Building the Mental Wealth of Nations

The 'Building the Mental Wealth of Nations' will take place in Davos Switzerland.

The event is brought to you by the Mental Wealth Initiative at the University of Sydney. Our vision is to move towards a mentally and socially thriving world. We believe the wealth of a nation is not just based on economic prosperity. National prosperity must be inclusive of social production and the mental health and wellbeing of communities

Today we face unprecedented challenges as climate change re-shapes our borders and our boundaries. Now, more than ever, we need to bring people together from all industries to collaborate and find solutions to protect and enhance the mental wealth of our nations.

The tools and technologies of the 20th Century are inadequate to address the challenges we are currently facing and beyond. We need bold new approaches and to adopt innovative technologies and solutions, through:

• Enhancing GDP by including the value of social production which underpins the economic prosperity and social cohesion of nations.
• Stronger public-private partnerships to enhance brain capital, mental health and community connectedness
• Undertaking interdisciplinary research to come up with practical solutions for global challenges
• Using AI, systems modelling and simulation to help leaders make effective decisions 

This forum seeks to explore new ways of bolstering collective mental wellbeing during a time of profound global challenges. Climate change, rising inequalities, food and energy insecurity, polarization, and misinformation are weakening democracies, eroding mental health and the social fabric of communities. When combined with the potential disruption of generative AI, these global challenges pose substantial risk to social and economic stability.

Our expert panel includes:

• Nouriel Roubini, an economist, educator and best-selling author of Megathreats who famously predicted the 2007-2008 subprime mortgage crisis in the US and the subsequent global financial crisis.
• Zeinad Hijazi a psychologist, and youth advocate and the Global Lead on Mental Health for UNICEF, and
• William Hynes, a Senior Climate Change Economist at the World Bank.