Alliance Online - March 2007

‘Climate change’ in Davos?

Felicitas von Peter

EVENT World Economic Forum
Date 24-28 January
Venue Davos, Switzerland
Theme The Shifting Power Equation

While the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland has never been known as a meeting place for civil society, this year’s Forum could be the starting point for a change of direction. Admittedly, the programme did not reflect this opportunity as much as actual conversations taking place. Out of 100 sessions under the overall theme ‘The Shifting Power Equation’, just one was dedicated to philanthropy (there were two sessions on tasting fine wines).

To be fair, many other sessions included speakers from civil society, and the most hotly debated topic of the Forum, climate change, attracted a lot of interest across all sectors. As in previous years, however, the main sessions of the Forum dealt with issues of prime importance to the corporate agenda such as Doha, Web 2.0, Megacities and the shrinking influence of Europe. But from time to time one could hear a different undertone, which showed a glimpse of the unique opportunity Davos has to foster links between business and civil society and create a platform for joint problem-solving.

Fostering links between business and civil society

One example of this was shown in the only ‘official’ workshop on philanthropy, ‘From Private Giving to Social Investing: The New Philanthropreneurs’. The workshop was one of the sessions with the longest waiting list (sign-up is required for most sessions), which came as a surprise to the organizers, who had to increase room capacity twice to accommodate the run. Judging from conversations with participants, this was not (only) because the Financial Times had included it in its ‘guide to the best of Davos 2007’ – the topic seems to have hit a nerve with attendees of the Forum.

A recurrent theme of the session was models of partnership between foundations and business, such as a major partnership between the Vodafone Group Foundation (VGF) and the UN Foundation that applies mobile technology to emergency response and health challenges. In this partnership, VGF and the UN Foundation are working with WHO and African health ministries to improve health data collection for measles, malaria, AIDS and other diseases. Subsequently, Nokia, Google, Palm and Salesforce.com have joined VGF and the UN Foundation in this effort.

In the same session, Unilever reported on successful partnerships with Synergos, Unicef and the WWF. In the discussion, the terms ‘philanthrocapitalism’ (as coined by Matthew Bishop of The Economist) and ‘philanthropreneurship’ were used so frequently that it seemed as if the concepts were already a commonplace for participants rather than a description of the ‘new philanthropy’ approach that has taken the sector by storm since the Buffett/Gates ‘merger’ was announced in spring 2006.

Participants at the philanthropy session highlighted the need to unlock the financial system to bring projects to scale. And here in my opinion is the unique opportunity that Davos has: by providing more opportunities for connecting the business sector and civil society, it could create an incredibly powerful marketplace for connecting potential donors with potential grantees. There is no other conference in the world that combines as much power in one place in one short spell of time as Davos: as the organizers proudly pointed out, the participants represented 20 per cent of the world’s GDP.

From giving to investing: a blended value approach

The potential for creating such a platform was clearly demonstrated in a session where 40 ‘Technology Pioneers’ presented their inventions – a session that drew quite a number of participants who had also been at the philanthropy session. It also showed how the lines between philanthropy and ‘classic’ investing can become blurred if one applies the ‘blended value’ approach. Two examples:

Aresa, a Danish biotech start-up that has developed a biosensor to enable detection of landmines. The biosensor, RedDetect, is a genetically modified plant that can detect nitrogen oxygen (which is released during the evaporation of explosive elements) when growing in soil and changes colour from green to red when growing on or close to landmines. According to its CEO Jarne Elleholm, Aresa aims to deliver a tool with RedDetect that is at least five times more effective than current methods for clearing landmines, saving hundreds of thousands of lives, especially in developing countries.
Given Imaging Ltd, a biotech company from Israel, that has pioneered capsule endoscopy and developed the PillCam video capsule, a disposable, miniature video camera contained in a capsule which is swallowed by the patient. A data recorder worn around the patient’s waist captures the images the PillCam takes and special software allows the physician to look at the images on a PC. The great advantage of the PillCam is that it is non-invasive, and overcomes the problems of traditional endoscopy.

Two investments with a social and economic value that seemed of special appeal to a range of the ‘new brand’ of philanthropists.

What can happen when business adopts the blended value approach was also shown in discussions on climate change, the issue that received most attention at the Forum. Klaus Kleinfeld, CEO of Siemens, adopted such a ‘green’ tone in his statement that Greenpeace CEO Gerd Leipold intervened. ‘You are using my text here, it seems as if business is taking over the role of the NGO sector,’ he said – not without adding, ‘I hear a lot of “I will do” but I would like to hear you say “I am doing”.’

John Doerr, a highly successful venture capitalist, agreed with Kleinfeld that Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth and discussions with his children at the dinner table had dramatically changed his view on climate change. But this was not the only reason why he had switched his portfolio to ‘green’ investments: ‘Energy is a $2 trillion market which is just a very good business proposition.’

Keeping up with the Benioffs

Finally, an evening celebrating social entrepreneurship hosted by salesforce.com illustrated how peer pressure in Davos can raise the level of engagement of business leaders in philanthropy. At the end of the evening a young tech entrepreneur commented to his partner, ‘I thought I was already doing quite a lot – but this evening has shown that I have to do even more if I want to keep up with Marc Benioff [CEO of Salesforce.com], Michael Dell and the others.’

It remains to be seen, however, whether the World Economic Forum in Davos will embrace the opportunity to become a platform for such ‘blended value’ propositions, or whether the corporate members driving the agenda will want the Forum to concentrate on the more traditional issues that have dominated the discussion so far.

Felicitas von Peter is President and CEO of the Forum for Active Philanthropy. Email fvonpeter@activephilanthropy.org

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