By Robert Davies, Chief Executive Officer of IBLF

The International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) was founded by HRH The Prince of Wales, supported by a group of international companies and CEOs in 1990.

It was a moment of heady political transition, seismic change and revelation when anything seemed possible in an insecure and threatened world.

Stopping the worst excesses of environmental degradation, corruption, insecurity and conflict, ill health, mass unemployment, threats to rights, and new civil responsibilities - these seemed to be the key challenges.

Making the case that business was part of the solution to responsible development and embedding civil society and enterprise was our priority - ours was an optimistic, some thought unrealistic, mandate.