A global survey on values was recently conducted through Facebook involving over 130,000 respondents from ten G20 economies – France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey and the United States – and, interestingly enough, more than two-thirds of those polled believe that the current economic crisis is also a crisis of values.

Overall, the poll results showed deficit trust regarding values and ethics in the business world and that only 50 percent believe there are universal values. The majority of respondents also believe that people do not apply the same values in their professional lives as they do in their private lives.

When asked which values are important for the global economic and political system conduct of business, almost 40 percent chose integrity, honesty and transparency; 24% chose others’ rights, dignity and views; 20% chose the impact of actions on the well-being of others and 17% chose preserving the environment.

And when asked whether business should be primarily responsible to their shareholders, their employees, their clients and customers, or all three equally, almost half of the respondents chose the option of “all three equally.”

These are among the findings of the World Economic Forum’s Faith and the Global Agenda: Values for the Post-Crisis Economy, an annual report on issues concerning the role of faith in global affairs.

Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum founder and chairman, underscored the need for a set of values around which our global economic institutions and mechanisms must be built.

“Our present system fails to meet its obligations to as many as 3 billion people in the world. Our civic, business and political cultures must be transferred if we are to close this gap,” he said, adding that this has prompted the WEF to bring together world leaders to rethink values underpinning global system of cooperation.

Since its inception 40 years ago, the World Economic Forum has integrated the voices of faith leaders into a wide-ranging set of issues and activities. Recognizing their unique and essential role, the WEF has placed a renewed emphasis on engaging the most influential religious leaders from multiple faiths to lead the debate on values.

The WEF has been engaging since 2001 various faith communities in inter-faith dialogue, most notably through our Community for West-Islam dialogue, a dynamic community of business, political, religious, media and opinion leaders pursuing a continuing dialogue to promote understanding across different segments of society in the West and the Muslim world.

The current work of the Faith Communities at the Forum has expanded beyond the focus on interfaith dialogue, embracing a broad agenda that explores relevant issues underlying religion, business, society and politics.

“The economic and financial crisis is an opportunity to re-articulate the values that should underpin our global institutions going forward,” said John J. DeGioia. He also said that the world’s religious communities are critical repositories of those values.

There is one issue of crucial importance to economic development of a Third World country like the Philippines – namely, the issue of unbridled population explosion. I wonder where the WEF stands on this issue and whether or not the predominantly Catholic church in the country is represented in the WEF’s Community of Global Religious Leaders.

Unchecked population growth is like a ticking time-bomb and for us the fuse is getting smaller and smaller. Unfortunately, however, most of our leaders when this issue arises behave like a frightened ostrich hiding its head in the sand.

Email: businessagenda_report@yahoo.com.ph.