World Economic Forum 2018 in Davos: First Day Highlights

World leaders, politicians, charity representatives, advocates for change, they are all gathered this week in Davos, Switzerland, for the 2018 World Economic Forum. During the first day issues raised included gender inequality, climate change and refugees.
Australian actress Cate Blanchett addressed those present to raise concerns of the treatment of refugees worldwide. She condemned the attitudes and anti-refugee sentiment of many politicians and the media. Blanchett also took the opportunity to highlight the fact that developing countries are housing most of the 22 million refugees worldwide, with states with stronger economies are taking in small numbers of those displaced.
Representatives from the Red Cross alerted the international community to the possibility of more humanitarian crises breaking out in the coming year. Many regions are unstable and conflicts could soon erupt causing new floods of refugees.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi expressed his concerns about the rise of protectionism and the threat that this could pose to globalisation and the global economy. Modi also took the chance to address threats such as climate change and terrorism and their possible impact on the world economy.
Sexual harassment was also a prominent topic on the agenda. All participants of the anti-sexual harassment panel celebrated the courage of those at the head of movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up which have gone a long way in breaking the silence and pressing the world to act.
Participants highlighted the need for action to be taken in the work place to eliminate sexual harassment. However, it was also pointed out that education on such a matter starts at home and that children should be taught to respect women from an early age.
In his speech, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau urged businesses to continue to tackle gender inequality and increase efforts to eradicate sexual harassment in the work place, which he described as being unacceptable. Trudeau also pointed out that gender parity would prove to be beneficial to the world economy.
Trudeau was very adamant when it comes to tackling gender inequality and sexual harassment. The Canadian prime minister said that movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up “tell us that we need to have a critical discussion on women’s right, equality and the power dynamic of gender”.
Justin Trudeau also took the opportunity to underline the need to tackle inequality. The concerns he voiced were similar to those raised by a Oxfam report made public recently. Businesses have become greedy and this only contributes to the growing inequality.
The need to make profit seems to be put above the need to ensure the wellbeing of the workers and provide them with adequate salaries. Trudeau pointed out tax evasion and fair pay as the top issues that should be tackled by individual states and the international community as a whole in order to start closing the inequality gap.
> Naomi Round