Save the Children at Davos
Business, religious, government, cultural and society leaders are meeting in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting: Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild.
This year, Jasmine Whitbread, CEO of Save the Children UK, reperensented Save the Children. She met with partners and contacts, and attended and spoke at a number of sessions. She also hosted a breakfast session: Cross-sector Partnering in Tomorrow's World with a panel including representatives from IKEA and Accenture.
Jasmine Whitbread blogs for the Financial Times
"The female ‘tribe'"
(30 January, 2010) Davos women are gathered to listen to the likes of Arianna Huffington and the impressive Indonesian trade minister, Mari Pangestu, and to network amongst other women. Seemingly stuck at just 15 per cent of participants, the ‘tribe' (as its referred to by Harvard prof Rosabeth Kanter) looks quite different all gathered together vs as a light sprinkling. As I'm sitting down and slightly wondering what I need to be doing here for children, most of the women at the table tell me they happen to be Save the Children supporters - it's great to be able to say thank you.
The Google party is even cooler this year with wetsuit, snorkel-clad waiters serving sushi, and coloured pure oxygen tanks for those in need of a blast. Media moguls, politicos, all the young global leaders and even some royalty hit the dance floor.
The accessibility of all these people is unparalleled. People want to capitalise on that by following up afterwards and the biz card ritual is like nothing I've ever seen outside Japan. I swear some measure success of their participation by how many inches of cards they collect and give out.
What does it all add up to? For all the streams of work on health, hunger, education, disaster response - what's really needed is some kind of framework for aggregating pledges today and outcomes tomorrow. And a Google-type system for sharing knowledge about what works and what doesn't.
This will be all the more glaringly needed at the next big global gathering in NY in September to review progress against the 8 Millennium Development Goals that must be reach by 2015. I'm sure some of the people at Davos could sort those web aps if they decided to.
"Are NGOs and businesses converging?"
(29 January 2010) The BBC's Politics Show presenter Jon Sopel is moderating a discussion on cross-sector partnerships. I'm on the panel with Accenture and IKEA. Amazingly it's a decent turnout at 7am (after a late night for most, compounded with jet lag for many). Are NGOs and businesses converging? What will partnerships look like in another decade? Classic Davos fringe meeting. Encouraging levels of enthusiasm and a few new partnership ideas emerge.
I can hear helicopters - it must be Friday and the mega-players are arriving. Sure enough, shortly after Bill and Melinda (Gates) wander by. President Shimon Perez of Israel is rumoured to be here. The gent's loos are reportedly commandeered by Chinese security personnel. And oh look here comes Boris.
I'm catching quick meetings with CEOs I'd struggle to get time with normally. So I miss what I hear was a great session on global talent mobility - a big issue for Save the Children.
Everyone without a minder admits to being triple booked and labouring under a sense of missed opportunities.
Rush to a different location (at least its stopped snowing) for session on 'Redesigning a healthy start'. It's actually pretty obvious what's needed in terms of health, education and nutrition - so what's holding things back? We even have the economic argument - a 5pc reduction in child mortality leads to a 1pc increase in economic growth.
On to another session, somewhat grandly entitled 'Setting the global education agenda for the 21st century' moderated by John Chambers of Cisco. The world is off track to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Debate as to what's needed - more innovation or more accountability? Surely it's both.
"What are India's priorities?"
(29 January, 2010) Will India meet global expectations? This is what was debated in a large televised room packed with serious corporate players yesterday (so this is where they are). Lots of talk about India's role as regional power and growth rates, but then finally a brave panellist suggests that the number one priority has to be for India to develop its people. The moderator completely ignored this and went back to growth rates.
Frustrating given India really could stop its children going hungry and dying from preventable causes - with enough determination. Bangladesh, a poorer country, has made faster progress on cutting child mortality rates.
The G20 is confirmed as the critical new global grouping. I do hope development doesn't get left as solely the domain of G8. Though good news here - Canadian PM Harper announces the agenda for next G8 will focus on maternal and child mortality.
In the space of the next hour the UK election campaign hit town. The Tory top team are out in force and then Mandelson and team stopped by. The Duke of York's reception attracted them all, and the bankers too even make an appearance.
I finally found a corner in a corridor to prep with panel members for our breakfast event, squeeze in an interview for Swiss TV, then another Haiti event. Klaus Schwab explains how they completely re-did the agenda last minute after the earthquake struck - no kidding.
"Haiti dominates the agenda"
(28 January 2010) First session of the day is on ‘Rethinking humanitarian response' and was again dominated by Haiti. Is it really all as chaotic as the media depicts? If the response was slow, slow compared to what exactly? What are the respective roles of the UN, government, NGOS, business and military?
I think we have the answers to these questions but there is not enough time and ongoing interest to build a shared understanding across the different sectors. Still, the room is not hostile and the concluding straw poll shows more people are optimistic than pessimistic about the scale-up in Haiti.
The next session is on global hunger - everyone is shocked that it's common for children to be growing up today with stunted brains and bodies. Strong participation by corporations - Kraft, Yum and others. Their staff worldwide expect them to take a lead and do the right thing. Their leaders are well motivated.
But as I make my way through the snow to the next event, I can't help recalling Davos 2008 when the global food crisis was the hot topic - I find it disconcerting the way there's no real accountability system for assessing what was actually taken forward from past summits.
I notice though it seems to be all water and dry sandwiches at the hospitality suites this year - in keeping with the times, I guess.
"The unexpected topics: Tiger Woods and Sarkozy grab attention at Davos"
(27 January 2010) The hotel vestibules are buzzing as I arrive - seems Sarkozy pulled no punches in his address today and people are up for 'rethinking and redesigning'. But, I ask my dinner companions, to what extent? If u were going to redesign a global economic system right now, would u tolerate design flaws that leave 70m kids out of school?
But what grabs peoples attention is the Tiger Woods back-story and how well his erstwhile corporate sponsors handled the PR crisis - must say I never expected that as a Davos theme.
An eclectic mix of businessmen, academics, and a smattering of Non Government Organisation (NGO) leaders (no govt in sight tonight) moved this subject effortlessly on to values and then to 'the youth of today' (at 46yrs I was probably the youngest person in the room). A note of optimism here - apparently 30% of Harvard Business School graduates go to work for NGOs - we're quite struck by this.
Haiti gets a mention - there is a feeling Europeans are empathising while the Americans are more cynical - not sure what Henry James would make of that.
After dinner I hook up with colleagues reporting back from different sessions - one focused on the future of philanthropy and the other on education. We half tease half admire our friend who's just been dubbed a world economic forum 'young global leader' and just came from meeting with Clinton.
Further coverage and more blogs from the Financial Times