WEF stands for World Economic Forum. It is an independent, international organization whose primary aim is to improve world policies and uplift the economic condition through the participation of various business leaders, political leaders, and social leaders. Let’s dive into it.
Table of Content
What is WEF?
The full form of WEF is World Economic Forum. Its annual meeting for which it is widely popular takes place in January at Davos, a mountain resort in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland. The meeting is accompanied by various business tycoons, economists, and political leaders.
- It is a non-governmental organization.
- Professor Klaus Schwab is the present Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.
- 130 countries are members of WEF.
- Its member companies fund it.
Mission Of World Economic Forum
The mission of WEF is to solve economic disputes through dialogue between economists, business leaders, and political leaders. It aims to uplift the standards of people. It tries to promote entrepreneurship among the global public. It tries to solve any kind of major international conflict blocking the way of economic development. Its aim is to improve world policies.
- To promote sustainable economic development in world.
- To develop strategies to tackle global issues related to health and infrastructure.
- To discuss about technological advancements and its impact on the society.
- To develop collaboration and cooperation among various nations to tackle a common problem.
Background of World Economic Forum
WEF was first named to European Management Forum, founded by a business professor at the University of Geneva, Klaus Schwab, on 24 January 1971. It aimed to adopt American management practices in European firms. More than 450 executives participated in the first meeting at Davos in 1971. But soon after its success, political leaders started using the platform to promote their interests.
- In 1989 Davos Declaration was signed between Greece and Turkey.
- In 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first head of government from India to deliver the Inaugural keynote where he identified global warming, terrorism, and protectionism as three major global challenges.
- The 2022 annual meeting highlighted the topics like Russian invasion of Ukraine and inflation.
- Børge Brende is the current President of World Economic Forum.
Activities by World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum has been involved in many activities to fulfill its objective to uplift the standard of people and work towards the economic development of nations through the cooperation of global and business leaders.
- Its primary activity is to conduct the annual meeting in Davos to discuss the agendas for the current year peacefully.
- It cooperates with various international organizations to provide employment opportunities to the countries with low employment rate.
- Developing strategies to deal with burning issues such as climate change, and global terrorism.
World Economic Forum – 54th Annual Meeting 2024
The World Economic Forum – 54th Annual Meeting 2024 is going to take place between 15 to 19 January 2024. The theme for the meeting is “Rebuilding Trust”. More than 3000 leaders from all over the world will attend the meeting. The topics to be discussed in the meeting are:
- Climate Change
- Energy
- Global terrorism
- Development of Infrastructure
- Artificial Intelligence
- Creating employment opportunities
Notable Works And Decision by World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum has been helping to shape the global politics through their platform. They have been able to solve a lot of global issues on their platform through the participation of global leaders. Some of the notable works by them are:
- In the annual meeting of 2020 a campaign called Trillion Tree Campaign was launched with the aim to grow, conserve and restore 1 trillion trees over the next ten years.
- In 1988 Davos Declaration was signed between Greece and Turkey.
- The forum also publishes a wide range of reports identifying competitiveness, and risks in various domains.
- In the annual meeting of 2017 a global initiative was launched to fight epidemics.
- Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) was launched in the annual meeting of 2017 to promote circular economy.
Impact of WEF
WEF has been able to make significant impact in the world for last 50 years and not just through the economic policies but also by solving many international conflict between various countries. The forum assists help in the following areas:-
- Improving policies in favor of world public through discussion with world leaders.
- Equal distribution of scarce natural resources.
- A network of lighthouse countries was launched in 2022 annual meeting. Its aim is to promote digital inclusion in those countries.
- The advance manufacturing hub initiative with the help of WEF is reshaping manufacturing across 9 regions across 4 continents. The nine hubs are in Spain, Denmark, Italy, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey, Republic of Korea and US Center for Advance Manufacturing.
- A global private sector initiative was launched to tackle air pollution with help of WEF and Clean Air Fund.
Conclusion
World Economic Forum has been a major platform for global political, business, social leaders and entrepreneurs to come and discuss various burning agendas. It has also been a platform to solve major conflicts among various organizations and nation to promote global cooperation and collaboration. Every year the participants at the annual meeting discuss and formulate strategies to deal with worldwide problems and launch partnership among them. The significance of World Economic Forum is going to increase in near future where there will be the need of global cooperation to tackle with various global issue.
FAQs – WEF Full Form
What does World Economic Forum do?
World Economic Forum monitors the economic and global issues and tries to solve them through the participation of various global leaders, youth representatives, and social entrepreneurs.
Who is attending Davos 2024?
Delegates from over 130 countries and all the major international organizations are going to attend the annual meeting at Davos 2024. In the meeting India will be represented by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, Hardeep Singh , Smriti Irani and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani are also likely to visit.
How many countries are at the World Economic Forum?
130 countries are the members of World Economic Forum.
Which is the world biggest economic forum?
WEF is biggest economic forum known for its large scale annual meeting at Davos.
Who is WEF funded by?
WEF is funded by its member companies which have a turnover of more than five billion dollars.
Is Bill Gates in the World Economic Forum?
Bill Gates is an Agenda Contributor at World Economic Forum.
Is Mark Zuckerberg part of World Economic Forum?
Mark Zuckerberg is an Agenda Contributor at World Economic Forum.
Who is the main person in the World Economic Forum?
Professor Klaus Schwab is the founder and Chairman of WEF. He is guided by a board of members who are also the leaders in various domains.
Does Elon Musk go to the World Economic Forum?
Elon Musk has never went to any annual meeting of World Economic Forum at Davos.