GLOBAL leaders, last week, engaged in a worldwide live streaming virtual event for an important international conversation, The Davos Agenda – an elite think tank that the World Economic Forum hosted from January 25th to 29th, to brain storm on the new world emerging post-COVID, and out of this glimpse into the future from masterminds, brilliant futurists and global planners, the shape of the future of the global village looks like an extraordinary, powerfully progressive world order, with a significant role for Guyana.
The World Economic Forum describes the event thus: “The Davos Agenda is a pioneering mobilisation of global leaders to shape the principles, policies and partnerships needed in this challenging new context. It is essential for leaders from all walks of life to work together virtually for a more inclusive, cohesive and sustainable future as soon as possible in 2021.”

This vital confab of world leaders from business, government, and global organisations sets out four areas that need urgent attention in 2021: “The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that no institution or individual alone can address the economic, environmental, social and technological challenges of our complex, interdependent world. The pandemic has accelerated systemic changes that were apparent before its inception. The fault lines that emerged in 2020 now appear as critical crossroads in 2021.”

Guyana is emerging as a major oil and gas producer, with its international role taking on an important tone, especially given the country’s parallel simultaneous agenda to be a global leader in sustainable development, for preservation of the natural environment, and to protect nature’s ecosystem. In the environmental department of the four impact areas that The Davos Agenda outlines, Guyana is a major world player in the environmental field, with 80+ per cent of its landmass covered in lush green virgin forests. Of course, in the other three areas – economics, social and technological, Guyana would want to make sure the country is well-positioned as a progressive nation. One of the major impacts that came out of the Davos Agenda is an urgent worldwide commitment to drastically reduce carbon emissions, work with serious intent on climate change, and cause reforestation across the earth.

The Davos Agenda ended with three impact areas, which every country in the world, including Guyana, would align with to play a real role in the international community. These three impact areas are: building awareness and cooperation through bringing together “leaders from business, government, international organisations, academia, civil society and youth to work together to drive positive change”, shaping mindsets and agendas to “influence Government priorities, business strategies and public opinion”, and driving collective action, from “saving lives through childhood vaccination to improving the productivity of small-scale farms”, according to a World Economic Forum brief after the event.

The Davos Agenda 2021 announced 11 initiatives for the world to tackle this year: the COVID Action Platform, involving 40 plus projects around the world; bringing racial justice to the workplace, an initiative that involves nearly 50 global firms; using blockchain to track and reduce carbon emissions; fostering a multi-generational inclusive workforce, whereby “50 global companies representing more than two million employees and $1 trillion in annual revenue have come together with the World Economic Forum, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and AARP to create the Living Learning and Earning Longer initiative. The initiative curates a digital platform that employers can use to find case studies, statistics and research on the advantages of a multi-generational workforce”; improving physical and mental health in cities; using technology to combat plastic pollution, through a Global Plastic Action Partnership project in Ghana; building a global response to cybersecurity risks, because “by 2025, next-generation technology could overwhelm the defences of the global security community — unless we act now. Businesses are building a global response to these cybersecurity risks through the Future Series: Cybercrime 2025. The joint programme of work brings together more than 150 global experts from the world’s leading companies, research institutions and public-policy departments to enable organisations to share and develop research, insights and responses to future risks as a community”; charting a course for cities to reach net zero – “from clean electrification to efficient buildings and smart infrastructure, a new initiative will help cities chart a course towards a net-zero carbon future. Nine cities and more than 70 organisations in 10 different sectors have come together for a multi-year initiative … to help cities rethink urban ecosystems, ensuring that they are greener, more efficient, resilient, circular and equitable”; committing to disability inclusion across companies, whereby “400 companies have joined the Valuable 500 initiative and committed to increasing their organisation’s confidence and competence in disability inclusion. The initiative provides support, tools and best practices to embed inclusivity across their businesses”; closing the digital gap, whereby “the new EDISON Alliance will bring together governments and industries to accelerate digital inclusion and connect critical sectors of the economy. It aims to ensure that everyone can affordably participate in the digital economy”; supporting social entrepreneurs, an initiative that already “supports more than 90,000 social entrepreneurs across the world who are helping an estimated 1.9 billion people by providing access to employment, food, affordable energy and other critical services”.

The World Economic Forum is playing a major role in re-designing the world system, and engineering fundamental systematic reforms, to generate a more equitable, sustainable, and healthy humanity post-Covid. Last year, the Forum drafted a global post-COVID Action Plan it titled The Great Reset, to which The Davos Agenda 2021 adds deeper layers.

Like with the rest of the world, Guyana’s progress through these futuristic systematic reforms of how the world works, that are flowing out of these global think tank and brainstorming events, are opening exciting new possibilities for a futuristic Guyanese society. Intertwined, interdependent, and interwoven as a global village, the world will see every country embracing the new world emerging post-COVID. The Davos Agenda is an exciting advent, bringing much hope that the post-COVID world would be much better than the pre-COVID world, including for Guyana.