Delegates attending the annual gathering of policymakers, business leaders and commentators in Davos, Switzerland later this month won’t be spending all their time sitting down or putting the world to rights over a coffee or glass of wine. Instead, they are being urged to put on their walking shoes for a good cause.

Delegates attending the annual gathering of policymakers, business leaders and commentators in Davos, Switzerland later this month won’t be spending all their time sitting down or putting the world to rights over a coffee or glass of wine. Instead, they are being urged to put on their walking shoes for a good cause.

UBS and the World Economic Forum, the global conference group, are launching the Davos Challenge: Walk For Education. If people at the WEF walk an average 6 kilometres during the annual meeting from 21 to 24 January, then UBS and its UBS Optimus Foundation will donate 2,500 specially designed bicycles, one for each Davos participant. The bicycles will be provided by World Bicycle Relief, a not-for-profit group that has operated in Africa for 10 years.

Inadequate transport and long distances are severe barriers to children obtaining an education. In rural South Africa, children often must walk more than 6 km a day, UBS said in a release about the venture.

"All children should have access to education and the opportunity to learn," Axel Weber, chairman of the board of directors and the corporate responsibility committee, said.

The first 1,000 participants to sign up for the challenge at the meeting in Davos will be given FitBit electronic pedometers to log the distance they walk individually and to collect an overall average distance.

Based on projected results of people taking part, UBS reckons it will donate 2,500 Buffalo Bicycles through World Bicycle Relief.