Group Defines World's Top Challenges

In May of this year, according to CIO magazine, a group of top economists met in Copenhagen, Denmark, to discuss the top problems facing the world in the coming years and ways to address them. Calling itself the Copenhagen Consensus, the group identified the following challenges as the most pressing in the world:

1. Controlling HIV/AIDS
2. Fighting malnutrition
3. Trade liberalization
4. Controlling malaria
5. Bringing agricultural technologies to poor countries

Clearly, the group sees health and nutrition as the world's biggest problems. It's also interesting to note how out of alignment these concerns are with U.S. priorities (though President Bush has mentioned the need to fight HIV/AIDS on many occasions).