Can social innovation directed by market forces bring about positive global change?

The World Inequality Report for 2018 indicates that inequality is on the rise in almost every region of the world, with the global top 1% of earners capturing twice as much of growth since 1980 as the 50% of poorest individuals in the world.

The World Bank's most recent estimates show that one in 10 people in the world live under the $1.90 international poverty line. Around 83 million people across 45 countries require emergency food assistance, expected to rise by at least 20% over the next 15 years.

Healthy labor markets are important for economic development, yet today 60% of young people aged 15-to-24 are without a job. If social problems don't convey a bleak enough state of affairs, figures from 2017 show that after three years of levelling off, CO2 emissions are increasing once more.

Overwhelming, right?

In these circumstances, one can justifiably expect international bodies...