Save the date – Global Risk Report 2011

By Kristel Van der Elst, Director, Head of Strategic Risk Foresight, Risk Initiatives, Risk Response Network at the World Economic Forum

Read the Global Risk Report 2010 Global Risks 2011, Sixth Edition is to be launched on January 12 in London. The World Economic Forum report, which has been published every year since its first appearance in 2006, tells the story of three major clusters of risk likely to sharply affect societies across the world in the coming 10 years. Central to its narrative is the idea that global risks know no boundaries and are tightly connected, thereby raising the potential for ripple effects that will affect each of us, particularly if we remain unaware of their existence and unprepared to face them.

The report aims to enhance understanding of how a comprehensive set of 37 selected global risks are evolving as seen by experts in the Forum’s network, how their interaction impacts a variety of stakeholders, and what trade-offs are involved in managing them. Global Risks 2011, Sixth Edition is a useful tool for policy-makers, CEOs, senior executives and thought leaders around the world. It aims to equip institutions to understand and respond to global risks and to embrace change as a source of innovation.

The report is developed in cooperation with the Forum’s Risk Partners Marsh & McLennan Companies, Swiss Reinsurance Company, Wharton Center for Risk Management, University of Pennsylvania, and Zurich Financial Services.  Its insights are drawn from the Global Risks Survey (a perception survey with 580 expert answers disseminated this summer), interviews and a series of interactive workshops with the Forum’s Global Agenda Councils members and other experts, as well as desk research by the Forum’s Strategic Risk Foresight Team.

In 2007, two years ahead of the H1N1 virus spike that claimed thousands of lives throughout the world, the report warned of generalized under-preparedness to pandemics. In 2008, two years ahead Greece’s spring 2010 bail-out by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, the Forum highlighted the dangers associated with deteriorating fiscal positions in Europe.

Watch out for this year’s word of caution…