Dr. Augusto Lopez-Claros spent six years as the director of the Global Indicators Group in DEC (Development Economics) with the World Bank in Washington, DC, directing a team of some 100 professionals within the Bank´s economic research infrastructure. While on sabbatical from his position with the World Bank at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Dr. Augusto Lopez-Claros was awarded the New Shape Prize by the Global Challenges Foundation in Sweden in recognition of his work on the proposal titled Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century.

The Global Challenges Foundation introduced the New Shape Prize in late 2016 as the most comprehensive competition of its kind, with an overriding goal of enhancing existing frameworks for global governance and global catastrophic risk. The Foundation felt strongly that the governance system that emerged in 1945 with the creation of the United Nations and its associated organizations was no longer fit for purpose. While, against the background of the Second World War, the founding of the United Nations was an important initiative in international cooperation, it was no longer adequate to meet the challenges of the 21st century, from climate change and its multiple consequences, to nuclear proliferation, rapid population growth, persistent poverty and growing income disparities, among many others. Finding sustainable and credible solutions to these problems would require a rethinking of the global order that has underpinned international relations during the past seven decades. The proposal by Dr. Lopez-Claros and his co-authors Arthur L. Dahl and Maja Groff presented a range of reforms to the UN system intended to turn the United Nations into a problem solving organization, at the center of a system of enhanced international cooperation, building on an impressive legacy of achievements (improving the normative framework for human rights, helping to avoid superpower conflict, assisting in the process of decolonization and conflict resolution and peacekeeping), while also proposing reforms to address some of its more serious flaws, such as improving its democratic legitimacy, phasing out the power of the veto in the Security Council, boosting its financial resources, among others.

The foundation solicited submissions for more than a year before convening in Stockholm, Sweden, in May of 2018 to present the competition winners at a three-day event. More than 2,700 entries were accepted as part of the competition and submitted to international expert panels, with proposals hailing from 122 countries. Submissions came from various sectors and industries, from academics in universities and researchers in private think tanks. The semi-final panel chose three winners from the 14 that were selected for final review. Winning proposals addressed subjects as diverse as AI-supported global governance and optimizing United Nations operations. A $1.8-million prize was split among the three chosen proposals. More information about these proposals and the future of the New Shape program can be found at www.globalchallenges.org.