| 6 | CURTAIN RAISER Global cooperation for positive change From Davos 2022 to Davos 2023 World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting gathers together government, business and civil society leaders with the knowledge, expertise and clout to make positive change happen. Established more than 50 years ago, the Annual Meeting embodies ‘the spirit of Davos’, which is an attitude of openness and cooperation that is core to the mission of the Forum. Davos 2022 held last May was the first in-person Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum since January 2020. Davos 2023, running from January 16-20, marks a return to the January event. Last year, 2,500 world leaders and experts reconvened in Davos to address the most pressing challenges of our time: Ukraine and the future of the global world order, the growing urgency of the climate crisis and its impact on food and poverty, the outlook for the recession and the future of work, and how to end COVID-19 and prepare for the next pandemic when many countries still don’t have access to vaccines. “What we have to confront is a deep systemic and structural restructuring of our world. And this will take some time. And the world may look differently after …[the] transition process,” Dr Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, said. The importance of global cooperation has always been a key theme of Davos, but in 2022, geopolitical conversations took on new urgency against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. “Rebuilding global cooperation after years of erosion requires focusing on what has proven to work. During our current period of upheaval and discord, we must reaffirm, and strengthen, mechanisms of cooperation, because history has shown it is the only way to address our most urgent priorities,” wroteWorld Economic ForumPresident Børge Brende. The climate crisis has long been a key component of the Davos agenda. But with rising emissions, rising energy prices and rising food prices – inextricably linked and exacerbated by the geopolitical crisis in Ukraine – climate conversations took a graver tone at Davos 2022 as world leaders discussed the need for immediate action. During Davos 2022, the Forum launched the Resilience Consortium, which brings together ministers, chief executives and heads of international organizations, to accelerate collective action across key resilience drivers for the global economy and develop a common resilience framework. COVID-19 has been a hot topic during every Annual Meeting since January 2020, when the virus emerged – and thanks to the vaccines, attendees were able to return to Davos, more than two years later. Leaders at Davos 2022 discussed how governments, corporations and other stakeholders can collaborate to improve health equity – starting with preparing for the next pandemic. The Forum also generated substantial support for the importance of changing the care work model. Its report, Jobs of Tomorrow: The Triple Returns of Social Jobs in the Economic Recovery, is “a call to action to lead an ambitious, coordinated, multistakeholder approach to initiate a new wave of investments into three foundational social institutions: education, healthcare and care.” And finally, the members agreed that technology, carefully executed, could act as a multiplier to address multiple challenges simultaneously – from reducing poverty to stopping climate change. But to get there, digital inclusion, security and appropriate regulation are essential. And Davos 2023 will take the steps necessary for moving ahead. • What we have to confront is a deep systemic and structural restructuring of our world. And this will take some time. And the world may look differently after … [the] transition process Dr Klaus Schwab founder of the World Economic Forum
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTcxNzM1