The World Economic Forum, an international independent organisation based at Geneva, has held its high level annual meeting at Davos, renowned Swiss mountain ski resort, since 1971. World leaders in business, politics, society, media, and a smattering of committed celebrities rub shoulders, attend lectures and workshops on current key issues towards forging innovative partnerships for a better world.
The theme for the 2009 meeting, “Shaping the Post Crisis World,” was a far cry from the usual. I attended several WEF meetings from 1991 when the mood was upbeat. New initiatives were welcome as sources of information and inspiration. WEF was at the cutting edge of awareness-raising when I was invited to show United Nations films I produced on climate change and human rights. WEF keynote addresses on climate change, environment and development were made by Gro Harlem Bruntland in 1991 and by Maurice Strong, UNCED Secretary General, in 1992.
At this year’s WEF meeting, the same leaders who said in 2008 that the global market place was the panacea for developed and poor countries alike, and that the world economy was thriving, were now confronted with finding solutions for their collapse. Demonstrators raised banners saying: “You are the crisis.”
Time and again CEO’s and world leaders repeated they had not foreseen a crisis of such magnitude with so many casualties. Prime Minister Gordon Brown conceded that he and many others had thought global markets would spread risk but that very system had been exploited to spread contagion. Were they taken in by the warm feeling about globalisation generated by leeches sapping the system? Were they lulled by the phantom fiction that the international community could shake off all afflictions with moral force but without effective institutions?
Did they miss clear statements on equitable globalisation often aired at the WEF, on the dangers of unbridled globalisation driven by market forces at random and trade without soul? In 1992 at the WEF Nelson Mandela, then Head of the African National Congress called “for an end to poverty and for a more equitable distribution of opportunities, income and wealth within and among nations”. The Prince of Wales stressed that, “The next challenge for all international business leaders is to develop a new world vision – a form of business ethic which sees this international commitment to good corporate citizenship as a natural part of business.”
In contrast to other years, in 2009 there seemed to be more policy makers than CEOs at the WEF meeting as it focussed on 40 heads of state to come up with solutions to flesh out at last weeks G20 meeting. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso promised to provide 1.5 trillion yen to promote regional growth in Asia. Like Gordon Brown and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, he rejected trade protectionism which had turned the 1929 crash into the Great Depression of the 1930s. German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed a UN economic council. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao wanted, “balance between savings and consumption, financial innovation and regulation, financial sector and the economy.”
Berkeley Professor Laura Tyson thought the problem was systemic. Fiscal structures were out of control because of inadequate regulatory measures. CEOs stressed that new global governance mechanisms were needed for global financial stability. The Bretton Woods institutions were set up in 1944 at a time when the dollar was supreme and the USA was virtually the only world power. They are now out of date said heads of state. People had lost trust in the banking system which had failed. Trust had to be restored, lending and spending power resumed. International financial institutions had to be rebuilt around clear principles to ensure cross border transparency, disclosure and maintain the values behind the banking system. In WEF founder Klaus Schwab’s view, existing global governance institutions need a complete overhaul to solve the longer term issues raised by the current crisis. The Forum would launch a new initiative to that end.
Political and business leaders recognised that solutions to a world crisis with its epicentre in the USA could not come from the USA alone. They had to be co-ordinated at national, regional and international levels. “Yes we can do something about it but we have to do it together” said Gordon Brown. There was a mood of hope as political will had mustered in the USA for the landmark election to vote in the first African American president, Barack Obama, who in his inauguration address called for “a new foundation for growth to meet the needs of a new age”.
The Forum’s message to international decision makers, was that the global crisis needed swift political solutions balancing economics, ecology, developing countries’ needs, reshaping international institutions, and rebuilding value driven business with an effective regulatory framework.
Here lies the value of the Forum. Participants discuss openly, uncluttered by the formalities of diplomacy and bureaucracy. It is a buffer between governments, business and public and even in a time of crisis, an open door for getting the message out.
Copyright SM 21 February 2009