The Crown Prince and Crown Princess in Davos

On Tuesday, 25 January, Crown Princess Mette-Marit attended various seminars organised by the Forum of Young Global Leaders (YGL) in advance of the meeting.

This is the first time the Crown Princess has attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. She has been a member of Young Global Leaders since 2010. Today, YGL has 750 members who represent all regions of the world and who hold leadership positions in the business, political, cultural and public spheres, academia, non-governmental organisations and the media.

Sixth time attending the meeting

Crown Prince Haakon will attend the Annual Meeting in Davos from the opening on Wednesday, 26 January. The Crown Prince was a member of Young Global Leaders from its launch in 2005 until autumn 2010, when he became a member of the Foundation Board, the governing body of the YGL Community.

It was at a meeting organised by YGL that the Crown Prince met Finnish professor of philosophy Pekka Himanen and founder and chairman of Operation Hope, John Hope Bryant. Together the three founded the Global Dignity initiative in 2006. Global Dignity Day was observed on 20 October all over the world, including at more than 200 upper secondary schools throughout Norway.

Led YGL’s efforts

Crown Prince Haakon has attended all of the Annual Meetings in Davos since 2005, with the exception of the meeting in 2008. He has led as well as participated in panel debates. In 2010 the Crown Prince participated in a panel debate in his capacity as Chair of the YGL Global Redesign Task Force; other panellists included Michael Froman (Deputy Assistant to the US President) and George Yeo Yong-Boon (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Singapore). The Crown Prince led YGL’s efforts under the Global Redesign Initiative until the initiative was concluded with the presentation of a final report in Doha, Qatar, in May 2010.

Around 3 000 Young Global Leaders have participated in the Global Redesign Initiative, which was launched by the World Economic Forum in January 2009 with the aim of generating functional ideas and specific solutions to improve the state of the world. More than 20 YGL projects are presented in detail at redesignourworld.com.

The Nordic model a topic of discussion

The Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters is being held for the 41st time, and this year’s theme is “Shared Norms for the New Reality”. The Nordic Model is one of the topics of discussion. Norwegian government ministers and Nordic heads of state are therefore expected to attend this prestigious meeting in the Swiss Alps.

Nearly 2 500 people attended the 2010 Annual Meeting.