needs to have more empathy for others.
Many people emphasize local solutions, not in place of organizations at other scales and locations, but in addition. This point is a call to action at the local level to join in the efforts.
Very few survey respondents pointed to a single group of people or organizations to solve the problem. So, for example, few said that government, and only government, should resolve the issues. This finding could be a tacit understanding of the complexity of the problems at hand and the need for a diverse stakeholder approach to resolving them.
Significantly, only a small number of people identified groups or organizations that should be excluded from finding solutions. Still, there were a few, such as no government or no high-tech industries.
Some, a minority, admitted didn’t know who could solve the problems.
Some people identified the power of voting to create change, presumably to elect people who will work on the problems. Looking further into those instances, each respondent identified political issues as obstacles to overcome.
Important Caveat
The Global Survey is not a statistical survey, meaning that the method by which it was designed and administered yielded statistically significant results. The results are not a statistical representation of the world's population. Anyone was welcome to answer the survey. More importantly, the survey results will define the topics and framework starting the next phase of im4u. world's development, Engagement. Subscribe to im4u.world for updates and an invitation to join global conversations. There is no cost and no obligation. Visit: https://www.im4u.world/join-subscribe-contact
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The next three questions in the survey center on assessing how much better our life and collective humanity could be, the role of the individual in finding solutions, and the all-important question, can humanity achieve it? Join us next week as we continue our blog series on The Global Survey Results.
Question 12: How would your life be better once those problems were solved?
Question 13: What is the role of an individual person in finding solutions?
Question 14: What would prevent you from helping to find solutions in your community?
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