Governing for the End of the Month or the End of the World? Leverage Points to Overcome Governance Myopia

In 2024, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Olivier de Schutter, challenged the assumption that economic growth alone can eradicate poverty, arguing instead for a structural shift toward a human rights-based, post-growth dependent model. His subsequent global Roadmap for the Eradication of Poverty Beyond Growth includes a dedicated pillar on governance – an area this UNU-CPR Discussion Paper directly advances.

The paper argues that contemporary governance systems are structurally short-termist, driven by electoral cycles, fiscal constraints and crisis response. This creates a “temporal governance gap”, where long-term risks – such as climate instability, demographic pressures and persistent inequality – are systematically deferred.

Drawing on systems thinking, the paper identifies four leverage points for reform:

• Intent: embed intergenerational justice and environmental stewardship in public institutions
• Design: strengthen democratic planning capacities through foresight, guardians for future generations and parliamentary committees for the future to ensure accountability over time
• Feedbacks: systematize early warning systems, and long-term well-being indicators.
• Parameters: reform fiscal frameworks and sovereign wealth funds to support long-term resilience, social protection and climate transitions.

Together, these reforms provide a governance roadmap to support poverty eradication beyond growth – shifting systems from reactive crisis management to anticipatory, preventive and future-oriented policymaking.

Read "Governing for the End of the Month or the End of the World?" here.