22 January 2013
The annual gathering of world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos lacks any meaningful citizen engagement and is a shameful reinforcement of the status quo it purports to change, says the global civil society alliance, CIVICUS.
“The world’s political and business elite in Davos are not interested in citizen voice and participation judging by the lack of inclusiveness and transparency they display,” says Dr Danny Sriskandarajah, the CIVICUS Secretary-General.
“It is almost laughable that they talk about inequality, poverty and other critical social issues while not including the very people most affected by them. It is no wonder that levels of trust in political and economic leaders is at an all-time low,” states Sriskandarajah.
“Political and business leaders need to face up to the urgent need for meaningful citizen engagement and think about what a democratic Davos would look like. And they also need to pay more than lip service to inequality. At the moment Davos is the epitome of a world run by elites,” says the CIVICUS Secretary-General.
The issues of inequality, elitism and the co-option of the political process by wealthy elites is in focus at Davos, especially following on from a report released by Oxfam that shows that the richest 85 people in the world own as much as half of the world’s population.
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