Media debate: What makes your country wealthy?

On 9 January (6:00 PM SAST / 5:00 PM CET), join the Green Economy Coalition, the Green Growth Knowledge Platform, and the Partnership for Action on Green Economy for a televised debate hosted by CNBC Africa where leaders from business, politics, and NGO's will ask - have we been getting "wealth" wrong all these years?

The panel will include:

• Hon. Dr Mary Goretti Kitutu, Minister for the Environment, Uganda
• Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General, Amnesty International
• Prof. Cameron Hepburn, Director of the Smith School, Oxford University
• Nozipho January-Bardill, Chairperson, UN Global Compact Local Network SA and Non-Executive Director, Anglogold Ashanti, Credit Suisse Securities, and Mercedes Benz SA
• Nozipho Mbanjwa, CNBC Africa Financial Anchor and Fellow of the African Leadership Institute (moderator)

The Debate:

Has national ‘wealth’ has been miscalculated for decades? Could some countries be wealthier than previously understood because of their natural and social assets? What will happen to our economies if we do not reverse environmental degradation? 

Until recently, a country’s ‘wealth’ has been understood in narrow terms (e.g. GDP). Now Ministries of Finance, national statistical offices, policy units and corporations are starting to account for wealth in rather different terms. For the first time, natural capital and social capital is being quantified alongside productivity. The approach could revolutionise what it means for a country or a business to be wealthy and profitable. It has the potential to overhaul historic divisions between rich and poor countries, or profitable and unprofitable companies, as credit rating agencies and investors shift behaviour.

The event, broadcast live on the African continent's largest business media network, will be moderated by CNBC’s Ms Nozipho Mbanjwa, and feature some of the foremost thinkers on development, sustainability, economic growth and environmental protection, exploring perhaps one of the central issues of our time.

More details available here. Watch the debate live online here!

Tim Trad - Unsplash