As Davos thrives, the UN falters and the world pays the price

From 19-23 January 2026, the rich and powerful meet again in the Swiss mountain town of Davos for the 56th Annual World Economic Forum to discuss “practical, solutions-oriented pathways that support resilience, competitiveness and inclusive growth...” — language that sounds grand but means nothing.

They will deliberate on issues and challenges they have deliberately and selfishly created, sustained and ignored to amass more wealth for the 1% at the expense of the global majority.

They meet at the time when the world is facing political, social, economic and climatic crises that need urgent action. They will be emptying sumptuous wine glasses offering the same empty promises that have defined Davos for decades.

The more-than-half-a-century-old forum has been nothing but a stage-managed gathering of wealthy men in blue suits congratulating themselves while delivering nothing for the global majority.

Carefully curated image

This time, they will again jet into Davos with a carefully curated image that half of the attending leaders will come from the Global South to reflect “a broad set of perspectives shaped by different economic, social and regional contexts”. But representation without power is not inclusion.

They have no interest in the reality faced by countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America except ripping off their natural resources, throwing them into brutal wars, instigating coups and shoving them with ineffective and impractical economic policies to maintain the status quo.

This isn’t what the world needs.

And now more than ever, the global majority is done listening to a bunch of oligarchs who fly in flamboyant private jets to gather in Davos for lavish champagne and discuss solutions they do not have to global problems.

These selfish billionaires and elites have for decades embraced the art and science of creating global crises from which they continue cashing in. From tariff hikes to trade tensions, shrinking freedoms to instigating brutal wars, creating growing inequalities to compounding poverty levels and worsening climate shocks to letting billions suffer from avoidable hunger – the super-rich profit while the world suffers.

The danger is that as the UN increasingly demonstrates its ineffectiveness the World Economic Forum and other illegitimate bodies will try to fill the vacuum. For all its failings the aims of the UN are to improve the world.

The World Economic Forum, on the other hand, has no intention of making the world a better place. It rather serves the interests of a few billionaires and oligarchs, helping them accumulate unnecessary wealth while ensuring their political allies increase oppression and prevent people from speaking out for their rights. This political capture is designed to serve the interests of the elite and to hold the 99% down.

They promise peace but their masters deliver wars and coups; the billionaires and super-rich exert high food prices and inflation, they preach democracy and human rights and the oligarchs shrink the civic space, violate human rights and capture politics, democracy and economies.

They continue to acknowledge inequality and do nothing about it.

Regressive consumption taxes

Their “expert advice” forces the Global South to reduce corporate taxes to benefit multinationals and billionaires through extractivism. Ironically, they impose regressive consumption taxes on citizens from developing and poor nations to service illegitimate debt. They allow tax heavens to thrive while billions go to bed hungry, have no access to quality public goods and service, healthcare and education.

For communities across the world, the injustice is not theoretical. It is lived, daily and brutal. At the People’s Summit alternative to the G20 in Johannesburg at the end of last year, several activists I spoke to highlighted the injustices they face.

Rodolfo Gómez Zurita from Mexico told me the biggest challenge his community faces is the privatisation of water. In Querétaro, land is being seized to build data centres for companies like Meta, Amazon and Microsoft. This is not innovation. It is extraction. And it is inhuman.

In South Sudan, the demand is even more visceral. Riya Williams Yuyada from South Sudan told me the main request is to simply end war in all parts of the world. It should not be radical to demand an end to violence, dignity over profit, and life over power.

And from Malaysia, activist Amalen Sathananthar highlighted that his red line is against imperialism. Against capitalism. Against genocide. These voices are not outliers. They are the global majority.

At the November 2025 “We the 99 People’s Summit”, the global majority set out a 10-point people-centred roadmap to build fairer economies and protect the planet. We demand taxing the super-rich and big tech. For decades, the richest 1%, billionaires and financial speculators, have extracted enormous wealth while contributing little in return. Their fair share of tax is enough to fund quality education, healthcare and decent wages for all.

Billions hidden offshore

Tax havens and shell companies must be shut down. This is theft. Every year, billions are hidden offshore while public services are starved of resources. It is time to end corruption and keep wealth where it belongs, serving people, not protecting obscene fortunes.

We also demand the protection of civic space and cultural rights. Oligarchs and billionaires are buying media power, manipulating digital platforms and influencing laws to silence dissent and capture democracy. This is democracy for sale, and we reject it.

And finally, we demand an end to all forms of occupation and genocide. No system can claim legitimacy while it is built on violence, dispossession and death. The right to land, life and liberation is non-negotiable. These are obvious and urgent solutions the world needs, and Davos will never discuss them because they are cashing in massively with a rigged system while the rest of humanity suffers.

We are done with Davos and its lies, they have no solution to global crises, We the 99% do. The future belongs to the many, not the few. DM

Jenny Ricks is General Secretary of the Fight Inequality Alliance.