15. – 19.07.2024 | Davos, Switzerland

The World We Want | World Child Forum 2024

ende
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The World
We Want

The World Child Forum is an independent initiative that facilitates a complementary event to the World Economic Forum in Davos. At the same place, in the same rooms, with the view not simply into the future, but from the perspective of those who carry the future in themselves – children and young people.

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„If we really want to shape our future in a sustainable way, it is essential to take into account the enormous treasure of creative will of children and young people. Their connection to the basic things and their often unbiased view of a world worth living in must be our guide and incentive for action. It is not we who help young people, but they who help us. And we need their help and cooperation more than ever.“
- Bernhard Hanel, Initiator of the WCF

World Child Forum 2024
Where great things succeed

THE WORLD
WE WANT

The World Children's Forum is a four-day guided exploration of viable ideas in the form of a "playathon," a melting pot for extraordinary solutions in all areas. The ideas will be presented and shared at a major closing event, drawing the attention of the public and decision-makers to the interests of younger generations.

FROM DAVOS
TO THE WORLD

The Congress Centre in Davos, the venue of the World Economic Forum, provides the local and thematic proximity and the framework for our format: a complementary event to the WEF that fills an important gap and creates new spaces of possibility for children as bearers of a new, unimagined future.

200 CHILDREN AND
YOUNG PEOPLE

200 children, teenagers and young adults – international, inclusive and imaginative. We want to plan the future with those most affected by it: Children and young people. with the WCF, we create a space needed to answer the big questions together –not by proxy.

TODAY FOR
TOMORROW

From 15. to 19. July 2024, the World Child Forum will take place in a smaller laboratory format and at the same time mark the beginning of a big movement. For four days, children and young people will have their say, shape their own futures and engage directly with adult decision-makers.

From model
to effect

Impact model of input - output - outcome - impact

With a defined space, a fixed time and young people, we create impact - and with it, immediate impulses from the living to more future-oriented decisions. This creates effective change at all levels.

Davos to the world:
Philipp Wilhelm,
Mayor of Davos

 

“Davos is host, expert and supporter of many events that shape our world today, be it congresses, research, sport, or culture. Perhaps the best-known event that has helped shape the “Spirit of Davos” is the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

We are delighted that a new event will be taking place in Davos starting in 2023: the World Child Forum. The upcoming WCF sees itself as a platform that wants to make all future issues of children and young people, and therefore also of adults, visible. It wants to make connections and open up new paths. Because it is the natural impulses and surprising ideas of young people that enable unexpected new solutions with enormous potential. And we need those fresh ideas more than ever. With this format, it is not that we are helping the children and young people – but they are helping us to deal with the complex issues, problems and tasks of our time. We need their support to cope with the complexities of the future.”

„As the Mayor of Davos, I look forward to refreshing glimpses of the future and I am happy to host this initiative. However, in order for the WCF and its future ideas to be included in important decision-making processes, we need active supporters, sponsors and actors now! Are you with us?“
- Philipp Wilhelm, Mayor of Davos

For a world we want
Team WCF

LENA, ISADORA, ROMY

Lena, Isadora and Romy are interested in how we can live together in the future. They live in Trogen and are in the 6th grade. Regularly, they attend the Pestalozzi Children's Village, where they participated in the Children's Conference in 2021. They learned important aspects about their rights as children and how they can campaign for these rights. At the WCF conception meeting in January 2022, the three girls were representatives and guardians of the needs and claims of children and young people.

BERNHARD HANEL

Initiator of the World Child Forum and founder of KuKuk GmbH Stuttgart/Basel. Creation of playgrounds and natural spaces. Founder of KuKuk Kultur e.V. (globalprojects for shelter and play spaces) of the Freispiel-Akademie and Living Circle. Board member of the Archive of the Future ADZ.

MARCEL HENRY

The art historian with a doctorate and exhibition organiser – currently in the Hermann Hesse Museum, Tessin –loves to deal artistically with social issues. Not only after having led the exhibitions in the Kinderdorf Pestalozzi in Trogen (CH), has he been fascinated by the unvarnished honesty of children. They speak from the heart. So do they when they have paper, pen or brush in their hands. Like texts, children's drawings are a mirror of the child's soul. They are authentic, unadorned and unfiltered.

JULIA EBNER

The current crises and conflicts make us aware of the importance of reliable relations between states, generations and people. Julia Ebner considers it one of the most important tasks of our times to maintain and develop these connections on various levels, such as politics, culture and business, in the interests of the people. As an entrepreneur, philosopher and mediator, it is her concern to accept the challenges of the future and to actively shape them in order to prepare the world for the future.

MAGDALENA RIES

Magdalena Ries is convinced that a change begins within each of us, roots in our relationships and helps to shape the world through our actions. She believes that profound processes of change require courage, heart and people who take their own potential seriously. This is why the political and peace scientist, experiential educator, development facilitator and gestalt therapist uses her skills and committment for a sustainable world.

STEFANIE SEEBERGER

Design, art and exhibition design are Stefanie Seeberger's passion. As a graphic designer, she worked in large agencies for a long time. Since the birth of her three children, she has been self-employed.

"Only those who grow up and remain a child are human." She believes that the quote by Erich Kästner needs to be shouted into the world. Because our future is the children, we can learn so much from them to become human beings again.

WERNER POMMERENKE

"We did not know each other, but we are not strangers. The idea of the World Child Forum united us and made us take action."

Werner Pommerenke runs Svedlanda, a place of encounters, near Bullerbü/Sweden, makes music, is an entrepreneur and has built playgrounds for many years. He loves making connections and linking people through shared ideas. Hello world, we are serious and will have a lot of fun.

SUSANNA PINNOW

Susanna Pinnow is a strategist and has always been a designer – in word and image. She creates brands and puts visions into form. In her role as strategist, she has been accompanying the WCF since almost the first minute. Susanna is passionate about her profession because she sees her calling in inspiring people with stories and thus changing conditions. She sees her profession for the WCF in achieving broad impact with a clear strategy.

You make
it happen

Do you share our belief in a bright future? Then we look forward to welcoming you as a friend of a great cause.
Participate

Our attitude
to success

MANY CHILDREN
LITTLE ATTENTION

More than 2.4 billion children and young people live on our planet. They are especially protected by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, far from every child is able to develop in a healthy and positive way: There are material, physical and psychological hardships and not enough real perspectives for the future.

OUR CHILDREN
OUR CHANCE

The World Child Forum wants and demands that the adults and especially the decision-makers in this world take into account the concerns, visions and stories of children and young people – and that they integrate them into their everyday decision-making processes. Real participation is needed. This is the only way to build a successful future.

THE ROAD
TO SUCCESS

The WCF makes visible all the issues of children and young people - and thus of our society. To ensure that young people's ideas and impulses for the future are taken into account in important decision-making processes, the WCF needs supporters and actors. It needs a forum with the same impact as the World Economic Forum.

MORE SPACE
MORE FUTURE

The WCF deliberately seeks proximity to the
World Economic Forum in Davos. As a complement to the WEF, we want to establish an event that highlights the space of the unavailable and the living - thus drawing the attention and interest of the public and decision-makers to the interests of the younger generations.

The future
needs answers

 

We are glad that you asked.
Find out more about the World Child Forum 2024 and how you can participate in and support our event in July 2024 by downloading the PDF here.

 

Download our WCF booklet

Please contact us, in case you want to learn more.