African voices were heard in full force at last week’s Skoll World Forum in Oxford. The most prominent of these was Kofi Annan. Few world leaders have retained such integrity under such thankless circumstances like trying to be an effective UN Secretary General. In his Skoll speech, Kofi Annan did not disappoint. He described his strategy for overcoming obstacles in the UN: Although “every new idea and initiative is met with resistance… my response was always ‘you never know – let’s test it.’”
And in looking at today’s world, he didn’t mince his words: “Business as usual is not an option. We need nothing less than a radical shift…. the switch from business models based on shareholder value to ones which look to the interest of wider stakeholders.”
