The following is a letter from the editors of Fortune and Time to Pope Francis, delivered on Dec. 3, 2016:
Your Holiness,
On behalf of Fortune and Time and the distinguished delegates participating in our Global Forum, we are pleased to present to you the enclosed report. The report presented here is a result of the work of some of the world’s most prominent business and thought leaders, who have gathered for this meeting.
This effort is inspired by your passionate pleas for broader prosperity and lasting ways to lift the poor. It is also inspired by a realization that the two great trends of the last half-century—globalization and digitization—have created unprecedented growth and lifted billions of people out of poverty, but have also created a backlash. Inequality within nations is on the rise, and dissatisfaction with a system that too often showers its riches on a privileged few is growing. Populism and protectionism are rearing their heads around the world, and trust in business—as well as other institutions—has plummeted.
Our goal is not only to talk about these problems but also to take specific actions to address them. The chief executive officers who have gathered with us come from companies that collectively employ more than 4.7 million people. Their supply chains—the companies they work with to produce and deliver their products and services—employ millions more. These companies operate in every country on earth with networks that range from the inner cities to the smallest villages.
By their policies and practices, by the actions of the employees and their suppliers, and by the example they set as leaders, these CEOs and their companies have the power to do much good in the world.
Our conversations have been solutions-focused, aimed at encouraging transformative actions and an economic system that both promotes growth and spreads its benefits more broadly.
We spent the last day in intensive working group sessions addressing ways in which we can help eradicate and address related issues, such as creating jobs and fair wages, reducing environmental degradation, improving education and health access, and becoming more financial inclusive.
The results of these working group sessions include more than twenty solutions that focus on the way the private sector can be a driving force in ending poverty and creating a more sustainable world for all.
In addition to stimulating the efforts of the people who are here, we hope that the work of this group will inspire other business leaders and company heads to take similar actions. To this end, we will be widely disseminating the outcomes of this meeting through our media platforms, including Fortune, Time, and other Time Inc. outlets, as well as through the extended media coverage this meeting is receiving. Our hope is that this coverage will generate the kind of action that extends the benefits of this work to a greater number of people around the world.
There is much work ahead. We humbly ask your blessing as we endeavor to stimulate transformative solutions to help many people, now and for future generations.
Read the rest, including the solutions themselves, below:
Fortune Time Global Forum 2016 Working Group Solutions on Scribd
