World Economic Forum: A look at the milestone events in last five years

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international organisation that mobilises public and private cooperation in driving positive change in the world. For over 50 years, the organisation has engaged governments, businesses and civil society leaders to drive a significant impact in improving the global situation through historic initiatives. The forum is best known for the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos where leaders brainstorm global issues and find solutions.

The Davos World Economic Forum has been part of key global events in the past 50 years, including economic globalisation and climate change.

Here’s a look at some of the milestone events in the last five years.

 For the first time, a head of state from the People's Republic of China attended the World Economic Forum. Chinese President Xi Jinping said his nation was a responsible global citizen and dedicated to furthering international integration. He was accompanied by a huge delegation of Chinese officials and business executives.

The global initiative to fight epidemics, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), was launched at the WEF in Davos the same year. Apart from ensuring supply of vaccines during emergencies, the initiative aims at researching new vaccines for tropical diseases. Prominent donors, including Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, raised almost $500 million for a new partnership along with nations like Germany, Japan and Norway.

2018 - Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first Indian head of state to deliver the inaugural keynote speech at the annual meet at Davos. The Prime Minister highlighted the need to focus on climate change, terrorism and protectionism.

The same year, the WEF launched the Friends of Ocean Action (FOA) initiative to help deliver Sustainable Development Goal action on the world’s oceans. The initiative witnessed participation of 46 senior leaders and influencers engaged in the Ocean agenda. It was able to mobilise action on several ocean issues in the first six months itself, identifying seven key areas requiring public-private partnership in bringing a global impact.

2019 –Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who had once promised to open up the Amazon rainforest for farming, said in Davos that his country was making efforts to take care of the world’s largest rainforest.

“Brazil is a paradise. We are the one country that most preserves the environment,” he said. The next year, the Brazil President skipped the meeting in Switzerland.

Later that year, the forum and the United Nations signed a strategic Partnership Framework in New York outlining areas of cooperation to jointly accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

2020 – The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was a cause for concern for participants at the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. CEPI met leaders from Moderna at the Davos summit and announced a new partnership to develop vaccines for the virus as early as possible. They planned to come out with a vaccine before the outbreak turned into a global epidemic. Six days later the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global health emergency.

Later that year, Charles, Prince of Wales, said recovering from the COVID-19 crisis is an opportunity to reset the global economy by prioritising sustainable development without damaging the planet further.

2021- The World Economic Forum initially planned to organise the summit in Singapore in August, but had to cancel in view of the COVID-19 situation.