Why does South Africa (minus Eskom) participate in the World Economic Forum?

When the World Economic Forum (WEF) kicks off tomorrow in Switzerland,  South Africa will once again be represented in Davos by a high level and multi-stakeholder team. Team South Africa. Their message to the 2,500 participants at the annual summit will be: South Africa is open for business and remains an attractive and reliable investment destination.

The Team will however be missing Eskom executives as they’re a little pre-occupied trying to solve South Africa’s power system challenges. Eskom, which has been forced recently to implement nationwide load shedding to relieve the national grid, announced today that “Chief Executive of Eskom, Mr Tshediso Matona, and the rest of the executive team were not going to attend the Davos meeting and as such are on the ground on a daily basis dealing with Eskom’s current situation.”

Matona cancelled his attendance at the event on 9 January at his own discretion. Chairman Zola Tsotsi and the Group Executive for Sustainability, Dr Steve Lennon, were confirmed to go but have since withdrawn their participation in the event following public concern.

The rest of Team South Africa will go ahead, including South African President Jacob Zuma who arrived in Switzerland today. He said “we look forward to a successful session. We are ready to communicate our country’s successes and also to share our plans to deal with the challenges that we face.”

Zuma joins 40 other key government representatives including Ahmet Davutoğlu, Prime Minister of Turkey, Béji Caïd  Essebsi, President of Tunisia, François Hollande, President of France, Li Keqiang, Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor of Germany, John Kerry, US Secretary of State, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Matteo Renzi, Prime Minister of Italy and Simonetta Sommaruga, President of the Swiss Confederation.

To shed some light on why Team South Africa still sees the value in delivering their message in person when communication nowadays can be done in other ways, Brand South Africa CEO Miller Matola explains:

Why Does South Africa Participate in Davos?

Davos: a melting pot of thought leadership and innovation

Firstly, Davos brings together business leaders, senior government officials and policymakers, and social-change advocates to tackle the biggest issues of our times, amongst others, inequality, climate change, a sustainable economy, youth employment, underdevelopment and building global competitiveness of nations.

Attending Davos does not necessarily result in agreements on co-operation and trade but it does enable participants to have the right conversations about how to tackle some of these challenges. It brings minds together to respond to these challenges innovatively and creatively.

After all, we cannot continue to do the same things to address stubbornly resistant problems and hope that we will get different results.

Doing things differently in the interests of growth and development

Despite differences in tactics and approaches, I have no doubt that South Africans are fiercely committed to the growth and development of our country. In this regard, we are increasingly cognisant that we must work together as a national collective to respond innovatively and urgently to the triple challenges of poverty, underdevelopment and unemployment.

History teaches us that multi-stakeholder approaches are necessary to enable sustainable and durable solutions. Gatherings like the World Economic Forum in Davos enable the formulation and the implementation of such solutions.

It has become fashionable to talk about building a community of people to enable innovative solutions. There is also the term crowd sourcing and funding which talks to putting a problem out there and looking at the responses that follow to determine how to address it.

WEF Davos and other such platforms enable such a spirit of co-operation and community building. Such an approach to the complexities of common challenges is essential in this day and age.

Davos is not the United Nations

The World Economic Forum is not the United Nations, the International Criminal Court or any other multilateral institution that yields resolutions to respond to political and social challenges in the world.

However, precisely because of the non-threatening, collaborative spirit of the World Economic Forum in Davos, it has been the site of many ground-breaking moments in history.

There are many instances where actionable ideas to tackle global challenges of our time have emerged from the gatherings at this small Swiss village.

For instance, it is at Davos in 1992 that President Mandela met with President de Klerk in their first public appearance outside of South Africa.

In addition, the presence of the Greek and Turkish leaders in 1988 resulted in the Davos Declaration being signed, which averted war between the two countries and in 1994, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat reached a draft agreement on Gaza and Jericho, again at Davos.

The World Economic Forum at Davos has therefore been able to provide the environment for foes to come together in the interests of their countries and people.

By providing such an environment the World Economic Forum in Davos is able to give expression to its motto: “Committed to improving the state of the world.”

What will South Africa take to the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos?

South Africa will communicate on this global platform that South Africa is open for business.

We have challenges as a country – but which country doesn’t? – but we are committed to addressing these to improve the lives of the millions of our citizens. The National Development Plan is part of our solution to the triple challenge of poverty, underdevelopment and unemployment.

We are keen to welcome international partners who are supportive of our developmental agenda.

South Africa is a committed advocate of the African developmental agenda. Our fortunes are integrally intertwined with those of the continent and our growth and development must contribute to the overall competitiveness and reputation of the continent.

This is the 45th WEF annual meeting and will run from 21 to 24 January 2015.