Source: Wikipedia

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation best known
for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which brings together top business leaders,
international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most
pressing issues facing the world, including health and the environment. Beside meetings, the
WEF produces a series of research reports and engages its members in sector specific
initiatives.[1] WEF also organizes the "Annual Meeting of the New Champions" in China and
a series of regional meetings throughout the year. In 2008 those regional meetings included
meetings on Europe and Central Asia, East Asia, the Russia CEO Roundtable, Africa, the
Middle East, and the World Economic Forum on Latin America. In 2008 it launched the
"Summit on the Global Agenda" in Dubai.

History
The WEF was founded in 1971 by Klaus Martin Schwab, a German-born business professor
at the University of Geneva.[2] Originally named the European Management Forum, it
changed its name to the World Economic Forum in 1987 and sought to broaden its vision
further to include providing a platform for resolving international conflicts.

In the summer of 1971 Schwab invited 444 executives from Western European firms to the
first European Management Symposium held in the Davos Congress Centre under the
patronage of the European Commission and European industrial associations, where Schwab
sought to introduce European firms to US management practices. He then founded the WEF
as a non-profit organization based in Geneva and drew European business leaders to Davos
for their annual meetings each January.[3]

Schwab developed the "stakeholder" management approach which based corporate success
on managers taking account of all interests: not merely shareholders, clients and customers,
but employees and the communities within which the firm is situated, including governments.
[4]
Events in 1973 including the collapse of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate
mechanism and the Arab-Israeli War saw the annual meeting expand its focus from
management to economic and social issues, and political leaders were invited for the first
time to Davos in January 1974.[5]

As the years went by, political leaders began to use Davos as a neutral platform to resolve
their differences. The Davos Declaration was signed in 1988 by Greece and Turkey, helping
them turn back from the brink of war. In 1992 South African President F. W. de Klerk met
with Nelson Mandela and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi at the Annual Meeting, their first joint
appearance outside South Africa. At the 1994 Annual Meeting, Israeli Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat reached a draft agreement on Gaza and
Jericho.[6] In 2008 Bill Gates gave a keynote speech on Creative Capitalism, a form of
capitalism that works both to generate profits and solve the world’s inequities, using market
forces to better address the needs of the poor.[7][8]

Organization
The WEF is headquartered in Cologny, Geneva, Switzerland. In 2006 it opened regional
offices in Beijing, China and New York City. It strives to be impartial, and is not tied to any
political, partisan or national interests. It is "committed to improving the State of the World".
[9]
, and has observer status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and is
under the supervision of the Swiss Federal Government. Its highest governance body is the
Foundation Board consisting of 22 members, including former British Prime Minister Tony
Blair and Queen Rania of Jordan.

During the five-day Annual meeting in 2009, over 2,500 participants from 91 countries
gathered in Davos. Around 75% (1,170) were business leaders, drawn principally from its
members, 1,000 of world's top companies. Besides these, participants included 219 public
figures, including 40 heads of state or government, 64 cabinet ministers, 30 heads or senior
officials of international organizations and 10 ambassadors. More than 432 participants were
from civil society, including 32 heads or representatives of non-governmental organizations,
225 media leaders, 149 leaders from academic institutions and think tanks, 15 religious
leaders of different faiths and 11 union leaders.[10]

Membership

The WEF is funded by its 1000 member companies, the typical company being a global
enterprise with more than five billion dollars in turnover, although the latter can vary by
industry and region. In addition, these enterprises rank among the top companies within their
industry and/or country and play a leading role in shaping the future of their industry and/or
region. As of 2005, each member company pays a basic annual membership fee of CHF
42,500 and a CHF 18,000 Annual Meeting fee which covers the participation of its CEO at
the Annual Meeting in Davos. Industry Partners and Strategic Partners pay CHF 250,000 and
CHF 500,000 respectively allowing them to play a greater role in the Forum’s initiatives.[11][12]

In addition, these enterprises rank among the top companies within their industry and/or
country (generally based on turnover in millions of US dollars; for financial institutions the
criteria is based on assets) and play a leading role in shaping the future of their industry
and/or region, as judged by the Forum's selection committee.

Industry Partners come from a broad range of business sectors, including construction,
aviation, technology, tourism, food and beverage, engineering, and financial services. These
companies are alert to the global issues that most affect their specific industry sector.

Activities
Annual Meeting in Davos

The flagship event of the WEF is the invitation-only Annual Meeting held every year at the
end of January in the Swiss alpine resort of Davos,[13] bringing together CEOs from its 1000
member companies as well as selected politicians, representatives from academia, NGOs,
religious leaders and the media.[14] Around 2200 participants gather for the five-day event and
attend some 220 sessions in the official programme. The discussions focus around key issues
of global concern (such as international conflicts, poverty and environmental problems) and
possible solutions.[1] In all about 500 journalists from online, print, radio and TV take part,
and are furnished with access to all of the sessions in the official program, some of which are
also webcast.[15]
All plenary debates from Davos are also available on YouTube,[16] pictures are available for
free at Flickr[17] and key quotes are available on Twitter.[18] In 2007 the WEF opened pages on
social media platforms such as MySpace[19] and Facebook.[20] At the Annual Meeting 2009 the
Forum invited the general public to participate in the Davos Debates on YouTube [21][22]
allowing one user to attend the Annual Meeting in person. In 2008 the Davos Question on
YouTube[23] allowed YouTube users to interact with the world leaders gathered in Davos who
were encouraged to reply from a YouTube Video Corner at the congress centre. [24] In 2008
press conferences are live streamed on Qik[25] and Mogulus[26] allowing anyone to put
questions to the speakers. In 2006 and 2007 selected participants were interviewed in, and the
closing session was streamed into Reuters' auditorium in Second Life.[27]

Participants

In 2008, some 250 public figures (head of state or government, cabinet ministers,
ambassadors, heads or senior officials of international organization) attended the Annual
Meeting, including: Abdoulaye Wade, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Anders
Fogh Rasmussen, Ban Ki-moon, Condoleezza Rice, Ferenc Gyurcsany, François Fillon,
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Gordon Brown, Hamid Karzai, Ilham Aliyev, Jan Peter
Balkenende, Lee Bollinger, Lee Hsien Loong, Pervez Musharraf, Queen Rania of Jordan,
Ruth Simmons, Salam Fayyad, Sali Berisha, Serzh Sargsyan, Shimon Peres, Umaru Musa
Yar'adua, Valdas Adamkus, Yasuo Fukuda, Viktor A. Yushchenko and Zeng Peiyan.[28]

Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Michael Wolf, Bono, Paulo Coelho and Tony Blair are also
regular Davos attendees. Past attendees include Angela Merkel, Dmitry Medvedev, Henry
Kissinger, Nelson Mandela, Raymond Barre, Julian Lloyd Webber and Yasser Arafat.

The participants at the Annual Meeting were collectively described as "Davos Man" by
American scholar Samuel Huntington, referring to a global elite whose members view
themselves as completely international.[29][30]

Annual Meeting of the New Champions

In 2007 the WEF established the Annual Meeting of the New Champions (also called
Summer Davos), held annually in China and alternating between Dalian and Tianjin, bringing
together 1,500 influential stakeholders of what the Forum calls Global Growth Companies,
primarily from rapidly growing emerging countries such as China, India, Russia, Mexico, and
Brazil, but also including fast movers from developed countries. The meeting also engages
with the next generation of global leaders, fast-growing regions, competitive cities and
technology pioneers from around the globe.[31][32] Premier Wen Jiabao has delivered a plenary
address at previous sessions.

Regional meetings

Every year ten regional meetings take place, enabling close contact between corporate
business leaders, local government leaders and NGOs. Meetings are held in Africa, East Asia,
Latin America and the Middle East The mix of hosting countries varies from year to year, but
China and India have hosted consistently over the past decade.[33]

Young Global Leaders

In 2005 the WEF established the community of Young Global Leaders, successor to the
Global Leaders of Tomorrow consisting of under 40 year old leaders from all around the
world and a myriad of disciplines and sectors. The leaders engage in the 2030 Initiative, the
creation of an action plan for how to reach the vision of what the world could be like in 2030.
Among the Young Global Leaders are:[34] Shai Agassi, Anousheh Ansari, Maria Consuelo
Araujo, Lera Auerbach, Fatmir Besimi, Ian Bremmer, Sergey Brin, Tyler Brûlé, Patrick
Chappatte, Olafur Eliasson, Roger Federer, Jens Martin Skibsted, Rahul Gandhi, Kenneth
Griffin, Kelly Chen, Scott J. Freidheim, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Abdulsalam
Haykal, Silvana Koch-Mehrin, Irshad Manji, Princess Mathilde of Belgium, Aditya Mittal,
Euvin Naidoo, Gavin Newsom, Larry Page, Lewis Gordon Pugh, Senator Mar Roxas of the
Philippines, Christopher Schläffer, Anoushka Shankar, Premal Shah, Josh Spear, Peter Thiel,
Jimmy Wales, and Niklas Zennström. New members are selected on a yearly basis and the
Forum of Young Global Leaders will count 1111 members.[35][36][37]

Social Entrepreneurs

Since 2000 the WEF has been promoting models developed by the world's leading social
entrepreneurs in close collaboration with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.
[38]
The WEF highlights social entrepreneurship as a key element to advance societies and
address social problems.[39][40] Selected social entrepreneurs are invited to participate in the
regional meetings and the Annual Meetings of the Forum where they have a chance to meet
chief executives and senior government officials. At the Annual Meeting 2003, for example,
Jeroo Bilimoria met with Roberto Blois, deputy secretary-general of the International
Telecommunication Union, an encounter that produced a key partnership for her organization
Child Helpline International.[41]

Research Reports

The WEF also serves as a think tank, and publishes a wide range of reports focusing on issues
of concern and importance to Forum communities. In particular, Strategic Insight Teams
focus on producing reports of relevance in the fields of competitiveness, global risks and
scenario thinking.

The Competitiveness Team produces a range of annual economic reports (first published in
brackets): the Global Competitiveness Report (1979) measures competitiveness of countries
and economies; The Global Information Technology Report (2001) assesses their
competitiveness based on their IT readiness; the Global Gender Gap Report (2005) examines
critical areas of inequality between men and women; the Global Risks Report (2006) assesses
key global risks; the Global Travel and Tourism Report (2007) measures travel and tourism
competitiveness and the Global Enabling Trade Report (2008) presents a cross-country
analysis of the large number of measures facilitating trade between nations.[42]

The Global Risk Network produces a yearly report assessing those risks which are deemed to
be global in scope, have cross-industry relevance, are uncertain, have the potential to cause
upwards of US$ 10 billion in economic damage, have the potential to cause major human
suffering and which require a multistakeholder approach for mitigation.[43]

The Scenario Planning team develops a range of regional, industry-focused and issue-specific
scenario reports designed to challenge readers' assumptions, raise awareness of critical
underlying factors and stimulate fresh thinking about the future. [44] Recent reports include a
major publication on possible near- and long-term impacts of the global financial crisis of
2008–2009, The Future of the Global Financial System: A Near-Term Outlook and Long-
Term Scenarios and scenarios on the impact of demographic shifts on pension and healthcare
financing, "Financing Demographic Shifts: Pension and Healthcare Scenarios to 2030".

Initiatives

The Global Health Initiative (GHI) was launched by Kofi Annan at the Annual Meeting in
2002. The GHI’s mission is to engage businesses in public-private partnerships to tackle
HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria and Health Systems.

The Global Education Initiative (GEI), launched during the Annual Meeting in 2003, has
brought together international IT companies and governments in Jordan, Egypt and India
which has resulted in new PC hardware in the classrooms and more local teachers trained in
e-learning. This is having a real impact on the lives of children. The GEI model which is
scalable and sustainable is now being used as an educational blueprint in other countries
including Rwanda.

The Environmental Initiative covers Climate Change and Water. Under the Gleneagles
Dialogue on Climate Change, the government of UK asked the World Economic Forum at the
G8 Summit in Gleneagles in 2005 to facilitate a dialogue with the business community to
develop recommendations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This set of
recommendations, endorsed by a global group of CEOs, was presented to leaders ahead of the
G8 Summit in Toyako/Hokkaido held in July 2008.[45][46]

The Water Initiative brings together different stakeholders like Alcan Inc., the Swiss Agency
for Development and Cooperation, USAID India, UNDP India, Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII), Government of Rajasthan and the NEPAD Business Foundation to develop
public-private partnerships on water management in South Africa and India.

In an effort to combat corruption, the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) was
launched by CEOs from the Engineering and Construction, Energy and Metals and Mining
industries at the Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2004. PACI is a platform for peer
exchange on practical experience and dilemma situations. Some 140 companies have signed.
[47]

Awards

Technology Pioneers Programme

The Technology Pioneers Programme recognizes companies all over the world designing and
developing new technologies. The award is given to 30-50 companies each year. As of 2008,
391 companies have been so recognized. The award was first given in 2003.

In line with the World Economic Forum’s commitment to improving the state of the world,
the Tech Pioneers are integrated into its activities with the objective to identify and address
future-oriented issues on the global agenda, in proactive, innovative and entrepreneurial
ways. By bringing these executives together with scientists, academics, NGOs, and Forum
members and partners, the Forum's goal is to shed new light on how technologies can be used
to, for example, find new vaccines, create economic growth and enhance global
communication.[48]

Refugee Run

Co-hosted by UNHCR and Hong Kong based charity Crossroads Foundation, the Refugee
Run is a simulation featured in the World Economic Forum since 2009. It provides a snapshot
of the often terrifying ordeal suffered by people forced to flee their homes because of
violence or persecution. In WEF, the unique simulation is being used to help some of the
world's most influential people understand the plight of refugees and internally displaced
people, empathize with them and support the efforts of UNHCR to help them.[49][50]

Criticism
In the late 1990s the WEF, along with the G7, World Bank, WTO, and IMF came under
heavy criticism by anti-globalisation activists who claimed that capitalism and globalization
were increasing poverty and destroying the environment. 1500 demonstrators disrupted the
World Economic Forum in Melbourne, Australia, obstructing the passage of 200 delegates to
the meeting.[51] Demonstrations are repeatedly held in Davos - see Anti-WEF protests in
Switzerland, January 2003 - to protest against the meeting of "fat cats in the snow", as rock
singer Bono tongue-in-cheek termed it.[52]

American linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky thinks that globalization in the
sense of investors and privileged elites or some participants of the World Economic Forum is
a propaganda term.

Chomsky said in an interview "The dominant propaganda systems have appropriated the term
"globalization" to refer to the specific version of international economic integration that they
favor, which privileges the rights of investors and lenders, those of people being incidental. In
accord with this usage, those who favor a different form of international integration, which
privileges the rights of human beings, become "anti-globalist." This is simply vulgar
propaganda, like the term "anti-Soviet" used by the most disgusting commissars to refer to
dissidents. It is not only vulgar, but idiotic. Take the World Social Forum, called "anti-
globalization" in the propaganda system—which happens to include the media, the educated
classes, etc., with rare exceptions. The WSF is a paradigm example of globalization. It is a
gathering of huge numbers of people from all over the world, from just about every corner of
life one can think of, apart from the extremely narrow highly privileged elites who meet at
the competing World Economic Forum, and are called "pro-globalization" by the propaganda
system. An observer watching this farce from Mars would collapse in hysterical laughter at
the antics of the educated classes."

In January 2000, 1,000 protesters marched through the streets of Davos and smashed the
window of the local McDonald's restaurant.[53] The tight security measures around Davos
have kept demonstrators from the Alpine resort, and most demonstrations are now held in
Zürich, Bern or Basel.[54] The costs of the security measures, which are shared by the Forum
and the Swiss cantonal and national authorities have also been frequently criticised in the
Swiss national media.[55]
Starting at the Annual Meeting in January 2003 in Davos, an Open Forum Davos,[56] co-
organized by the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches) was held in parallel, opening up
the debate about globalisation to the general public. The Open Forum has been held in the
local high school every year, featuring top politicians and business leaders, and is open to all
members of the public free of charge.[57][58]

The Annual Meeting has also been decried as a "mix of pomp and platitude", and criticized
for moving away from serious economics and accomplishing little of substance, particularly
with the increasing involvement of NGOs that have little or no expertise in economics.
Instead of a discussion on the world economy with knowledgeable experts alongside key
business and political players, Davos now features the top media political causes of the day,
such as global climate change and AIDS in Africa.[