Diverse, inspiring and delivering numerous concrete policy proposals – the first meeting of the WFC’s Future Finance and Economics Commission from March 27th to 30th turned out to be a real success. WFC Councillor Ibrahim Abouleish cordially hosted the meeting at the SEKEM community near Cairo. The 13 attendees included Councillors Frances Moore-Lappé and Olivier Giscard d´Estaing, member of the Board of Advisors Margrit Kennedy, and WFC founder Jakob von Uexküll. Council members Riane Eisler, Prabhu Guptara, and Chico Whitaker could not attend the meeting, but are determined to take part in the commission’s further work.

The commission started by debating the very foundations of future finance and living economies serving people and planet, how new measures of human well-being can trigger an economic paradigm shift and which frame and wording is appropriate to foster this transition.

In the second part of the meeting, the discussions about the role of complementary currencies and a new taxation based on the depletion of natural resources led the commission to a number of concrete policy recommendations to curb speculation and to break the dominance of finance.

Helmy Abouleish, Managing Director of SEKEM Holding, organised a business dinner with the Egyptian Junior Business Association. More than 30 entrepreneurs discussed trends in future finance, monetary policies and sustainable economy with Councillors and invited experts.

The commission took home plenty of new ideas to transform finance – and the insight that SEKEM itself is the very best place to develop sustainable economics.