Page 87 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 10

ECONOMY

The World Economic Forum has entrepreneurialism and the trust body, that is celebrating 5 decades
developed a reputation as a trusted of all stakeholders – that can bring of partnership in shaping history,
platform for informed collabo- together people who have the power now wants to shape the future using
ration and cooperation between to make change, to achieve mutu- The Global Reset and the Covid
all stakeholders – reinforced by a al understanding and empathy, to ‘pandemic’ as a trigger point and
track record of success over five come to common agreement and, rallying mechanism.
decades. The Forum now offers its where appropriate, push action
experience in building purpose-driv- forward.” So here we are. 2020 is behind us.
en communities in service of the 2021 is before us and the World
extraordinary challenge and oppor- They have been incredibly convinc- Economic Forum is pushing the fol-
tunity the world faces for a “Great ing and successful at setting forth lowing agenda through its partners
Reset”. The Forum provides an and building upon their agenda. to the world. Speaking at the launch
unparalleled platform for creating, The World Economic Forum of the book COVID-19: The Great
shaping and delivering collaborative partners with: “1,000 leading global Reset, in July 2020, co-authored
solutions for the future through its: companies... special communities with Thierry Malleret, Karl Schwab
Status as the International Organiza- of emerging global enterprises, said, “We are at a turning point of
tion for Public-Private Cooperation; technology pioneers and start-ups. humankind. I think we should not
Hub for cutting-edge ideas, exper- Governments and International underestimate the historical signifi-
tise and knowledge resources tools; Organizations through joint projects cance of the situation we are in. We
Leadership in enabling stakeholder and cooperation agreements. The know the world will look differently
capitalism and delivering solutions leaders of globally active NGOs, (sic) when we move out from the
to global challenges; Authority in trade unions, cultural leaders and acute phase of the virus into a new
shaping and leveraging the Fourth other civil society... reinforced by situation… people assume that we
Industrial Revolution. ” our community of social entre- are just going back to the good old
preneurs, working on models of world that we had and everything
The World Economic Forum was social innovation. Over 1,000 of will be normal again; to how we are
founded in 1971 and, in the last 50 the world’s most recognized lead- used to normal in the old fashion.
years, has grown strategically, very ers in their thirties are engaged as This is fiction. It will not happen...”
deliberately morphing from being Young Global Leaders, and close to He goes on to outline 5 ways in
purely European to being truly glob- 10,000 outstanding young people in which the world can create “a more
al in nature, focus and membership. their twenties contribute as Global resilient, a more inclusive and a
In fact, in their book commemorat- Shapers, active in more than 400 more sustainable world”:
ing their 50-year journey, they speak cities around the world. The world’s “The first one is we have to rede-
of the WEF as “a partner in shaping leading experts... Top-ranking global fine our social contract to integrate
history”. This would explain why research universities... Journalists more inclusion… Covid will create
The Great Reset is being launched and editors from the world’s leading again a gap between the so-called
under their aegis and with all the news organizations ...” This means industrialized and emerging coun-
strength, might and support of their that it is highly likely that you work tries. The emerging countries at least
huge global network. for, interact with, buy from, supply some of them suffering much more
to, or are in some way, shape or compared to some of the countries
WEF defines itself as: “… the In- form, influenced by more than one which have a well established social
ternational Organization for Pub- of the World Economic Forum safety net.
lic-Private Cooperation.” Saying that partners.
“The Forum engages the foremost Second, it’s a decarbonization of the
political, business, cultural and other In short, almost the entire world has economy to protect us against, say
leaders of society to shape global, converged at a singular point known an environmental virus ...
regional and industry agendas. It is as the World Economic Forum that Number three and that’s a major
independent, impartial and not tied serves as the epicenter for global part also of the book, (… I pub-
to any special interests.” Elsewhere agenda-setting, policy influencing lished four years ago the book The
on their website, they say: “Each and crafting, project or program- Fourth Industrial Revolution), all
of these factors and many others matic funding and implementation. those technologies are very much
require a new kind of institution This is a powerful meeting point advanced now by Covid. Every-
– one with the adaptability, the indeed and highly influential. This thing will be digitalized which can

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