In this article, we dive deep into the agenda of the World Economic Forum 2022 Annual Meeting, or “Davos 2022”. We take a look at various themes throughout the four-day event, including climate, food, and energy crises. Also, we explore how blockchain technology could potentially assist in developments and operations. Plus, we’ll discuss the many initiatives now live since the annual meeting. First, we’ll answer the “what is the World Economic Forum (WEF)?” and “what is Davos 2022?” questions.

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What is the World Economic Forum (WEF)?

Established in 1971 by German economist and engineer Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum is a not-for-profit, non-governmental international organization with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Facilitating public and private sector cooperation, World Economic Forum (WEF) strives to “demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest”. Accordingly, the WEF aggregates cultural, political, and business leaders worldwide to “shape” global agendas. This includes industrial and regional agendas in cooperation with organizations and academic institutions on a local level.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) itself as an organization states to be fully impartial and independent, with no ties to “any special interests”. With an ethos of “moral and intellectual integrity”, the WEF bases its activities on stakeholder theory, a view within capitalism. In short, it encourages business models to benefit all organizational stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, etc.), not just its shareholders. Overall, the WEF aims to amass the forward-thinking leaders from around the globe to discuss, design, and drive positive impact social changes. However, there is a growing collective that believes in decentralizing social decisions on a local level. As such, there are some people who dismiss the WEF as a form of social engineering.

Annual Davos World Economic Forum Meeting

Each year, World Economic Forum (WEF) hosts its annual meeting at Davos, a Swiss alpine town surrounded by mountains. Originally a private congregation (with the evolution of media platforms and communications means “Davos”), the elite meeting of global leaders now publishes its annual agendas. The annual event creates a collaborative space for world-leading pioneers to converse, network, and exchange insights on social issues. Each year, various projects, initiatives, and policies emerge from the World Economic Forum 2022 Annual Meeting. Following a once-in-a-century pandemic amidst the worst war in Europe since WWII, the World Economic Forum 2022 Annual Meeting agenda was extensive. Deemed to be “the most consequential geopolitical and geo-economic moment of the past three decades”, the World Economic Forum 2022 Annual Meeting hypothesizes a future of global cooperation and responsibility. 

World Economic Forum 2022 Themes

The World Economic Forum 2022 Annual Meeting was an aggregation of more than 2,500 global experts and leaders. Further, the World Economic Forum President, Børge Brende, stressed the importance of a physical in-person meetup following 2021’s online meeting.

Moreover, the World Economic Forum 2022 Annual Meeting theme was “History at a Turning Point”. As such, the Davos 2022 gathering covered a range of topics, from the current war in Ukraine to making jobs future-proof and online security. In addition, the four-day Davos 2022 event hosted the launch of several government and business initiatives. 

Below, we outline several themes of the World Economic Forum 2022 Annual Meeting. Plus, we consider how blockchain technology could expedite the development and efficiency of operations. Would you like to learn more on a technical level about how to integrate blockchain into existing centralized IT infrastructure? If so, our Blockchain Business Masterclass course at Moralis Academy is the perfect place to start! Or, check out our free blogs at Moralis and Moralis Academy to learn more about the fundamentals of different blockchain projects. For example, save our “Rust & Solana” and “Solana vs Ethereum” articles for later reading to broaden your blockchain knowledge!

Ukraine Highlights The Need for Global Cooperation

A topic more prevalent than ever before at a World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting was “global cooperation”. With the devastating events in Ukraine present across global media outlets, most of the world is aware of Russia’s attacks. However, during his first time at a WEF Annual Meeting, H.H. Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir of the State of Qatar, spoke of Ukraine as a reminder of other “forgotten or ignored” global conflicts.

Acknowledging a rise in global aggression, world leaders joined to discuss avenues for worldwide cooperation. The World Economic Forum (WEF) founder, Klaus Schwab, hosted a virtual discussion with the former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, expressing fears around the potential for restructuring the global order due to the conflict in Ukraine. In response, European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, states: “global cooperation is the antidote to Russia’s blackmail“. During a keynote speech on the subject, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated: “freedom is more important than free trade“.

In a post-Davos 2022 blog discussing the topic, the WEF President, Børge Brende, writes, “we need business, government, international organizations and civil society to be part of the solutions“. Blockchain, as a form of distributed ledger technology (DLT), can assist in the development of social solutions. With transparent, open-source, and real-time updates, efficiencies in research, development, and communications between global parties will drastically increase. As a result, the overall cost and time can be minimized while facilitating an innovative space for solution providers.

Climate, Food, and Energy Crises

Hot discussion topics at Davos 2022 were global warming, inefficient international energy providers, dwindling supply chains, and worldwide food shortage. In addition, the annual meeting highlighted the connection between the crises. As such, the World Economic Forum 2022 Annual Meeting hosted many events throughout the duration on how to improve the existing situation. This includes “returning nature to cities” and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments.

Laura Cha, Chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, spoke during a session on ESG disclosures. She voiced the need for a common universal standard for ESG frameworks using a meaningful, collaborative approach. In the event, she says, “in order for those disclosures to be meaningful, we need to have a harmonized standard“. Integrating blockchain in the energy sector means users can immutably tokenize units of energy. In turn, this can reduce waste and inefficiencies and create a decentralized marketplace between energy consumers and prosumers.

The narrative from Davos 2022 was that creating solutions for the food and energy crises will resultantly provide solutions for the climate crisis. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, supports this by saying, “the biggest part of the response comes from putting emphasis on clean energy, renewables, energy efficiency and, in the countries where they have nuclear capacity, increasing nuclear production“. Also, Co-CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff, stresses the significant role of businesses in the fight against global warming. Speaking on the subject, he suggests a new form of environmental capitalism. One where “all companies commit to net-zero and start relying exclusively on renewable energy sources“.

Global Health Inequalities

With a recent pandemic fresh on people’s minds, a natural theme to address during Davos 2022 is how to prepare for the next time. Moreover, the World Economic Forum 2022 Annual Meeting brought to awareness the resulting health inequalities worldwide. Accordingly, many of the prepared pandemic events included strategies for reducing health disparities between high-income and low-income countries. For example, 75% of people in high-income countries are COVID-19 vaccinated, compared to only 13% in low-income countries.

Winnie Byanyima, UN Undersecretary-General and UNAIDS (UN Programme on HIV/AIDS) Executive Director, talked of racism beyond police violence. During the speech, she states, “racism is when black people, brown people, people of color [sic] take their last breath because of policy violence“. Also present at Davos 2022 was the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. On the topic of health inequalities, he says, “investing in health systems and regional bodies like Africa CDC and African Medicines Agency must be a key priority“. 

The Davos 2022 event was working on the premise of preparing for another pandemic ahead. As such, the networking event included corporations, governments, and stakeholders on a local level. They discussed improvements and investments in health workers, supply chain, and lab network infrastructure. For readers who would like to learn more about how blockchain can improve existing supply chains, look no further! Our Supply Chains in Blockchain course shows students how this technology can assist logistics and automation. Check out the world-leading Web3 education suite, Moralis Academy, today!   

Gender Inequality and Jobs of Tomorrow

Further to the apparent health inequalities, Davos 2022 highlighted the increasing wealth disparities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, Oxfam leaders released their “Profiting from Pain” report, showing a breakdown of statistics supporting the narrative. In addition, the World Economic Forum (WEF) team of human resource officers launched an initiative to support Ukrainian refugees. Accordingly, the “Refugee Employment and Employability” initiative will aid refugees, starting from Ukraine in getting into employment.

Part of the four-day event at Davos 2022 was the “Jobs Consortium”. The meetings, introduced by world-leading CEOs and ministers, were centered around “social, green, and tech jobs”. Moreover, the event considered the shifting workforce landscape, “jobs of tomorrow”, and improving workplace standards and wages. Further, Oxfam International Executive Director, Gabriela Bucher, voiced how the pandemic unveiled the operations of the economic system being “structured…on the shoulders of women“. Plus, the push from leaders at Davos 2022 has resulted in the support and investment in education, healthcare, and care. Respectively, the WEF released a new report: “Jobs of Tomorrow: The Triple Returns of Social Jobs in the Economic Recovery”, outlining prospective investments.

“Our Future is Digital”

An apt summary of a key theme of Davos 2022, world leaders discussed various pioneering technologies. In a “Meet the Leader” podcast, United Nations Development Programme Administrator, Achim Steiner, stated, “our future is digital – if you’re not part of it, you’re out of it“. Further, a digital future applies to every aspect of a human’s life. During the Davos 2022 event, various initiatives were launched surrounding ethics, securities, and collaboration in evolving technologies.

For example, the “Cyber Resilience Pledge” launch commits world-leading oil and gas stakeholders to take collaborative action on cyber resilience. Also, “Defining and Building the Metaverse” is an initiative for world elites to establish guidance on building an “ethical and inclusive metaverse“. Specifically, the initiative focuses on governance models alongside the potential economic and societal value creation. Another project laying the groundwork for digital inclusion is “The Edison Alliance”, a long-standing initiative run by the WEF. During Davos 2022, The Edison Alliance launched a “digital policy navigator”. In short, this offers businesses, regulators, and policymakers a one-stop-shop for resources and best practices for offering affordable digital access to education, healthcare, and finance. 

Reviewing the World Economic Forum Davos 2022 Meeting – Summary

Every year, the top leaders, politicians, and CEOs of society gather for an in-person conference during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos. The Davos 2022 event was no different, hosting over 2,500 world leaders. With an event theme of “History at a Turning Point”, the four-day event saw hundreds of keynotes, panel talks, and workshops. The main themes for Davos 2022 included pandemic preparations, global cooperation, and addressing health and wealth disparities. Plus, the World Economic Forum 2022 Annual Meeting saw the launch of many initiatives assisting in the energy, food, and climate crises.

Another topic of discussion was the state of the global economy. However, this was relatively brief. Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group, David Rubenstein, advised Davos 2022 participants: “don’t use the “RR word, it scares people”. Instead, he suggests replacing the word “recession” with “banana”. He continues: “the signs are not as favorable [sic] as I would like, but a banana may not be that far”. 

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