Chapter One: The Public Policy Gap

‘Every problem of the world is a problem of thought’, so said David Bohm, one of the founding fathers of quantum theory. If policymakers around the world are facing an impasse, it might be time to review our common frameworks and question assumptions that are taken for granted. The best timing to conduct such an exercise remains a crisis or a disruption. Indeed, crises offer a window of opportunity, a small time-bubble during which individuals are collectively drawn together to understand what went wrong and ask what it was that brought them here. The 2008 Financial Crisis came with its fair share of questions - experts and policymakers in the most powerful countries were humbled by their failure, a failure to understand the world’s complexity and a deceptive feeling that they could control it. Beyond the first moments of panic, habits and business-as-usual took over. Perhaps the questions asked did not go far enough, or perhaps the exercise that started was just the premise, a premise to be revived by the next crisis. The next crisis came; it was deeper and new in nature. In the months and years that follow COVID-19, we must initiate a long overdue process of asking and reflecting on fundamental universal questions on what needs to be done to accelerate development and avoid the gloomiest scenarios.