Who's here at Davos 2006

Davos is still largely a "Western" event, with the large majority of participants coming from the U.S. and Europe. Among CEOs, there are alarmingly few from Africa, the Middle East and China or even Japan. There are more than before from India, and perhaps a few more from Latin America. But Davos does not look or feel like a truly global forum. Indeed, the participation levels in what an event that, after all, bills itself as the World Economic Forum are yet another reminder that the institutions for managing--or even discussing--the global economy are not keeping pace with the levels of global economic integration.Women are all about. My guess is most women are not CEOs but officials or, like me, from foundations, think tanks, civil society and academia. This year women have been largely absent as speakers at the large plenary events, with the exception of Laura Tyson, who headed the Council of Economic Advisors under Clinton, and Vaira Vike-Freiberga, president of Latvia, who was on the UN panel I referred to in my previous post. Although the Nigerian MInister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the Indonesian Minister of Trade, Mari Pangestu, are both here, neither has been featured on a large panel. Regrettably there was not one woman on a eight-person panel on Iraq, in which the major political figures spoke -- though surely there are some influential women leading civil society movements in Iraq now, even if not leading the major parties. Germany’s new prime minister, Angela Merkel, was the only representative at that level from the G-8.In 2002, six heads of state from Latin America came. Not so this year. Showing up at Davos is not on the agenda of "leftist" Hugo Chavez of Venezuela or the newly elected Evo Morales of Bolivia, a leader of the indigenous movement. And why would Argentine President Néstor Kirchner want to come? The international bankers at Davos are still irritated, if not downright mad, at him for defaulting on so much of the debt, and he'd buy no particular support at home in Argentina by coming.From Sub-Saharan Africa have come the Presidents of Nigeria and Mozambique.Though there are many sessions on China, and the official Chinese delegation has doubled, to twelve, there are few Chinese in evidence, China’s booming economy notwithstanding. Participation is surely discouraged because Davos once again coincides with Chinese New Year; but I wonder if it would be very different even if the dates did not conflict.Many of the world's international and multilateral institutions were represented by their top officials-- as many or more than I remember from the past. From the United Nations: Kofi Annan, Kemal Dervis (UNDP), and Ann Veneman (UNICEF), as well as David Nabarro, the head of the recently formed UN initiative on avian flu. From the international financial institutions: Rodrigo de Rato of the IMF, Paul Wolfowitz of the World Bank, newly elected Luis Alberto Moreno of the Inter-American Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka of the African Development Bank, Jean Lemierre of the EBRD, and Donald Johnston of the OECD (now retiring to be succeeded by CGD Board member Angel Gurria). I am sure I have left some out!Altogether I would say a predictable outcome. From some parts of the world, supply of paying (CEO) participants is high. To their credit, Davos organizers (the demand side) are clearly eager to have powerful national figures from outside the western powers participate. And in non-government international officialdom, there is a good match of supply and demand. It is the job of those international leaders to inform and be informed about global business and global challenges, and the job of the World Economic Forum organizers to be sure the challenges they face get onto the Davos agenda.In my next messages, I'll relate the "celebrity" story that I think matters this year: first Bill Clinton, and then Bono and Brad Pitt.