Up to now, the IPSP has been largely focused on analyzing the key trends and challenges facing societies around the world and identifying proven policies that are widespread in the most cohesive societies and deserve to be widely implemented. It flagged several social innovations, such as the universal basic income, workplace democracy, or the use of sortition and participatory deliberation in politics, that could be further experimented and brought up to scale. It developed general visions about how to address key issues, for instance, combining redistribution with pre-distribution to promote social inclusion, governing the communications and media system as a common good, democratizing the economy and raising corporate responsibilities, mobilizing civil society for social cohesion and improving checks and balances, or empowering international organizations for policy coordination.

According to the first IPSP Report, social progress can be affirmed as a key moral compass for action, and forms a substantial actionable agenda, but important obstacles and uncertainty surround its implementation. Planetary crises as embodied in covid and climate emergencies have laid bare the weaknesses of prevailing development orthodoxies and signaled the possibility of a greater willingness among global audiences to be receptive to a social progress agenda and temper hyper-consumerist cultures.

A core list of values and principles defines a broad agenda for the pursuit of better societies (and also underlies the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030): well-being, equal dignity, freedom, choice, human rights, justice, inclusion, respect, integrity, courage, democracy, pluralism, solidarity, recognition, environmental values, rule of law, transparency, accountability, social relations, generosity, culture…

A broad outline for better societies and a narrative for social progress are available, and include: creating an inclusive and responsible economy by taming markets and corporations through responsible regulatory systems and by fostering economic and social organizations with a broader purpose; bringing circularity into our value chains and modes of living; reducing social inequalities and empowering people through universal services and through pre- and redistribution; deepening democracy through participatory and deliberative mechanisms and better information ecosystems; enhancing global cooperation to preserve common goods; harnessing technology for positive impact and limiting its most disruptive consequences.

Multiple actors, especially from civil society, contribute to this agenda in myriad ways and constitute a vibrant pool from which knowledge and momentum can be drawn. However, although many alliance efforts are underway, there is no unified/global coalition fighting the obstacles to social progress, especially at the transnational/international level. This fight is within the domains of both knowledge and practice. This raised a key open question: How can we help coalitions of actors to emerge and organize, how can we help nurture them, so as to implement the social progress agenda ?

The key fact on which the Panel bases its work is that the mechanisms underlying these challenges and opportunities are strongly interdependent. Recognizing such interdependence and building on it is essential to imagine adequate solutions to these challenges as well as to make the most of the emerging opportunities.

The ongoing crises feed one another: an environmental crisis in one place (a drought in the Middle East) can reverberate into a governance crisis in another place (migrations and rising populism in Europe); a conflict in one place (the war in Ukraine) can aggravate social problems in another (extreme poverty and hunger in Africa); a social crisis (inequalities, labor market shocks, poverty, feeling left behind) can destabilize institutions and governance (generating distrust, putting demagogues in power, feeding terrorism and criminal activities); ill-managed technological innovation (social media infected by trolls, labor-saving AI) undermines governance (raising polarization and distrust) and social cohesion (unemployment). A stronger awareness and a better understanding of these feedback loops and vicious circles are urgently needed.

Because of these interlinkages between the various domains, a steady path toward social progress cannot be charted without considering them all together. Environmental issues cannot be ignored in order to restore social cohesion and inclusive governance; social cohesion cannot be put aside to protect democracy and the environment; without a reasonably good governance, the environmental, social and technology challenges will never be adequately addressed; and technology issues and opportunities will not be adequately handled in unequal and ill-governed economies and societies.

It is essential to develop analysis that fully takes account of the interlocking crises, the feedback mechanisms and the intersectoral solutions. This requires getting out of the “environmental” silo, the “social” silo, the “politics” silo, the “innovation” silo, the “development” silo. Such a comprehensive approach must be applied not only to high-level systemic analysis but also to more specific domain studies. For instance, filling development gaps must involve ecological transition issues and institution building; protected natural areas policies cannot be discussed without considering social impacts and global cooperation; promoting participatory democracy in politics and the economy must build on the consequences of better institutions for inequalities and ecological responsibility; pushing for responsible innovation requires overhauling industrial structures, corporate governance and the purpose of economic development.