UpLink is an open, digital crowd-engagement platform, created to foster mass participation to meet the United Nations' 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their 2030 Agenda.[1] It is a collaboration platform created in partnership with Deloitte and Salesforce.[2]
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| Developer(s) | Salesforce, Deloitte and the World Economic Forum |
|---|---|
UpLink is available to everyone and allows users to register and contribute to different SDGs by responding to various thematic 'Challenges'. User's submissions have a chance to be selected as winners, joining the 'UpLink Innovation Ecosystem' and receiving support. The World Economic Forum (WEF) will oversee the online networking platform.[3]
History
editAt the United Nation's (U.N.) yearly summit in 2015, world leaders gathered together to adopt a 2030 Agenda for what the U.N. calls Sustainable Development Goals. These goals are meant to guide U.N. member states on how to face seventeen different core issues currently affecting humanity.[4] On 18 January 2018, the World Economic Forum and International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced that they were to select fifty regional start-ups in Latin America to take part in the creation of the UpLink initiative, meant to tackle these core issues.[5]
At the annual WEF event on 25 September 2019, it was announced publicly in New York that UpLink will be launched in January 2020 with the first SDG issue being tackled is "ocean" and water-related issues, also known as SDG 14. The remaining 16 SDGs will have other platforms set to be released in lieu with UpLink by beginning 2021. It is unknown whether these platforms will be separate or converged under the UpLink initiative.[6]
At the Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2020, the World Economic Forum launched the platform at a session titled "UpLink: Linking Up the Next Generation of Change-Makers."[7]
Allegations of Employer Misconduct and Harassment
editOn June 29, 2024, The Wall Street Journal published an article, authored by staff reporters Shalini Ramachandran and Khadeeja Safdar, stating that WEF founder Klaus Schwab is accused by former WEF employees of having engaged in two instances of sexual harassment. Furthermore, a former employee alleges that she was "pushed out" from her role as leader of an initiative for startups, following a brief trial period, after telling Schwab she was pregnant. Schwab grew upset that she wouldn’t be able to continue working at the same pace, people familiar with the incident said, and told her she wasn’t suited for her new leadership role. A fourth allegation was that Schwab ordered the firing of all individuals over 50 years of age at the WEF, which then HR-chief Paolo Gallo refused to do. After this, Schwab allegedly fired Gallo. The article then went on to discuss alleged misconduct by other high-ranking WEF officials, which was not directly related to Schwab. The WSJ article quoted the WEF's response to the specific allegations against Schwab, which the authors had gathered before publishing the article, as: "Schwab has never made sexual advances toward an employee and the women's' allegations were vague and false" and that “Mr. Schwab does not and has never engaged in the vulgar behaviors you describe”. [8] Three days later, the WSJ article was reported on, separately and respectively, in Swiss daily newspapers Tages-Anzeiger and Neue Zürcher Zeitung, where WEF further commented that "it is deeply disappointing that the WSJ made provably false allegations" and that there existed a zero-tolerance policy for this sort of misconduct. [9][10]
In the aftermath of these revelations, some commentators pondered the future of the WEF.[11]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "UpLink". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
- ^ "UpLink". uplink.weforum.org. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
- ^ "What is UpLink?" (PDF). World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
- ^ deloitteeditor. "UpLink Platform Unites Changemakers Worldwide". deloitte.wsj.com. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
- ^ "World Economic Forum UpLink Start-up Initiative Expands into Latin America and Caribbean". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2020-02-19.
- ^ "Crowd-Sourcing the SDGs: New Open-Source Digital Platform to Unlock Ideas and Spur Funding for Sustainable Development". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
- ^ UpLink: Linking Up the Next Generation of Change-Makers | DAVOS 2020, retrieved 2023-03-29
- ^ Ramachandran, Shalini; Safdar, Khadeeja (June 29, 2024). "Behind Davos, Claims of a Toxic Workplace". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ Schuler, Edgar (2 July 2024). "Berichte über Belästigung und Diskriminierung unter Klaus Schwab". Tages-Anzeiger online. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ Weder, Janique (2024-07-03). "Schwere Vorwürfe gegen Klaus Schwab: Das WEF weist Bericht zurück". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
- ^ "MSN". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2024-07-05.