On September 20-21, 2011, the World Bank hosted a 24-hour online chat forum and live webcast debate on solutions needed to increase women’s economic opportunity and their voice in decision making. The event was entitled “Open Forum: Gender — Getting to Equal.” CNN International’s Hala Gorani hosted the discussion. Participants included World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Nike Foundation President and CEO Maria Eitel and others. Thousands more people participated online.

The global community submitted more than 250 ideas to solve this global challenge. The most popular idea, with 936, votes from several countries around the world, was the proposal for a Basic Income for all. The second most popular idea was supported by only 289 votes (see the vote totals here). During the forum, however, Basic Income was not a major topic of discussion. It was mentioned only once, and after 30 seconds discussion went on to another topic (see video part 5 at 7:28).

Some participants in the online chat told BI News they were disappointed that the most popular topic was hardly discussed in the forum. Although they appreciated that the World Bank held an open forum in which participants could submit solutions and vote on them, ignoring the most popular proposal could lead to dissatisfaction with such events, conveying the impression that World Bank experts do not take the suggestions of ordinary people seriously.

For the tally of votes at the online forum:
https://live.worldbank.org/open-forum-gender/ideas/agrees

The World Bank’s description of the event is online along with video of the discussion at:
https://live.worldbank.org/open-forum-gender