WEF Full Form

In modern times, a normal man faces a lot of issues and problems that have hampered his growth as an individual and the society that he lives in. The economic challenges confronted by the nation fluctuate around multiple facets of society. But we must always consider the fact that the problems will be with us always and every time, it is how we deal with them. One such group that deals with eradicating such issues by engaging the most efficient leaders of the society is the World Economic Forum. The main aim of the organisation is to engage with the supervisors of the society who can help in forming the global and accepted agendas related to business, academic, and other aspects. 

World Economic Forum 

WEF is a non-profit organization that looks upon committing with the leaders of the society who could work upon eradicating the problems related to business and economy that persists at the global level. The organisation was established by a distinguished German economist and engineer, Klaus Schwab, who formed on 24 January 1971. The main purpose of this organization is to take effective participation in the global and accepted plans and encourage public-private cooperation throughout the world. Currently, the World Economic Forum is headquartered in Geneva, situated in Switzerland, independently. 

Background of World Economic Forum (WEF)

Originally, this non-profit organisation was known by the name European Management Forum. However, the union soon changed its name from EMF to World Economic Forum (WEF) in 1987 and broadened its area of concentration to untangle international disputes too.

The story traces back to February 1971 when Klaus Schwab invited various European firms to the Symposium held at the Davos Congress Centre and made them known to the American management practices. This is where the World Economic Forum came into being, followed by a series of annual meetings. 

Annual meetings conducted under this non-profit organisation, World Economic Forum ) built a platform for the political leaders around the world to come and share their interests on the various issues around the world. 

One such meeting of expressions was conducted in 2019 at Davos where it detailed the economic policies that were pursued by Brazil. Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, even attended this meeting. The overall meeting revolved around talking about environmental concerns and how one can be resourceful for its nation and world.

Activities are undertaken by World Economic Forum

Summer Annual Meetings

Summer Annual Meetings are conducted by WEF in China, where the location alternates between two different places namely, Dalian and Tianjin. Majorly, the invitations are sent to the emerging economies of the world and to the ones that are considered developed nations. In addition, the fast-growing regions also get a chance to attend these meetings along with some eminent and popular people worldwide. 

Annual meetings held in Davos

This meeting brings all the eminent chief executive, politicians, religious leaders, media, representatives from academia, and selected politicians together in a single environment to have a discussion. Seminars are on the concerns that are present at the global level and what can the individual countries do in that case. The Winter session brings more ideas and solutions, as compared to the summer session in China. The people are chosen and filtered with the help of the badge a person has on his/her uniform. Badges may have different colours like orange, white and blue. 

Initiatives are taken by WEF 

The World Economic Forum has taken certain initiatives based on Health, society, environment, green recovery, and recovery from the pandemic. On the part of health, a Global Health Initiative was launched that focused particularly on engaging public-private relations in freeing the world from the problems like tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, and more. Apart from that, certain initiatives have been taken based on the society where engagement of public-private partnership was made to rid off countries like India and South Africa from the crises like water management. 

In addition, the World Economic Forum has also taken into consideration certain environmental issues based on climate change, water issues, natural resource security, elimination of pollution, and a sustainable world for all. Furthermore, the organisation took various steps for green recovery as well. The initiatives include sustainable transport, organic farming, electric vehicles, renewable energy, and green building. 

India at Davos 22 annual meeting 

The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi Ji, in Davos 2022 has mentioned India as one of the most emerging economies of all time. He included the abilities of the country to adopt new technology and attain new energy standards for society. Additionally, he also spoke about Health, as an emerging sector of society and how health became one of the most important sectors during the pandemic times. The most interesting mention is about the goal of net-zero carbon emission which is targeted to be achieved by 2070. 

Conclusion 

There are not only good viewpoints about the World Economic Forum, but it also has various aspects that have been criticised by the population. The World Economic Forum has denounced areas like growing gaps in wealth, the public cost of security, the formation of a disconnected elite population, undemocratic decision-making process, gender debate, lack of financial transparency, and non-accreditation of critical media outlets. Nonetheless, WEF has worked on various aspects of society and has indeed succeeded in eradicating those evils of society. A single organisation cannot do all of the tasks to achieve goals, it is also us as individuals who should work on this.