Sparking Innovation to Spur Progress and Launch a New Era

Sparking Innovation to Spur Progress and Launch a New Era

The year 2011 saw great change and upheaval.Climate change continued to intensify, provoking more and more floods, droughts, hurricanes, and other natural disasters throughout the world. For instance, four countries in the Horn of Africa experienced their worst droughts in 60 years. Likewise, hurricanes and floods pummeled the United States, Australia, and Southeast Asian nations, while a major earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated northeastern Japan. Meanwhile, the world's political and economic foundation has been unpredictable, as witnessed from the spread of the Jasmine Revolution to other parts of North Africa and the Middle East. In addition, the economies of the United States and Japan have contracted, and the European sovereign debt crisis has festered, all exacerbating the global economic slowdown. Escalating food prices and other elements of inflation have exerted additional pressure, forming a vicious cycle that has further endangered the livelihood of hundreds of millions of people.