Davos-Klosters, Switzerland 27 - 31 January
Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild
Purpose
Improving the state of the world requires catalysing global cooperation to address pressing challenges andfuture risks. Global cooperation in turn needs stakeholders from business, government, the media, science,religion, the arts and civil society to collaborate as a true community. To this end, the World Economic ForumAnnual Meeting has engaged leaders from all walks of life to shape the global agenda at the start of the yearfor the last four decades.
The Transformation Continues
The financial crisis of 2008 and the “Great Recession” of 2009 raise tough questions about the future of theglobal economy. However, they also provide insights into economic interdependencies, governance gaps andsystemic risks intrinsic to globalization. These revelations in turn compel us to rethink business models,financial innovation and risk management.
Rethinking also triggers attempts at redesign. National legislatures, supervisory authorities and internationalorganizations are now redesigning institutions, policies and regulations with the aim of closing governancegaps, preventing systemic failures and restoring growth. However, these redesign efforts need common vision,collaborative innovation and public-private partnerships for their long-term success. The success drivers arethemselves predicated on the individuals and institutions empowered to take action having the trust ofstakeholder communities.
Decision-makers, therefore, must rebuild trust, not only to establish the legitimacy of their redesign but also toinstil confidence in their future success. Rethinking, redesigning and rebuilding are invariably complex asvalues, norms and incentives change and, in turn, reshape stakeholder communities, social networks,governance structures and industry models worldwide.
Rethink, Redesign and Rebuild in Davos
The Annual Meeting 2009 theme was “Shaping the Post-Crisis World”. The intent was to absorb the earlylessons from the financial crisis and to understand how risks interconnect, to encourage longer term thinkingand to consider unintended consequences of various calls for action. The learning and transformation willcontinue into next year along with increasing expectations for positive change. In response to new priorities,the organizing theme for the 40th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in 2010 is a call to action, "Improvethe State of the World: Rethink, Redesign and Rebuild".
The pressure to rethink, redesign and rebuild is increasing along with concern over the current state of theworld. The fiscal and monetary prescriptions to ease the pain of global economic shocks are now fuellinganxieties about the creation of new economic bubbles. Moreover, the demographic, behavioural andtechnological changes linked to the collapse in global demand are challenging basic assumptions about thenascent recovery. Major industries are still contending with cyclical and structural threats to their businessmodels. In addition, weaknesses of governance systems, exposed by the financial crisis, are mostlyunchanged with respect to looming global risks such as climate change, nuclear proliferation and pandemic.Driving the rethink at the 40th Annual Meeting will be the Network of Global Agenda Councils comprised ofover 1,000 experts active in over 70 Councils created to advance solutions to the most critical challengesfacing the world. The councils will meet at the Summit on the Global Agenda in November and the AnnualMeeting programme will highlight their recommendations.
Redesign discussions in Davos will leverage the ongoing work of the Forum’s Global Redesign Initiative(GRI), an unprecedented multistakeholder dialogue focusing on adapting structures and systems ofinternational cooperation to the challenges of the 21st century. Launched at the Annual Meeting 2009, the GRIis under the patronage of the governments of Qatar, Singapore and Switzerland.
The effort to rebuild trust and confidence needs to begin before, and extend well beyond next year’s AnnualMeeting. To that end, WELCOM, a collaborative platform that integrates Web 2.0 technology, will enableleaders to build knowledge, share insights and reach out to key stakeholders as an online communitythroughout the year.
The Annual Meeting 2010 programme will harness the wisdom and experience of a distinguished group ofindustry leaders serving as Co-Chairs: Josef Ackermann, Chairman of the Management Board and theGroup Executive Committee, Deutsche Bank (Germany), Melinda French Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & MelindaGates Foundation (USA)Azim H. Premji, Chairman, Wipro, (India), Peter Sands, Group Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Standard Chartered Bank (United Kingdom); Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Executive Committee andChief Executive Officer, Google Inc. (USA), Ronald A. Williams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Aetna(USA); and Patricia Woertz, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)(USA).
Thematic Pillars of the Programme
The programme aims to present an interdisciplinary and systemic view of the major economic, political,societal and technological forces currently at work in the world. Next year’s programme will focus on thefollowing six areas of inquiry and their global, regional and industry dimensions:
• How to Strengthen Economic and Social Welfare
• How to Mitigate Global Risks and Address Systemic Failures
• How to Ensure Sustainability
• How to Enhance Security
• How to Create a Values Framework
• How to Build Effective Institutions
Sessions at the Annual Meeting in Davos and via WELCOM will also explore important developments, trendsand ideas from business, culture and science. The programme is continuously updated to reflect the latestdevelopments around the world.
14 December 2009 |
