The world is filled with numerous, gigantic problems; epidemics that take and affect the lives of billions of individuals.

Research Paper

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Context

The world is filled with numerous, gigantic problems; epidemics that take and affect the lives of billions of individuals. A large part of the world’s population is affected by conflict, suffer from poor management and leadership, suffer from poverty, illiteracy and struggle with diseases and illnesses that are life threatening. These pandemics penetrate ethnicity, language, location, and even religion. They are, in fact, the main global challenges that most humankind has to struggle with today. These problems at times seem so domineering such that they seem like they are unconquerable. However, a number of interested parties have come together and drawn several plans aimed at addressing these pandemics (Landes, 1998). One such plan is one by Pastor Rick Warren who disagrees with the view that these pandemics are unconquerable, and argues that the church is significant enough to take on these problems. Researchers deem the P.E.A.C.E. plan as one of the most accomplished ones to address some of the greatest challenges affecting the world populations because it encourages the creation and development of partnerships between private organizations, public sectors, and houses of faith. Its methods are also sustainable, fundable through connections in business practical through networks, and supportable through involvement of the community.

Thesis Statement

Several studies indicate that when governments, businesses and houses of faith come together, it is possible for them to establish solutions increasing the international wellbeing of the world.

Introduction

There are certain areas of our world that not only affect millions, but billions of populations today. Everywhere you go, and especially in the poor, rural communities, you will find that five main pandemics affect the concerned populations. These five key pandemics affecting our world’s society do not just affect a few millions of individuals but billions and billions of individuals in each region and country. They surpass such aspects as ethnicity, language, location and religion. They are the five main challenges facing the world today, and affecting its development. As already indicated, some researchers have proposed that the combined forces of a number of facets in the society from government to houses of religion to businesses can come up with sustainable plans to deal with these challenges. This paper intends to find out the truthfulness of this statement by presenting a number of possible or available collaborations meant to address the global pandemics between governments, houses of faith and businesses. To be able to address this adequately, the paper will also have to outline and explain the five main pandemics affecting the global community, and the best solutions so far that experts have proposed to address these challenges.

Several events have inspired through numerous examples of how as a global community our support for and collaboration with each other binds us together and makes us better. Now more than ever, with the numerous pandemics facing us today, it is time to expand and exploit on the numerous areas of collaboration that have pulled people closer in order to establish the human, social economic, and natural capital of our global community and all of its populations. There are various proposals that numerous entities have proposed that we can use to find comprehensive solutions to some of the problems facing us today. Both pragmatics and idealists from these three groups struggle and teach each other how to develop new ways of committing resources to certain challenges (Itzkoff, 1996). There are different kinds of collaborations that exist among these entities. There are collaborations, for example, between businesses themselves, within the government and within different houses of faith. There are also those collaborations that exist between houses of faith and businesses, or with governments, or between governments and businesses.

According to a number of resources and studies, the five most prevalent world pandemics are illiteracy, poverty, poor leadership and governance, conflicts and disease. At the most basic levels in our globe, individuals are in constant conflict with others. As if this were not enough, we the issue of poor leaders who only serve to fulfill their needs also affects our wellbeing (Choueiri, 2007). Moreover, more than half of the world’s population lives on or less than a dollar or two a day (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000). Researchers think that the average person who grows coffee in such poor countries like Rwanda cannot afford to buy themselves a cup of coffee at certain places like Starbucks (Sibomana, 1999). Pandemic diseases are also increasingly becoming an obstacle for most nations in the world. Millions of people suffer from such diseases as malaria, yellow fever and AIDs. Studies estimate that over thirty thousand young ones succumb to diseases that are preventable every day. What is more, shocking is that half of the world’s population cannot write or read, and they cannot access or use the Internet.

In the recent years, many global experts, scholars, and committees have discussed the establishment of public and private partnerships. For instance, in 2008, the former Prime Minister to the United Kingdom, Tony Blair chaired a workshop in collaboration with the Davos World Economic Forum. One of the many topics that the panel discussed was the need for partnerships in the private and public sectors to handle issues of global leadership, reconciliation, disease, poverty, and illiteracy (Rossi, 1991). Half way through the forum, Pastor Warren argued that the solutions that the forum was coming up with were almost right, but not complete.

According to the pastor, the total elimination of these five pandemics would only be possible if the forum considered including one third, and extremely critical facet in the collaboration. The facet in question was the houses of faith. The pastor argued that there are three facets crucial in addressing the challenges identified above, and that these facets included the government leg, the business facet and finally the facet of houses of faith. According to Warren, these three works together to provide a platform that is stable, and capable of handling a larger load.

Collaboration between Businesses, Government and Houses of Worship

The government, houses of worship and businesses has certain, unique and differing strengths according to the roles and responsibilities they have in the global community. As it follows, the society can only explore and exploit all of these strengths and unique abilities when they collaborate and put together these three facets. This kind of collaboration is the one that Pastor Warren came up with and named the three- legged stool PEACE tool (Warren, 2008). The tool combines the forces of the government, also public, businesses, also profit, and houses of faith also parish to combine sources used for addressing the five different pandemics identified in the introduction.

The reasons why these three facets are the most beneficial when used together is that they bring together all of their resources and complement each other in addressing these problems. For instance, when businesses become part of the three- legged tool, they benefit the society and increase the chance of the tool finding more and better solutions for the previously identified issues. Businesses ensure this by bringing management expertise and capital to the collaboration. Where parishes or houses of faith might lack in terms of resources and capital businesses complement them by providing them with more resources. Just the same, in cases where the government facet might lack management expertise, businesses come in and provide them with some, making the collaboration more comprehensive.

Businesses are not the only ones that can complement the collaboration. Governments also have the ability to enhance it when they collaborate with the three other facets as they bring in the ability to establish a playing field that is fair for everyone, protection for the nation and protection for the populations’ rights and freedoms. Just the same, the aspect of religious organizations in this collaboration is also crucial. When they factor in the collaboration, they bring with them the largest frameworks of volunteers and the widest distribution. As we have seen from these different functionalities of the different aspects of the collaboration, it is more beneficial for a society to have the support of all the three factors of the tool in dealing with some of these pandemics.

This kind of collaboration was unheard of before a number of entities used it in Rwanda in 2005. Humanitarian organizations established this collaboration to deal with issues that resulted from the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In just two months, from April to June of 1994, an estimated eight hundred thousand people died in Rwanda in the space of just one hundred days. The leading course of these deaths was a conflict that erupted between two major communities in the country, the Tutsis and the Hutus. Most of those who lost their lives were the Tutsis and those who perpetrated this violence and murder escapades were the Hutus. The death of the president Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, who died in a plane crash shot down by a rocket allegedly, sparked the violence. The Hutus blamed the Tutsis for the death, and they lodged numerous attacks against this community that left thousands dead (Prunier, 1997). Though the war ended after three months, its effects remain largely evident.

For instance, the Rwandese Western Province has little access to medical services (U.S Department of State, 2011). The region only has three hospitals and about seventeen medical clinics. To make matters worse, the entire region only has one medical doctor. To address this challenge, a number of humanitarian entities established a Peace Plan partnership between the Rwandese government, houses of faith and local businesses. The houses of faith were exceedingly helpful as they were able to recruit about 3000 volunteers and train them in Medicare a span of 24 months. In addition to this, businesses have also increase their distribution of supplies to more areas and the government is focusing on training more hospital staff and volunteers. The success this partnership has had in Rwanda is enough evidence that humanitarian and other organizations can establish similar collaborations to better the world’s future not just in health but also in education, and many other areas.

The Largest Problems Affecting the World Today are Global Conflict, Disease; Self- centered Leadership, Illiteracy and Poverty

The current global community is marred with incidences of violence, disagreements and conflicts. As a result, many communities find themselves at odds with life because of the many negative impacts of these conflicts (America University of California Press, 1991, 1998). There are various reasons as to why conflicts result ranging from scarce resources, to ethnicity to acts of terrorism to politics. The amount of conflicts we witness today has increased immensely for the past 100 years probably because of increase in population and changes in demography (Cook, 1997). Marriages, societies and countries are separating from each other to a larger extend than they were before, as a result, of these conflicts (Coontz, 1997).

Intercommunity and international conflicts are the only challenges affecting the world today. Leadership that is self- centered has cost also posed numerous challenges to the world today, as well as, costing societies numerous lives. For instance, the Arab Spring was primarily, as a result, of lack of fair leadership and existence of bad leaders for years (Choueiri, 2007). Eventually, people had enough and violence erupted that cost these countries a significant number of lives (Peterson, 1993). Self- centered leaders only look out for themselves, tend to, and succeed in keeping their countries in utter poverty normally because of the many wrong decisions they take to benefit themselves and their relatives instead of their nations.

Poverty is another prevalent issue that affects a wide range of societies in the globe. Researchers estimate that about two million individuals all over the world live in poverty (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000). Some of the poorest individuals survive on less than a dollar each day. The world knows Rwanda widely for its coffee. The sad thing, however, is that the individuals who work at the coffee farms are so poor such that they cannot afford a cup of coffee at Starbucks (Sibomana, 1999). One of the things that have become evident is that most of the people who are poor live like so because they lack opportunities to better their lives and not because they are lazy or incapable of making money. In addition to the above, billions of the world, both chronic and preventable diseases affect populations. Researchers and scientists have already found cures for many of these diseases. Leaders and scientists in Florida because were able to eradicate malaria because they had the will and resources to do so (Hansen & Anita, 1998). Scientists in collaboration with the government have also eradicated the disease in Panama. The world has the knowledge and expertise to totally eradicate malaria; yet about 300 million people succumb to the disease each year (Malaria Foundation International, 2000). In areas were so many deaths occur, the local medical clinics lack the resources and expertise to provide their societies with adequate medical care.

According to Sibomana, illiteracy is also another challenge affecting the global community. According to the studies, more than 855 million people in the globe are illiterate. The researcher cites illiteracy as one of the biggest challenges or obstacles to development and growth (Sibomana, 1999). It is argued that individuals who are illiterate would not be able to utilize certain resources like the internet even if they were to be availed to them. It is clear that illiteracy is an obstacle to sharing of information, and prevents individuals to develop socially, intellectually, economically and into leadership.

Rick Warren’s PEACE Plan has given the Best Solutions Proposed to Date to Tackle the World’s Greatest Problems

The basis of the PEACE plan is to approach the problems affecting today’s world as a team as the most effective plan. The team in this case involves the government, houses of faith and businesses. According to its founder, Pastor Warren, the government, religious movements and businesses working together is more effective in enhancing the wellbeing of the society. Though these are different facets that have different functionalities, their working towards a similar objective ensures their success. The plan sees excellent leadership as an essential for peaceful existence. The program argues that three should collaborate and teach individuals in the society, and enlighten them on what excellent leadership is (Carnoy, 2000).

When it comes to addressing the issue of poverty, the plan argue that programs to decrease or reduce poverty are essential in the society. For example, supplying food to areas that are affected by drought and hunger. In addition to this, the plan also highlights the need to empower individuals in the society to counter poverty. An example of empowering people is teaching them how to plant crops that are drought resistant in dry areas to counter poverty (Coontz, Maya & Gabrielle, 1998). Caring for the sick is another aspect of the program. According to the founders of the plan, the government, businesses and houses of faith should come together and provide societies with facilities for healthcare. This is because the founder believes that reducing the prevalence of disease plays a big role in improving the wellbeing of societies. The plan also emphasizes on the importance and significance of establishing excellent health as one way of developing the society.

Education and literacy is another crucial point the plan focuses on. The plan points out that houses of faith can offer their houses or places of worship as locations for providing people with education or training. On the other hand, the businesses can further the levels of literacy by incentivizing learning, for example, by offering scholarships and prizes. Governments can help by creating fairness so that every person gets an opportunity to attend school. In addition to this, the government can also further and encourage higher literacy levels by availing elementary reduction to everyone by making it accessible and affordable to all (Blank, 1998). Education should also be availed to women to make them significant parts of growth and development (AlMunajjed, 1997).

Conclusion

Studies argue that when governments, businesses and house of worship come together, they are able to come up with innovative solutions to ensure wellbeing in our global community. As we have already established, collaboration between government, business and houses can be critical in ensuring global wellbeing. This is because such collaboration can combine resources from the three entities to increase their benefits to the society. Businesses can provide resources and capital governments can create fairness and houses of faith can provide and recruit volunteers. It is only through this collaboration that these stakeholders can ensure sound and comprehensive solutions to some of the most essential issues affecting the world. Some of these issues are poverty, illiteracy disease, poor leadership and conflict.

To exemplify the effectiveness of this collaboration, Pastor Warren came up with a plan that uses all these three entities. The plan integrates into its solutions provision of literacy, provision of sustainable solutions to poverty, enlightening societies about the benefits of excellent leadership, caring for the sick. The plan argues that, with these three, collaboration can ensure that these solutions are implemented for better wellbeing of the society. Though the plan and collaboration have only been used a few times, it is possible that with the increased use of these three can make the world a better place through coming up with solutions for addressing challenges of disease, poverty, illiteracy, poor governance and conflicts.

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