I made a quick trip to Washington, D.C. Thursday for the 2023 Global Inclusive Growth Summit organized by The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and the Aspen Institute.
The summit brought together a remarkable lineup of leaders from the private sector, philanthropy, and government to discuss how we, as a global society, goes about creating a fair and equitable world in which everyone has access to the same opportunities.
To quote the organizers: “It has never been more important to understand how constantly shifting demographics, circumstances, and technologies affect the growth, security, and prosperity of communities all over the world.”
The conversations touched on economic growth, education, financial security, jobs creation, economic mobility, climate change, refugees, and so much more.
Here is some of what we heard:
“We have to look at this dual-burden women have: we expect women to care for their children…but without a place to safely put their children, they cannot go into the labor force.” – Melinda French Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
“If it’s not inclusive, it doesn’t scale, and if it doesn’t scale, it doesn’t matter.” – Michael Miebach, CEO, Mastercard
“The federal government does provide subsidies for those who can’t afford electricity…I think we have to think about access to connectivity together with electricity and start putting them together in the same bucket.” – Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President, Microsoft
“When you bring [refugees] to your company, what you find is one of the most dedicated work forces you’ve ever had. The minute a refugee gets a job, they stop being a refugee.” – Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO, Chobani
“We want to add 15,000 residents, we want to increase black wealth in DC, and we have been pretty intentional on talking about how we get there.” – Muriel Bowser, Mayor, Washington DC
The Global Inclusive Growth Summit was broadcast live, but if you missed it you can catch it now on The Aspen Institute’s YouTube channel.
Check out photos of some of the speakers below.
