Columbia World Projects today issued a report on the results of its second Forum, the first meeting in a planned series focused on the issue of economic inequality.

Roughly 35 experts from government, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, philanthropy, academia and other areas gathered in June for the Forum. Columbia World Projects' Forum meetings, which are held several times per year, are a central part of how the program identifies projects that it will implement in the world beyond the university.

To read the full report from the inequality Forum, click here.

The report, which was drafted by Columbia World Projects staff together with Forum participants, outlines the findings from the meeting and identifies three projects that participants believe could address key aspects of economic inequality.

The Forum focused on levels of inequality that are so severe that they not only limit economic mobility, but deprive people of access to a range of resources — such as housing, education, labor and health — that enable them to live dignified lives and are critical to enjoying basic opportunities. These unacceptable outcomes may last a lifetime or even across generations, and have a profoundly harmful impact on our societies.

Of the projects presented at the Forum, participants expressed significant support for projects focusing on three themes: water infrastructure, early childhood education and the future of work. The first project would seek to design and pilot a decentralized, sustainable water system for communities in rural Alabama — the lack of which is causing negative health and environmental consequences — and which could be adapted for use in other parts of the U.S. and the world. The second project would aim to strengthen and scale a program which provides support to new parents near or below the poverty line during the first three years of their child’s life, which has been shown to narrow developmental and achievement gaps for children in low-income families. And the third project would seek to partner with a U.S. state to develop and pilot a set of policies to improve the quality of jobs in the care economy.

Columbia World Projects staff are working with experts at Columbia and outside partners to develop more detailed proposals for each of these projects, which will serve as the basis for making a decision as to whether they can and should be implemented by Columbia World Projects.

Established in 2017, Columbia World Projects is a new program at Columbia University that aims to systematically bring university research out into the world in the form of projects that will have a significant and lasting positive impact on people’s lives and will help guide the way to solutions to intractable problems, while also enriching research and scholarship.

Columbia World Projects convened its first Forum, on the topic of expanding energy access, earlier this year. To read the report on that Forum, click here.