The centre’s work covered a number of valuable areas during the reporting period, including several initiative launches, the work of the Global Lighthouse Network and progress on Scope 3 decarbonization activities.

This breadth of work is reflected in the centre’s vision of a world where manufacturing and supply chains are the engine for societal, economic and environmental prosperity.

To support this vision, the centre aims to accelerate responsible industry transformation in manufacturing and supply chains by bringing together a global multistakeholder community to exchange best practices, develop new insights and scale up cross-industry collaborations.

The centre has four priorities, namely:

The centre supported the launch of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Viet Nam as part of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network. The new centre is engaging the national manufacturing ecosystem to accelerate the transition towards advanced manufacturing through a series of local, national and international projects and activities. It contributes to strengthening the competitiveness of the country’s manufacturing sector while supporting the global discussion on the future of production.

Another key project for the centre was its support for the launch and scaling up of the International Centre for Industrial Transformation. This not-for-profit provides global benchmarking tools, such as the Smart Industry Readiness Index and Consumer Sustainability Industry Readiness Index, to assess the technology, sustainability and resiliency maturity of industrial operations and helps inform investment and policy decisions.

The centre’s independent expert panel of more than 25 industry and academic experts selected the next cohort of the Global Lighthouse Network, expanding it to 153 sites around the globe. These 21 additions demonstrate the transformative power of manufacturing and supply chain innovations, such as AI, deployed at scale for operational and sustainability gains. They are committed to sharing their findings and best practices, helping the whole ecosystem excel in the industrial transformation journey.

Finally, the centre’s Industry Net Zero Accelerator Initiative supported action on Scope 3 decarbonization for manufacturing and supply chains by releasing a new framework: The “No-Excuse” Opportunities to Tackle Scope 3 Emissions in Manufacturing and Value Chains. It unveiled 12 opportunities and best practices for business and government to accelerate their Scope 3 decarbonization journey, supported by case studies.

The centre’s vision is to protect, restore and regenerate the global commons – the Earth’s shared natural resources. Its mission is to build knowledge and share insights, engage diverse stakeholders in co-creating solutions and catalyse bold, action-oriented partnerships for climate and nature.

The centre’s three main thrusts are:

In the past year, the centre brought the latest thinking on decarbonization, nature-positive and resource stewardship to promote thought leadership through the curation of more than 100 event sessions.

It continued to host the Chief Sustainability Leaders Community – 155 leaders from global companies encompassing 24 industries and 38 countries who connect, learn, lead and collaborate to expedite corporate transformation towards sustainable organizations.

To strengthen the nexus between science, business and policy, the centre launched the Earth Decides community, a group of almost 40 global experts and influencers seeking to innovate their communication and collaboration about nature and climate thematic tracks.

The philanthropy initiative, Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA), grew to more than 100 endorsers, including philanthropies, academic institutions, companies and public-sector organizations. GAEA’s co-chairs for the period were H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Ray Dalio, Founder and Chief Investment Officer Mentor of Bridgewater, and Klaus Schwab.

The centre led the Forum’s partnership with the United Arab Emirates Presidency at COP28. This included hosting 17 sessions with more than 700 participants (270 of whom were chief executive officer-level).

As part of COP28 engagement efforts, the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders published an open letter to world leaders, highlighting the actions and interventions critical for a net-zero future. The alliance also launched a Scope 3 action plan as a framework for businesses to tackle upstream Scope 3 emissions.

At COP28, the Forum also launched the First Movers Coalition for Food, seeking to create aggregated market demand for sustainably produced and low-emission agricultural commodities. Support from the United Arab Emirates and 20 leading food companies was secured.

During the reporting period, the First Movers Coalition for Industry launched a First Suppliers Hub – a global repository of innovative and emerging products needed to decarbonize the world by 2050. In tandem, the Airports of Tomorrow initiative was launched to convene aviation stakeholders towards the industry’s 2050 net-zero goal.

1t.org reached the milestone of having more than 100 companies committing pledges. This equates to over 12 billion trees pledged in more than 100 countries to support livelihoods and terrestrial and coastal ecosystem conservation and restoration.

On plastics, the Global Plastic Action Partnership continued to scale up its efforts to translate plastic pollution commitments into action, with more than 15 national and local partnerships scaling efforts. The centre also supported the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in developing an international, legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.

Anticipating and addressing tomorrow’s cybersecurity challenges is a constant endeavour. The centre used its annual Global Cybersecurity Outlook to reiterate leaders’ concerns about a lack of skilled cybersecurity personnel and widening cyber inequity amid a rapidly evolving geopolitical and technological landscape.

This underscores the centre’s vision to support every individual and organization so that they can securely benefit from continuing digital and technological progress. It also requires the centre to pursue programming that supports greater cyber resilience.

Reflecting this, its mission is to provide an independent and impartial platform to reinforce the importance of cybersecurity as a strategic imperative and drive global public-private action to address systemic cybersecurity challenges.

Through its work, the centre reinforces the importance of cybersecurity as a strategic priority for all organizations, focusing on three areas:

Highlights during the reporting period included the centre’s Annual Meeting on Cybersecurity. Under the theme, “Securing Cyberspace for a World in Transition”, the meeting convened more than 150 cybersecurity leaders at the Forum’s headquarters in Geneva. With sessions on cyber resilience, cybercrime, cybersecurity talent and the impact of emerging technologies on the cybersecurity landscape, the meeting was instrumental in strengthening support for the centre’s ongoing initiatives.

More than 250 senior leaders were surveyed for the Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2024, produced in collaboration with Accenture. The report examined the cybersecurity trends expected to affect economies and societies in the coming year, illuminated major findings, and highlighted widening cyber inequity and the profound impact of emerging technologies.

As part of its work to address the growing demand for a skilled cybersecurity workforce, the centre developed the Bridging the Cyber Skills Gap initiative. Bringing together more than 50 public and private organizations, the initiative developed a Strategic Cybersecurity Talent Framework featuring actionable approaches to help organizations build sustainable talent pipelines.

Alongside this, the centre focused on strengthening cyber resilience in manufacturing, which is the sector most targeted by cybercriminals globally. This involved working with more than 30 cybersecurity leaders, and in May 2024, the Building a Culture of Cyber Resilience in Manufacturing playbook was published. It outlines three guiding principles to support manufacturing and supply chain leaders in establishing a cyber resilience culture throughout their organizations.

The centre collaborated with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on the issue of quantum security. Seeking a collaborative and globally harmonized approach to the issue, the centre brought together a community comprising global regulators from the financial sector and the foremost quantum leaders to inform regulatory approaches and guidance in anticipation of the quantum era.

Finally, in what proved to be a busy reporting period, the centre convened leaders for the launch of the inaugural Global Conference on Cyber Capacity Building in Accra, Ghana. This initiative was pursued in collaboration with the CyberPeace Institute, the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise and the World Bank.

Accelerating a sustainable, equitable and secure energy transition remains a priority on the global agenda and drives the centre’s vision. The centre serves as the multistakeholder and cross-industry platform that enables the development of new leadership coalitions and the delivery of cutting-edge insights required for a balanced energy future, locally and globally.

The centre’s priorities for the reporting period were five-fold and included:

The centre addressed these priority areas through its action-oriented initiatives during the reporting period. It worked to mobilize investment for clean energy in emerging economies by convening public- and private-sector stakeholders, who were tasked with identifying challenges and solutions to unlock clean energy finance for these markets. The centre’s initiative on transitioning industrial clusters worked to improve cooperation among co-located companies and governments to drive economic growth, employment and the energy transition. It also supported the rapid and responsible deployment of clean power by enabling the swift expansion of renewable capacity and grid infrastructure while embedding better community engagement and nature-positive practices.

This work has involved multiple stakeholders. Key collaborators included about 250 partner companies, the energy and mining ministries of the governments of Brazil, Colombia, the European Commission, Indonesia, Morocco and the United States Department of Energy.

The centre launched the Network to Mobilize Investment for Clean Energy in the Global South. Comprising more than 45 government ministers and chief executive officers, the network offers a platform for developing economies to raise awareness about their clean energy finance needs, share best practices and sustainably accelerate their energy transitions. This will help unlock the estimated $2.2-2.8 trillion needed for the energy transition.

During the reporting period, four new clusters – from China, France, Thailand and the US – joined the centre’s Transitioning Industrial Clusters initiative. This has engaged 21 clusters in 11 countries on four continents. The aim is to drive economic growth, job creation and the energy transition, representing $370 billion in GDP contribution and both protecting and creating 3.8 million jobs.

The centre’s Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2024 report, which has benchmarked 120 countries for 14 years on their current energy system performance and the readiness of their enabling environment through the Energy Transition Index (ETI), revealed growing uncertainties are impeding energy transition momentum, despite record ETI scores.

In collaboration with the International Business Council, the centre published the Transforming Energy Demand report, which detailed practical steps that can be taken in buildings, industry and transport to reduce energy use by 31%. This would create a potential annual savings of at least $2 trillion for the global economy.

Meanwhile, the Securing Minerals for the Energy Transition report outlined 10 key risk management strategies designed to secure critical minerals crucial for the ongoing energy transition. Priority actions included accelerating public-private collaboration, supporting investment mobilization and accelerating innovation.

Introducing a “people-positive” approach to clean power deployment, the Better Community Engagement for a Just Energy Transition: A C-Suite Guide was designed to spark conversation on community engagement at the executive level.

Incubated at the Forum, the chief executive officer-led effort to decarbonize the chemical industry by pooling efforts and expertise across the sector relaunched as the Global Impact Coalition.

Finally, the Building Trust through an Equitable and Inclusive Energy Transition report provided a framework and 10 questions designed to build trust, encourage collaboration and guide policy-makers and business leaders in the energy sector towards advancing a just, equitable and inclusive energy transition.

Today’s global financial system faces significant uncertainty as central banks remain vigilant in their fight against inflation. Geopolitical tensions and climate stress continue to exert pressure on system actors while new technologies reshape the competitive landscape.

The centre’s vision is to design and develop a financial system that effectively allocates capital and investment to support the planet, people and communities. It provides an independent and impartial platform to design a more sustainable, resilient, trusted and accessible financial system, reinforcing long-term value creation and economic growth.

Its priorities are three-fold and include:

With forecasts that the global population over the age of 65 will more than double between 2020 and 2050, the centre’s Longevity Economy initiative developed a set of Longevity Economy Principles to help address the financial and social challenges of this demographic transition. These principles offer practical solutions for companies and policy-makers to implement as they contend with these changes and showcase opportunities for public-private collaboration.

To date, more than 20 organizations have committed to taking tangible action in alignment with these principles. Actions include innovation in investment vehicle design to meet evolving needs driven by longer lifespans, broadening access to financial education, enhancing skill-building for a multigenerational workforce and intentionally addressing longevity disparities based on socioeconomic factors.

As the fintech sector emerged from pandemic growth tailwinds, The Future of Global Fintech: Towards Resilient and Inclusive Growth report provided cutting-edge data on the sector’s current health and the latest trends throughout the sector. Engaging more than 200 fintech companies, this research showed continued growth for fintechs with customer growth rates above 50%. This publication also provided detailed analyses of fintech trends in five retail-facing industry verticals and six regions.

The centre continued to develop its C-suite communities of peers. The Women in Finance Community, consisting of more than 70 global chief executive officers and other business leaders from banking, insurance, investing and real estate, addressed shifting industry priorities and responsible business leadership. The centre’s cross-cutting Chief Financial Officer Community also expanded to more than 80 chief financial officers, with members from multiple industries including energy, technology and banking. The group addressed topics ranging from macroeconomic trends to investing in AI and sustainability reporting.

Achieving a net-zero economy will require $100 trillion dollars in new investment. The centre’s sustainable finance initiatives worked with more than 80 financial institutions and more than 10 governments to tackle climate and nature financing and accelerate capital mobilization towards breakthrough global clean energy technologies. The Financing the Transition to a Net-Zero Future and FMC Finance Pillar initiatives analysed how public policy, finance and market demand signals can help close financing gaps for climate initiatives in developed and emerging economies.

As the trend of market democratization and the rise of retail investors continues, the Future of Capital Markets initiative furthered last year’s Retail Investing Survey in the Broadening Access to Private Markets white paper, which explored ways individuals can gain improved investment access in private markets. The initiative consists of more than 50 representatives of financial services, members of the regulatory community and members of civil society. The latest white paper addressed opportunities for returns and diversification, risks and unintended consequences, as well as the market architecture changes required to enable broadened access responsibly.

Analysis suggests geopolitical fragmentation could reduce global economic output by as much as 7% over time, suggesting that finance leaders must now grapple with the impacts this may have on the financial system. The Navigating Global Financial System Fragmentation initiative engaged more than 50 chief executives, chairpersons and public-sector finance leaders to define a set of norms, rules and principles required to safeguard the integrity of the global financial system and prevent its weaponization during a period of rising geopolitical complexity.

Uniting more than 242 partners and 102 innovators, alongside stakeholders from government, civil society and academia, the centre and its global network of independent national and thematic affiliate centres have a mission to understand exponential technologies and advance their responsible adoption and application.

In a rapidly evolving technological landscape, exemplified by AI’s fast growth, forecasting technological trends and empowering organizations to maximize benefits while minimizing risks is crucial for the public and private sectors.

The centre is dedicated to creating communities, facilitating interactions and spearheading solution-oriented initiatives. Its priorities include:

The reporting period saw the establishment and growth of the AI Governance Alliance (AIGA). Uniting more than 340 members and recognizing the need for robust AI frameworks, AIGA promotes transparency and inclusivity through collaboration between government, industry, academia and civil society. At the Annual Meeting 2024, AIGA’s three working groups published briefing papers addressing AI development, transformation and governance.

AI’s exponential growth underlines the importance of digital inclusion. The EDISON Alliance, a coalition of more than 160 leaders aiming to bridge the digital divide for one billion people by 2025, announced in January 2024 that its 320 initiatives in 127 countries had reached nearly 800 million people. This was partly through a growing network of 10 Lighthouse countries and extensive online content.

AI development prioritizing human needs and societal good relies on digital trust and safety. This year, the Digital Trust Initiative introduced the concept of individual-agency-by-design for technological transparency, privacy and redressability in the report Digital Trust: Supporting Individual Agency. The initiative expanded its influence by collaborating with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to integrate digital trust into global technical standards.

The Global Coalition for Digital Safety, comprising 50 members, released several reports: Global Principles on Digital Safety, Digital Safety Risk Assessment in Action and Toolkit for Digital Safety Design Interventions and Innovations: Typology of Online Harms. It also tackled disinformation through a new media literacy workstream, convening a community to address the issue. The Defining and Building the Metaverse Initiative expanded its vision for a body of work addressing the future of the internet through a series of white papers on Privacy and Safety, Interoperability, Social Implications, Metaverse Identity, as well as the Industrial Metaverse and the Consumer Metaverse.

Tackling global challenges with technology remained a priority. A global community of more than 40 industry, climate and technology leaders was launched to assess Earth observation (EO) technology’s transformative potential. Its report, Amplifying the Global Value of Earth Observation, underscores EO’s capacity to contribute $3.8 trillion to the global economy by 2030 while reducing two gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

Additionally, a global climate-tech task force led by the centre identified six key data-driven technologies for climate adaptation. The report Innovation and Adaptation in the Climate Crisis: Technology for the New Normal and an action toolkit offer guidance on using these technologies effectively to better prepare for and react to the effects of climate change.

AI for Agricultural Innovation (AI4AI), an initiative involving more than 80 collaborators, including the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Saudi Arabia, is using Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and partnerships to transform agriculture. Focusing on value chain transformation, digital infrastructure and agritech (agricultural technology) sandboxes, a pilot in Telangana used toolkits, frameworks and data exchanges to boost profits by $800/acre, expanding AI4AI to benefit 500,000 farmers. Telangana also launched India’s first Agriculture Data Exchange, which operates in three states.

The centre continued delving deeper into frontier technologies like extended reality (the metaverse), autonomous systems, the bioeconomy, and the quantum and space economies.

Launched in 2023, the Bioeconomy Initiative produced its first report in 2024, titled Accelerating the Tech-Driven Bioeconomy, which focused on overcoming barriers to responsibly mainstreaming biotechnologies. The Quantum Economy Network launched the Quantum Economy Blueprint, guiding countries on their journey towards becoming a quantum economy, and the Saudi Arabia centre became the first in the network to initiate the Quantum Economy Project.

The Quantum Economy Network also launched the Quantum Security for the Financial Sector: Informing Global Regulatory Approaches report to ensure a collaborative and globally harmonized approach to quantum security.

The Future of Space Economy community published the Space: The $1.8 Trillion Opportunity for Global Economic Growth report, projecting the space economy to grow to $1.8 trillion by 2035 and highlighting that space’s impact is expanding rapidly beyond space itself. The community also initiated national dialogues in India and Japan.

The automotive data and software market volume in 2035 is expected to be valued at up to $1 trillion. The Automotive in the Software-Driven Era community, part of the DRIVE-A: Vehicle Autonomy initiative, addressed this transformation in the Unlocking Safety and Innovation in Vehicle Software briefing paper.

The centre’s global reach expanded in the reporting period. In Germany and Ukraine, centres launched to focus on government technologies, while in Qatar and Viet Nam, new centres will focus on advanced manufacturing and digital trade. In Saudi Arabia, the first thematic centre on space – the Centre for Space Futures – was announced.

Meanwhile, the existing network published its first impact report, showcasing more than 100 initiatives and 40 pilot projects involving more than 400 collaborators. The network’s focus on responsible technology is driving positive change from food agriculture in Colombia to health data protection in Serbia, smart manufacturing in Saudi Arabia and Rwanda’s AI policy.

Persisting inequities, growing barriers to innovation in healthcare and looming global health risks such as climate change pose existential threats to global society. Reflecting this, the centre has focused on areas such as digital healthcare transformation, women’s health, nutrition, healthy workforces, health equity, antimicrobial resistance, climate and health, and pandemic response systems during the reporting period.

This approach underscores the centre’s overall vision of a world where every person has equal access to the highest standards of health and healthcare. To achieve this, it seeks to identify and scale up solutions for more resilient, efficient and equitable healthcare systems. It also encourages collaboration to allow government and business to use Fourth Industrial Revolution developments to improve the state of health and healthcare globally.

The centre’s work focuses on three priorities:

As part of these priorities, the centre focused on strengthening its collaboration with the world’s biggest employers to encourage a more productive, resilient, healthy global workforce by prioritizing physical and mental health in the workplace. Resilience was at the core of its work on nutrition, bringing together partners and disruptors to shape solutions that elevate nutrition’s importance and thus launching the report Transforming the Global Food System for Human Health and Resilience.

This thematically aligns with its work on global health equity and the network dedicated to mobilizing executive leadership commitment and accelerating cross-industry partnerships and investment in this vital issue. To date, the Zero Health Gaps Pledge has been signed by over 100 global business and public sector leaders and is now venturing into the activation phase, including areas such as oral health and community-based partnerships.

It continued to collaborate with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US National Academy of Medicine, among others.

The centre also pursued collaboration with the governments of Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, the US and Zambia and entered into talks with the governments of Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the UK and the United Arab Emirates.

Among the centre’s most high-profile work during the period was its launch of the Global Alliance for Women’s Health at the Annual Meeting 2024. The alliance strives to close the women’s health gap by unlocking investment and encouraging innovation in women’s health.

At the same meeting, the centre launched the Digital Healthcare Transformation Initiative – a vehicle towards global value-driven health system transformation. This initiative is a global effort to shape holistic AI and data-enabled solutions to improve outcomes, access and efficiency in healthcare.

The centre participated in the first Health Day of COP28, convening the Preparing for the Health Impacts of Climate Change session. Addressing the impact of climate change on health and advancing adaptation and preparedness strategies is one of the highest priorities for the global community as well as for the centre.

Through its collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, the centre secured leadership and resources to scale up impact for its climate and health, healthy workforces and women’s health initiatives. The centre also deepened its collaboration with leading healthcare organizations such as Kaiser Permanente, Bayer, Mayo Clinic, Philips, Moderna, Apollo Hospital, Medtronic and others, strengthening the collaboration between the public and the private sectors.

Similarly, it worked to strengthen its collaboration with the G20 presidency through its participation in G20 Health Ministers’ meetings and by co-hosting sessions with the G20 health working group for both the India (2023) and Brazil (2024) presidencies. The centre’s Regionalized Vaccine Manufacturing Collaborative was highlighted in Japan’s 2023 G7 health task report, which highlights the centre’s efforts to harness public-private collaboration to help rebalance global vaccine manufacturing capacity and support cross-sectoral networks to enhance outbreak monitoring.

The growth models of the last three decades have raised living standards and lifted more than one billion people out of poverty. Yet there are new headwinds as well as new opportunities to restore economic growth and mobilize opportunity for all. This can be achieved through investments in human capital development and good jobs, deploying technology in the service of equity and social mobility, and monitoring and better managing risks. The centre’s vision is to support leaders in building prosperous, resilient and inclusive economies and societies that create opportunities for all.

The centre enables leaders across business, government and civil society to understand, shape and navigate a new social and economic context through insights, action and dialogues across three overarching priorities:

Over 2023-2024, the centre worked with almost 200 business partners, more than 40 governments, 13 international organizations, and more than 60 academic, civil society and philanthropic organizations.

The centre also hosts the institutional team responsible for embedding experts, universities, think tanks and the Network of Global Future Councils, which in 2023-2024 includes 30 thematic councils engaged across the Forum’s 10 centres.

In the centre’s work around economic growth, The Future of Growth Report 2024, launched at the Annual Meeting 2024, introduced a new, multidimensional framework to assess the quality of economic growth in 107 countries based on four key dimensions: innovativeness, inclusiveness, sustainability and resilience. More broadly, the Future of Growth Initiative expanded its multi-year work, led by the Future of Growth Consortium, through the development of a new accelerator model with preparations under way to work with selected pilot economies.

The centre offered short-term economic analysis through the publication of three editions of the Chief Economists Outlook. It also initiated a collaboration to produce regular scenario outlooks on the global economy in the coming year.

In the centre’s work around risks identification and preparedness amid rapidly accelerating technological change and economic uncertainty, the Global Risks Report 2024 highlighted the top economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological short- and long-term risks, and identified opportunities for action to address them in a fragmented world. The Chief Risk Officers Community and the Risks Consortium considered frameworks for preparedness at the enterprise, national and global level.

In the centre’s work around talent and human capital, through its champions’ continued action and engagement and their growing number of commitments, the Reskilling Revolution initiative reached nearly 700 million people four years into a decade-long initiative. A new set of Skills-First Lighthouses was launched, and the centre also published Shaping the Future of Learning: The Role of AI in Education 4.0, exploring the potential for AI to benefit educators, students and teachers. Latvia, Qatar and Viet Nam joined the centre’s Accelerators Network engaging countries to accelerate skills development for the jobs of tomorrow and education innovation. The Education Industry community was also launched in 2023. It brings together organizations from education technology, learning-focused consumer companies and publishing to advance industry thought leadership.

As part of the Jobs Initiative, Jobs Consortium members endorsed the development of Lighthouses of generative AI-driven job transitions in 2024. The initiative also published a white paper, Jobs of Tomorrow: Large Language Models and Jobs, on large language models and a framework, Realizing the Potential of Global Digital Jobs, for governments and employers to expand global digital workforce jobs. The Good Work Alliance continued to coalesce industry leaders to improve the working conditions of more than 2.5 million workers. Jobs Accelerators were launched in Guatemala, Morocco and the Philippines to support job transitions into the jobs of tomorrow and job-creating investments, while the Refugee Employment Alliance member entities have hired more than 54,000 refugees worldwide.

In the centre’s work around equity and inclusion, in its annual benchmark of gender parity gaps in economic participation, education, health and political empowerment, the Global Gender Gap Report 2024 examined longstanding and new metrics on gendered workforce outcomes. The Gender Parity Sprint was launched, aiming to provide 100 million women with access to better economic opportunities by 2030, complemented by the localized work of 15 national gender parity accelerators. The centre also made the case for multistakeholder collaboration and investment in The Future of the Care Economy white paper.

The Equitable Transition Initiative aims to address equity challenges throughout sectoral and geographical green transitions. It provided an initial set of tools to help governments and businesses maximize economic equity opportunities and minimize economic equity risks of the green transition.

The centre identifies and operationalizes mechanisms for greater regional and global cooperation within today’s challenging geopolitical context. It achieves this by partnering with governments, business, civil society groups and international organizations to prepare global dialogues, deliver insights and convene communities that develop and deliver cooperative solutions to issues of global concern.

The centre’s work primarily focuses on three areas:

The centre also acts as the point of contact for governments, international organizations and civil society, and works to collaborate with and engage public figures throughout the Forum’s initiatives and summits year-round.

In January 2024, the centre launched the inaugural edition of The Global Cooperation Barometer to help stakeholders better understand the state of global cooperation. The barometer measures cooperation in five areas: trade and capital flows, climate and nature, innovation and technology, health and wellness, and peace and security.

At the Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, global leaders and experts worked to chart a course towards a more stable, sustainable and inclusive future.

As part of the Forum’s work to harness the power of the private sector to develop routes towards a more secure future, the centre brought together more than 70 global chief executive officers as “CEOs for Ukraine”, a group seeking to define an effective role for global private- and public-sector leaders to support the country’s economy. The discussion included President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Vice-Chancellor of Germany Robert Habeck and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. This followed the National Security Advisors (NSA) meeting for Ukraine, facilitated by the Forum and hosted by the Swiss government, which brought together 80 national security advisers at the Annual Meeting in Davos to discuss Zelenskyy’s peace proposals.

The centre also continued its work advancing reconciliation efforts in Europe through its Western Balkans Diplomacy Dialogue, which convened leaders from the region and included von der Leyen.

The centre convened special meetings in support of the Partnership for Central America – an initiative led by US Vice-President Kamala Harris to address the causes of migration by advancing economic opportunities and environmental resilience in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The Humanitarian and Resilience Investing Initiative launched a call to action with 60 organizations to steer $10 billion in capital to 1,000 businesses in frontier markets by 2030. By January 2024, partners had submitted financial commitments totalling $5.6 billion.

On climate action, the centre convened three regional communities to encourage greater public-private collaboration at the regional level. Ahead of COP28, Leaders for a Sustainable Middle East and North Africa published three reports delivering roadmaps for industry decarbonization efforts. The Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders India launched three insight reports about decarbonizing supply chains, the green hydrogen economy and afforestation. Meanwhile, the CEO Action Group for the European Green Deal continued to support the continent’s transition efforts.

On technology, the Forum, with support from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Korea Cooperation Fund (the AKCF), launched its ASEAN Digital Economy Agreement Leadership (DEAL) project to support ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) negotiations in collaboration with the ASEAN secretariat and ASEAN member states.

On trade, the Forum Friends of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which brings together leaders in support of the implementation of Africa’s landmark trade agreement, launched AfCFTA’s first private-sector action plan, which included commitments from 25 partner companies.

The centre’s International Trade and Investment workstream, comprising more than 10 initiatives, continued its work in geopolitics, governance and resilience, easing trade and investment, and global sustainability and inclusion. It held the inaugural TradeTech Summit alongside the World Trade Organization’s 13th Ministerial Conference. This initiative, in partnership with the United Arab Emirates, aims to revolutionize global trade by leveraging cutting-edge technologies.

Amid rising geopolitical tensions, cities and local communities have become a vital testing ground for public-private collaboration and an essential means for scaling up impact. The centre’s mission is to catalyse and accelerate global progress and build a more prosperous future through collective action in cities and local communities. To this end, the centre mobilizes public- and private-sector leaders to commit expertise and resources to invigorate local economies, improve quality of life and make communities more resilient.

Cities are home to a growing majority of the world’s population and generate more than 80% of global GDP. As such, they serve as essential incubators and testbeds for new solutions and the businesses of tomorrow.

Through coalition-building, cross-sector coordination and year-round activities in more than 130 cities worldwide, the centre provides an essential platform for our partners to translate global ambitions into specific action and progress.

The centre’s work focuses on three priorities:

The centre launched a series of global efforts to accelerate progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals with an emphasis on four areas: supporting the growth of local economies and innovation ecosystems; promoting nature-positive models for urban development; reducing carbon emissions in transport and the built environment; and advancing a holistic approach to community planning and reconstruction.

The centre convened leaders from 26 innovation districts throughout the globe, together with business executives, government officials and experts representing more than 25 countries to launch the Alliance for Urban Innovation, as part of the Urban Transformation Summit 2023.

San Francisco is providing the first test case for how the centre can drive investment into local innovation ecosystems. The Yes San Francisco (Yes SF) Urban Sustainability Challenge announced its first cohort of Top Innovators in December 2023.

The centre also established the Global Commission on Nature-Positive Cities in late 2023 and published guidelines on Biodiversity Day 2024 to support cities in rehabilitating and reintroducing nature. In honour of Earth Day, the centre released a report, model policy, city playbook and practitioners guide aimed at reducing carbon emissions in construction and the built environment. This work was complemented by in-person workshops with city leaders and private-sector experts in Los Angeles, San Diego and Toronto.

At the Annual Meeting 2024, retail, e-commerce and logistics companies joined forces with the Global New Mobility Coalition and Alliance for Clean Air to kick off a global effort to reduce the physical footprint and environmental impact of urban deliveries. In conjunction with this effort, the centre released a new toolkit to accelerate the development of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

The Davos Baukultur Alliance underwent a period of rapid expansion in 2023-2024, adding new member organizations, businesses and governments from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Alliance members pledged to support the Government of Ukraine in ensuring a holistic approach to reconstruction, announcing new commitments to construct sustainable and high-quality homes for orphans of the ongoing conflict.

Members of the Global Future Council on Cities also called for action to address the urban affordability crisis, releasing a collection of insights and tangible actions that business, the public sector and civil society leaders can pursue to help create more inclusive and liveable cities.