This year, Driving Change set out to identify the seventy-five most influential post-war policies which have had the greatest impact on shaping the world as we know it today. These policies span interventions on everything from sustainability to education to healthcare. They come from Bangladesh and Brazil, India and China, the United States and the United Kingdom, South Africa and Sweden, among other pioneering countries. We hope that by creating this list we can spark discussion around what defines great policymaking and what processes are needed to produce it. Read more in our letter from the editors.
OUR TOP TWELVE
- Britain’s NHS (universal healthcare)
- Formation of the United Nations (global governance)
- The Montreal protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer (environmental treaties)
- Adoption of the world wide web standard (creation of the internet)
- Smallpox eradicated (eliminating infectious diseases)
- Man on the moon (space exploration)
- End of apartheid in South Africa (racial equality)
- The nuclear weapons non-proliferation treaty (arms control)
- Deng Xiaoping’s reforms (opening China’s economy)
- Regulatory approval of contraceptive pill (female empowerment)
- Dutch same-sex marriage law (equality of sexual orientation)
- India’s Aadhaar program (citizen identity cards)
THE REST
- Britain’s clean air act (curbing pollution)
- Rio convention (international climate change agreements)
- CERES principles (sustainable investment)
- Bangladesh bans plastic bags (reducing use of plastics)
- Australia’s oceans policy (marine preservation)
- Colombia’s dedicated bike lanes (reviving cycling)
- Ban on ivory trade (protecting endangered species)
- The Superfund act (restoring the environment)
- EU reach legislation (controlling toxic chemicals)
- Indian independence (decolonization)
- Creation of World Trade Organization (free trade)
- Treaty of Rome (formation of the European Union)
- Launch of the Euro (monetary union)
- The international criminal court (punishing bad leaders)
- Formation of World Health Organization (global public health policies)
- Global alliance for vaccines and immunization (GAVI) (immunization against infectious diseases)
- New York’s public smoking ban (reducing tobacco use)
- Compulsory seat belts in Victoria (safe driving policy)
- Portuguese decriminalization (drug policy)
- Japan’s firearms ban (gun crime eradication)
- Abolition of Costa Rica’s military (peacemaking)
- Brazil’s bolsa familia (conditional anti-poverty payments)
- Kenya’s m-pesa (mobile phone based banking)
- Brazil’s Maria da Penha law (reducing gender-based violence)
- America’s equal pay act (workplace gender equality)
- Chile’s compulsory pensions (saving for retirement)
- America’s civil rights act (tackling discrimination)
- The Maputo protocol (women’s rights)
- Australia’s ‘x’ passports(transgender rights)
- Ending china’s one-child policy (population planning)
- Roe versus Wade (reproductive rights)
- Sweden’s paid paternity leave (child care)
- California’s no-fault law (legalization of divorce)
- The universal declaration (human rights)
- China’s grain for green program (reforestation)
- Singapore’s go it alone strategy (building city states)
- Dubai’s economic development plan (managing oil wealth)
- The British Telecom IPO (privatisation)
- Flight of the Concorde (supersonic travel)
- The Amsterdam toilet fly (nudge policies)
- Norway’s rehabilitation policies (prison reform)
- South Africa’s truth and reconciliation commission (social healing)
- The sustainable development goals (SDGs) (global goals)
- Norman Borlaug’s Mexican pilot succeeds (green revolution in agriculture)
- Opening the Channel tunnel (European Unification)
- Japan’s bullet trains (high-speed rail)
- Estonia’s e-residency (digital government)
- The creation of defense advanced research projects agency (DARPA) (public-sector-led innovation)
- Brazil’s forced licensing of anti-retrovirals (fighting AIDS/HIV)
- Minha casa, minha vida (social housing)
- Colombia’s peace deal (demobilization of military groups)
- Rwanda’s parliamentary quota (electing women)
- UN convention on the rights of the child (empowering children)
- New Zealand’s 2% inflation target (stabilizing prices)
- The 0.7% target (international development spending)
- Baltimore’s living wage law (decent pay)
- The Warnock report (human fertility)
- The foreign corrupt practices act (fighting bribery)
- The Open University (universal higher education)
- Quantitative easing (monetary policy)
- The Marshall plan (post-war reconstruction)
- India’s toilet-building program (sanitation)
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