The World Economic Forum is too important to be left to economists alone
Release Date: 22 February 2007
By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary-General
It is no secret that many within civil society organisations have deep reservations about the World Economic Forum. Some feel that by being there in the first place, civil society partici-pants risk legitimising the event, while others feel that we are just not heard, even if we are given the chance to speak. Yet, just as politics is too important to be left to politicians alone, the future of the world’s economy as well as the broad range of issues discussed at the WEF, is too important to be left to economists and business people alone. So, after more than a week in Nairobi at the World Social Forum (WSF), I flew off to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
The flight took me from one world to a complete other, the contrast was stark and multiple. Leaving behind the glorious African sun for snowy Davos meant a change of clothes not only because of the weather but because a civil society person is often considered by WEF dele-gates as an oddity that is tolerated, rather than as someone who is rightfully there. As some-body who rarely dresses in a formal suit this is always a challenge, albeit a minor one). Addi-tionally, ‘fortress Davos’ is in blunt contrast to the open environment of the WSF. Lastly, while focusing on similar issues as the WSF, the WEF simply lacks the urgency that we saw in Nairobi. Hence, I, and many like me, attended the WEF to try and stir things up.
The signs were promising with WEF’s chair, Prof. Klaus Schwab in many interviews stress-ing how civil society is central to solving global problems. Still, this year’s WEF was charac-terised by a decrease in civil society invitees. Reason being that CSO’s do not pay the high registration fees that business delegates pay and this year’s demand from business partici-pants was overwhelming. Additionally there seemed to be a trend of civil society marginali-sation within the programme. First, the roles civil society participants were offered appeared more marginal than in previous years. Secondly, while several of the WSF issues were ad-dressed at the WEF, they were done so in a rather narrow way. For example, though wel-coming the WEF recognition of climate change threats after 20 years of civil society pres-sure , head of GreenPeace Gerd Leipold noted that the de-politicisation of the dealing with the issue prevented a genuinely global public challenge required for government, business and civil society to play their rightful roles in the debate as well as in the development of so-lutions.
CIVICUS has for the last six years convened all the civil society delegates to the WEF who come mainly from trade unions, NGOs and faith-based institutions. This years meeting which was addressed by Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and now the head of the Ethical Globalisation Initiative, spoke of the “distance” between the World Social Forum and World Economic Forum. Having been in Nairobi, she reflected on the greater sense of urgency, the greater sense of solidarity of the WSF and the willingness to use such language as justice, human rights and gender equality, all of which was largely missing at Davos. She said, it was a testament to the WSF, that the WEF had to respond to the issues that were being framed in Nairobi. Additionally, one of the persistent criticisms myself and other civil society leaders, like Irene Khan of Amnesty International, have made to the leaders of the WEF involves the absence of any sense of gender balance, in content nor in participation. Ironically, the WEF has remarkably produced a useful report on gender but discussions around this report were sidelined. For the management of the WEF to simply say that they “can’t help it that most of the ‘world leaders’ are men” is more than just missing the point. Indeed, the WSF did much better on gender balance and in recognising the ur-gency of addressing gender for development and democracy.
My feelings regarding the marginalisation were well phrased by Larry Elliott, economics edi-tor of the Guardian. At Davos he sensed "more than a hint of a return to the future: a scram-ble for Africa, a sidelining of civil society, and geopolitical concerns trumping human rights". Now this may well sound like I am giving up on the WEF altogether, yet given the resources invested in the WEF and the powerbrokers it is able to convene, it is a forum that we as civil society leaders simply cannot ignore. If we stay confident about our values, perspectives, and vision of a more just world, then we should be confident that we can take these mes-sages to forums which might lack the urgency and perspective that civil society brings to global discourse and debates.
Essentially, we must ensure, even though our voices are small in number we are heard more loudly with regards to the just concerns we bring to the WEF from the WSF. For me person-ally, the WSF is a place to recharge batteries and to meet a diverse set of people from virtu-ally every corner of the world, people doing extraordinary things with miniscule resources. On the other hand, the WEF brings together the most powerful set of actors who have ex-traordinary resources to fundamentally address global problem. Yet, as many within the WSF would argue, many of the actors at the WEF, are more part of the problem than they are part of the solution.
This brings me to my concluding questions that continue to trouble me:
1. Is the time right for a conversation between the WSF and WEF or is the fragmentation so great that this would be an exercise in futility?
2. Is civil society participation during the WEF of added value alongside the pressure that the WSF brings to bear on WEF?
3. Moreover, how can we create a more just world if social and economic concerns are ad-dressed so separately?
Please share your guidance and reflections on these issues with CIVICUS by sending your comments and suggestions to editor@civicus.org.
Warmest regards,
Kumi Naidoo
Below you will find all previous columns published within e-CIVICUS editions.
