WEF Davos: Responsible Leadership, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Social Responsibility 13/01/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Days away from the opening of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, the founder of the forum described the main themes of the upcoming event, and underlined the role of social responsibility for business leaders. World Economic Forum press briefing this week in Geneva The 2017 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) is taking place from 17-20 January in Davos-Klosters, in eastern Switzerland. Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF, said at a 10 January press briefing that the WEF has for a long time felt that economic development should go hand in hand with social progress and social responsibility. “It was the origin of the World Economic Forum to create a consciousness of the global community that economic activities always have to be coupled with social responsibility,” he said, adding that the multi-stakeholder concept was at the origin of the forum. The title of the 2017 Annual Meeting is “Responsive and Responsible Leadership.” Schwab said the title means that as a leader “you have to be responsive, you have to listen, you have to interact with those people who have entrusted you with leadership. But it is not enough to listen. You also have to act, you have to be responsible,” and be courageous enough to take decisions to improve the state of the world. A detailed explanation of the theme is here [pdf]. Four major tracks have been defined for the forum, he said. The first one is how to reinvigorate the global growth rate, stuck at about 3 percent, which he said is not enough to solve major challenges such as lack of social inclusion, and youth unemployment. The second track is about ensuring that market capital is more inclusive, he explained. “Every market economy will produce winners and losers,” he said, but the system will only be sustainable if there is enough solidarity between the winners and the losers, he added. The third track is about “the 4th Industrial Revolution,” which was the main theme of the 2016 Davos meeting and the subject of a book authored by Schwab. The book looks at the changes brought by new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the internet of things, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and quantum computing, and how the transformations driven by this “industrial revolution” will be addressed. The introduction of the book is here [pdf]. The fourth track is about reimagining global cooperation, he said. He underlined that the opening speaker of the 2017 meeting will be Xi Jinping, China’s president, which in the context of global cooperation is of essential importance, he said. Xi Jinping will be accompanied by a strong delegation of political and business leaders, he added. According to a WEF press release, some 3,000 “leaders from government, business and civil society” are expected to attend the annual meeting. The geographical and gender repartition of the participants is here. Some 400 sessions will be organised, it said. The list of participants shows among some 40 international organisations. Some of these include Francis Gurry, head of the World Intellectual Property Organization; Roberto Azevêdo, head of the World Trade Organization; Helen Clark , head of the United Nations Development Programme; and Mukhisa Kituyi, head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). António Guterres, new secretary-general of the UN, is also expected to attend. Schwab announced at the press briefing a new Schwab Award [pdf] focused on stimulating more responsive and responsible leadership in the “age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” He said the CHF 500,000 (About US$ 492,500) fund for the award comes from Schwab’s prize money and all proceeds of his book. He said the WEF is committed to combining economic development with social progress as without economic development, social progress is not possible, and without social progress, economic development is not sustainable. Also speaking at the press briefing were members of the WEF Managing Board: Rick Samans, head of the Centre for the Global Agenda; Cheryl Martin, head of Industries; Philipp Rösler, head of the Centre for Regional Strategies; and Emma Benameur, head of programme Design. Martin said the 1,800 business leaders from across the globe attending the Davos meeting will have the opportunity to attend and engage in impact-oriented workshops on many issues, including financial inclusion, technology disruption, building healthier lives. New Coalition For R&D of Vaccines, Medicines Martin talked about a Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI) announced in the fall. There is a need for a global mechanism to coordinate research and development on all kinds of health technologies, such as vaccines, diagnostics, and medicines, she said. “We need a new system, with an innovative governance architecture,” she added. CEPI is an innovative partnership between the public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations, she explained. It was founded by the governments of India, Norway, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the WEF, she said. CEPI, which stems from the 2016 Davos meeting, now includes a number of partners, such as the European Commission, the governments of Liberia, Mali and Nigeria, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, GlaxoSmithKline, Institut Pasteur, Johnson & Johnson, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Sanofi, the Rockefeller Foundation, the UNDP, the UN World Food Programme, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. Rösler underlined the record number of public sector participants at the upcoming Davos meeting, with over 300 public figures, such as ministers and regulators, administrators, as well as mayors. He also said more that 70 representatives of non-governmental organisations and civil society are expected to attend the meeting this year. The “System Initiatives Programme” [pdf] reflects a sampling of the sessions during the meeting, which includes areas such as the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; the shaping of the future of consumption; the future of digital economy and society; the future of economic growth and social inclusion; the future of education, gender and work; shaping the future of energy; the future of environment and natural resource security; the future of financial and monetary systems, the future of food security and agriculture, and the future of health and healthcare. The archive of the press briefing is here. Image Credits: Catherine Saez Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Related Catherine Saez may be reached at csaez@ip-watch.ch."WEF Davos: Responsible Leadership, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Social Responsibility" by Intellectual Property Watch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.