BRICS

President Jacob Zuma appointed the National Planning Commission in May 2010 to draft a vision and national development plan. The Commission is an advisory body consisting of 26 people drawn largely from outside government, chosen for their expertise in key areas.
The Commission’s Diagnostic Report, released in June 2011, set out South Africa’s achievements and shortcomings since 1994. It identified a failure to implement policies and an absence of broad partnerships as the main reasons for slow progress, and set out nine primary challenges:
1. Too few people work
2. The quality of school education for black people is poor
3. Infrastructure is poorly located, inadequate and under-maintained
4. Spatial divides hobble inclusive development
5. The economy is unsustainably resource intensive
6. The public health system cannot meet demand or sustain quality
7. Public services are uneven and often of poor quality
8. Corruption levels are high
9. South Africa remains a divided society.

(...) This is a plan for South Africa. It provides a broad strategic framework to guide key choices and actions. Its success will depend on all South Africans taking responsibility for the plan, led by the President and Cabinet.This overview is a high-level summary of the plan. The 15 chapters address the major thematic areas in detail, providing evidence, recommendations and clear implementation frameworks.

Following publication of the plan, the Commission will focus on:
Mobilising society to support the plan, and exploring a social compact to reduce poverty and inequality through investment and employment.
Conducting research on critical issues affecting long-term development.
Advising government and social partners on implementing the plan.
Working with relevant state agencies to report on the progress of the objectives.

Over a billion people worldwide live on less than $1.25 a day. But that number is falling. This has given credence to the idea that extreme poverty can be eliminated in a generation. A new study by Brookings researchers examines the prospects for ending extreme poverty by 2030 and the factors that will determine progress toward this goal. Below are some of the key findings:

1. We are at a unique point in history where there are more people in the world living right around the $1.25 mark than at any other income level. This implies that equitable growth in the developing world will result in more movement of people across the poverty line than across any other level.

2. Sustaining the trend rate of global poverty reduction requires that each year a new set of individuals is primed to cross the international poverty line. This will become increasingly difficult as some of the poorest of the poor struggle to make enough progress to approach the $1.25 threshold over the next twenty years.

3. The period from 1990 to 2030 resembles a relay race in which responsibility for leading the charge on global poverty reduction passes between China, India and sub-Saharan Africa. China has driven progress over the last twenty years, but with its poverty rate now down in the single digits, the baton is being passed to India. India has the capacity to deliver sustained progress on global poverty reduction over the next decade based on modest assumptions of equitable growth. Once India’s poverty is largely exhausted, it will be up to sub-Saharan Africa to run the final relay leg and bring the baton home. This poses a significant challenge as most of Africa’s poor people start a long way behind the poverty line.

4. As global poverty approaches zero, it becomes increasingly concentrated in countries where the record of and prospects for poverty reduction are weakest. Today, a third of the world’s poor live in fragile states but this share could rise to half in 2018 and nearly two-thirds in 2030.

5. The World Bank has recently set a goal to reduce extreme poverty around the world to under 3 percent by 2030. It is unlikely that this goal can be achieved by stronger than expected growth across the developing world, or greater income equality within each developing country, alone. Both factors are needed simultaneously.

The TREND COMPENDIUM 2030 is a global trend study compiled by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. It describes seven megatrends that will shape the world over the next 20 years. All trends have a broad impact on how we do business – Therefore, Roland Berger experts have identified corporate actions that companies must take today. The study also takes a look at how we will live in 2030.

Roland Berger experts first screened all relevant trend, scenario and future studies worldwide. Then they verified, analyzed and consolidated the results, using them to define seven megatrends. They next broke down the seven megatrends into 21 subtrends, looking at each from a global perspective and the viewpoints of industrialized and developing countries. Finally, they identified corporate actions that companies worldwide should consider taking today.

Following the executive summary and an introduction in chapters A and B, chapter C presents all trends and corporate actions in detail, while chapter D gives you an idea of life in 2030. In addition, every chapter presents the most important sources, organizations and indicators to help you keep track of the changes in the world as well as dig deeper into the trends presented.