Finland, where are you headed...
Blog 0What will top the trend and phenomena charts in 2013 and help Sitra and its partners shape the future?
The global financial crisis, climate change and increasing inequality all call for new economic thinking.
Remaining socially and ecologically sustainable too.
Sustainable economic thinking challenges our views: What are the goals of financial policy? Who creates financial policy?
Bringing together a multidisciplinary group of people to reflect on the sustainable economy and how decision-makers should be educated on the topic.
Our understanding of the economy is changing dramatically: the global debt and financial crisis challenges present structures and ways of working; climate change indicates that societies are not ecologically sustainable; and global inequality and increasing income differences call for more socially sustainable solutions.
Many social structures are transforming and reshaping our understanding of a range of issues: the role of the public sector, well-being and how we measure it, the nature of democracy and international relations.
These forces of social change are challenging our views of economic sustainability. To be truly sustainable, an economy needs to be so not only financially, but also socially and ecologically. This will inevitably change our concept of financial policy – its scope, methods, makers and leaders.
Sitra's social education operations include the Sustainable Economy forum and leadership education on sustainable financial policy to be organised later.
Sustainable Economy forum
Sitra organised a Sustainable Economy forum in the autumn of 2012, bringing together a diverse group of 30 people to identify forces that shape economic thinking. The forum also aims to define what a sustainable economy is and how it is implemented at the levels of citizens, companies and national economies. In addition, the forum will discuss how the new understanding of the sustainable economy changes financial policy. The forum will generate ideas and test how decision-makers in society could be educated.
Leadership education on sustainable financial policy
Based on the experiences gained from the forum, leadership courses on sustainable financial policy for decision-makers and opinion leaders will be launched in spring 2013. The courses will focus on themes such the making of Finnish financial policy and the more efficient utilisation of financial policy tools to promote a sustainable economy. The courses aim to increase understanding of how the comprehensive, long-term approach typical to sustainable development can be achieved in the practices and management of financial policy. A truly sustainable economy is not only financially sustainable, but constitutes a balanced whole of financial, ecological and social sustainability. The leadership course on sustainable financial policy will be organised in cooperation with Aalto Executive Education Oy. The application period begins in late 2012.
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