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Opinion: Is Davos About Social Conscience or Socialite Soirees?

Imogen FoulkesJanuary 26, 2006

The World Economic Forum brings the world’s most powerful business and political leaders together to plan changes for good. Or does it? Maybe it's just an excuse to gossip in designer clothes and dine on lobster.

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Schmoozing with celebrities: Bono and Angela Merkel in DavosImage: AP

The World Economic Forum is underway this week in the Swiss alpine resort of Davos. The forum brings together over 2000 of the world’s most powerful business and political leaders. "The aim," the forum's organizers say, "is to tackle the big challenges facing the world." Critics say the forum is little more than a networking opportunity.

What is the world economic forum exactly? Is it a schmooze fest or an informal summit that can really solve some of the pressing problems facing the planet? It depends who you talk to.

Supporters point to the big themes the forum regularly addresses: last year poverty in Africa and global warming, this year the emerging economies of China and India, and the growing danger of an energy crisis sparked by rising oil prices.

A forum of good intentions but with few tangible results

Ein Mann läuft an einem Plakat vorbei. Tagungsort im schweizerischen Davos WEF
Lofty ideals, but what actually becomes of them?Image: AP

All very well, say the critics, but the fact is the world economic forum has no formal status; it drafts no treaties and approves no policies. Of good intentions there are plenty, but what actually happens afterwards?

Asked at the start of this forum what had changed for Africa over the course of the year since all the fine talk last January, the only example forum leaders could come up with was a gift of 160,000 mosquito nets -- not quite enough then to really ease the suffering of the continent.

And when in you're in Davos, despite the fact that there are very many dedicated and hard-working people taking part -- among them the big United Nations aid agencies and several non-governmental organizations -- it's still hard to escape the feeling that what's really going on is a club meeting of the world's elite.

A flurry of champagne flutes and lobster thermadore

BdT Silvester und Neujahr
"Here's to agreeing not to waste money and to do something worthwhile with it."Image: dpa - Report

Fur coats and face lifts abound in Davos during the forum; lobster and champagne become boringly common at late night soirees. And the list of sessions, meetings, interactive midnight chats is so long and so varied that it's hard to know what’s really important, or even what’s happening at all.

In one single day you can hear the UN secretary general talk about the importance of sports, you can listen to Christian archbishops and Moslem clerics discuss the way to do business in a religious world, you can drop in on a meeting of the world’s big insurers talking about the problems of insuring against terrorist attack…and you can even go to a debate on the meaning of happiness.


And that's the real problem – it's all too much and it's all too superficial. What it leads to, as one journalist who has spent years at the forum put it, is the constant feeling that something really important is happening somewhere in Davos, but you've just missed it.