The 53rd Annual Meeting was held in January 2023, under the theme, “Cooperation in a Fragmented World”. More than 2,700 leaders from 130 countries engaged in 480 sessions. This meeting saw a record number of women leaders, and more than 500 people participated in the inaugural Global Collaboration Village, the first global, purpose-driven metaverse platform.

At the meeting, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for urgent action on the global economic crisis, climate, income and gender inequality, US–China relations, the Russia–Ukraine war and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. World leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, expressed solidarity with Ukraine and used the platform to outline their respective plans to make Europe the home of clean tech and innovation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska both spoke at the meeting, urging world leaders to support Ukraine’s peace plan. Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He declared his country open to the world after three years of pandemic isolation and emphasized international cooperation and economic stability.

The Forum hosted dialogues at the meeting, including six Informal Gathering of World Economic Leader sessions covering such topics as geopolitical cooperation, the global economy and the energy transition. Eight Country Strategy Dialogues took place with heads of state and senior ministers, focusing on growth and investment in the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain and Tanzania. Leaders were also brought together to strengthen dialogue in the Western Balkans and address the political crisis in Myanmar.

Several communities were created at the meeting for diverse groups, including the Climate Governance Initiative community of experts and ASEAN Leaders for Just Energy Transitions. A number of initiatives were announced, including the Digital ID Initiative and a proof of concept for the world’s first battery passport, launched by the Global Battery Alliance. Nine clusters joined the Transitioning Industrial Clusters towards Net Zero initiative, and the Global Water Initiative launched a water innovation ecosystem. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the World Economic Forum and the Director- General of the 28th UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) for the Forum to mobilize private-sector support to help deliver on the COP28 goals. Principles launched at the meeting included 10 Guiding Principles for Racial and Ethnic Equity and the Global Principles on Digital Safety, which translate international human rights into the digital context. Additionally, partnerships were announced with the Wellcome Trust to document the impact of the climate crisis on global public health, and with the University of Exeter to support the biospheres of the Arctic and Antarctic.

The Sustainable Development Impact Meetings held in September 2022 saw more than 800 leaders from government, business, non-profits and academia advance cooperation in areas as diverse as climate action, industry decarbonization and social resilience. At the heart of the meetings were a series of 55 peer-to-peer dialogues designed to help advance the work of communities, make progress on the Sustainable Development Goals and build momentum on specific issues ahead of the 27th UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) and the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 in January.

The meetings addressed four areas, each underscored by the challenge of responding to climate change, namely: increasing climate action; accelerating industry transformation; shaping resilient economies and societies; and advancing regional and global cooperation. Underscoring the high-level of engagement, more than 400 business leaders and 80 public figures, including four heads of state and government, five heads of international organizations and 21 foreign affairs ministers, participated.

A number of measures were agreed and initiatives launched during the meetings. The first ministerial meeting of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution was held; Ecuador became the first Latin American country to join the Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership; the Forum signed a letter of intent with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to strengthen collaboration on tackling the global food crisis; the First Movers Coalition launched its Finance Pillar; the Food Innovation Hubs network was created; and a report produced by the Climate Trade Zero initiative presented 25 key climate technologies for trade ministers to prioritize and advance climate action.

In addition, the Education 4.0 Alliance aligned on a framework to identify innovative collaborations between the private sector and schools and launched a call for Education 4.0 Lighthouses. Building on the findings of the Global Gender Gap Report 2023, leaders identified paths to restore women’s labour force participation and reinforce the positive momentum of women’s representation in senior leadership.

Sector transition strategies were launched to accelerate decarbonization in the steel, aluminium and ammonia industries, aligned with 1.5°C-compliant strategies backed by 60 companies from multiple sectors. The Forum, International Energy Agency and other partners launched the Cost of Capital Observatory to foster clean energy projects in developing economies. And UpLink, the open innovation platform of the World Economic Forum, announced the winners of the Innovative Funds for our Future challenge, 17 investment funds with a portfolio focusing on start-up and scale-up ventures that strive to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Industry Strategy Meeting 2023 in March was designed to explore and accelerate “Responsible Industry Transformation in a Complex World”. It brought chief strategy officers together from more than 20 industry communities for the first such inperson event since 2019. The findings and outcomes from the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos-Klosters provided key inputs into the meeting.

The meeting reinforced focus areas and honed the core industry agenda for the year ahead. Participants emphasized the following priorities:

All the sessions centred on driving the industry agendas from discussion to action to accelerate the Forum centres’ existing initiatives and incubate new collaborations. The strategy officers identified next steps for several existing efforts, including the First Movers Coalition and Stakeholder Capitalism. Insights from the meeting will inform the scope and direction of work of the Forum’s industry communities and centres.

At a time of heightened economic uncertainty, the Forum’s first Growth Summit brought over 400 leaders together in Geneva in May to examine the new context for growth and chart a future of growth that is resilient, sustainable and inclusive. Experts were divided about the prospects of a recession in 2023, as noted in the Chief Economists Outlook launched at the meeting.

Trends expected to shape growth most profoundly in the coming year included geo-economics and the changing geography of supply chains, the rapid advancement and adoption of technology, including generative artificial intelligence, and stronger industrial policy – especially measures to enable greener growth and the energy transition. The localization and diversification of supply chains are expected to create a new geography of growth, new jobs and opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises and new entrants.

Although the global movements of goods, people, services, technology and ideas remain at the heart of growth, future economic growth is needed to address inequality, resilience and the climate crisis, along with productivity and competitiveness. The findings will be integrated into the Forum’s framework on the future of growth.

The summit helped advance more than 20 high-impact initiatives focusing on areas as diverse as education, health, trade, and reskilling and upskilling.

The Trade and Labour Initiative was launched to improve worker standards and human rights in global supply chains, gathering trade and labour leaders, business leaders and human rights experts. Members of the Good Work Alliance published the Good Work Toolkit and set new targets to promote, among other things, fairness on wages and technology, while the Government of Morocco established a Jobs Accelerator.

A workforce health initiative was launched, aiming to improve employee health. The Zero Health Gaps Pledge engages more than 60 organizations to advance health equity through their core operations, investments and strategies.

Nigeria and Mongolia joined the Reskilling Revolution, establishing Skills and Education Accelerators, while the Government of the United Arab Emirates signed an agreement to globally expand its reskilling activities between 2023 and 2025 to reach 600 million people.

The Government of Kenya launched a Gender Parity Accelerator, joining a network of 14 countries working to advance women’s economic participation and leadership, ensure pay equity and prepare women for the future of work, while a Women’s Health in the Workplace coalition was launched with the aim of identifying activities that employers can pursue to provide better support and care for women at their place of work.

Over 1,500 world leaders gathered in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China on 27-29 June 2023 for the first in-person World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions since 2019. The meeting, opened by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, brought together five heads of government, over 130 public figures and 800 business leaders including 100 Global Innovators, as well as international organization and civil society representatives and academics. They reflected on the complex, interconnected global challenges of the past four years and proposed solutions to advance dialogue, innovation and collaboration.

During the meeting held under the theme, “Entrepreneurship: The Driving Force of the Global Economy”, the participants reiterated the need to deepen cooperation on key areas such as climate change and trade. The Forum launched or boosted 25 high-impact initiatives to promote ongoing collaboration, and shared new insights on trade and investment; climate action, the energy transition and nature protection; emerging technologies, innovation and entrepreneurship; and the future of jobs, skills, health and equity.

Specifically, the participants examined ways to navigate trade tensions and find a balance between strategic competition and cooperation to manage global challenges. In this area, they advanced the dialogue on encouraging stronger regional integration and de-risking supply chains. Additionally, a white paper on carbon competitiveness called for trade policy coherence that supports the net-zero transition.

Amid other featured initiatives on climate action, the Airports of Tomorrow project was launched to harness the power of new technologies in pursuit of net-zero aviation. More than 50 CEOs joined the initiative. China affirmed its support for a World Trade Organization agreement for ocean sustainability, and committed to planting and conserving 70 billion trees as part of 1t.org. The Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2030 Edition called for a speedier, more inclusive shift to renewable energy.

How to exploit emerging and advancing technologies for success while managing their risks was another core topic. New papers explored the top emerging technologies of 2023, as well as how small and medium-sized enterprises can use technologies to drive innovation and growth. The Forum’s AI Governance Alliance further examined designing and implementing responsible artificial intelligence frameworks that increase the benefits of generative AI while managing the challenges.

The meeting focused also on lessons and practices to address the persistent skills, gender, technology and entrepreneurship gaps. Progress in this area was made to expand the Reskilling Revolution by engaging new businesses and educators from Asia. Overall, the meeting renewed momentum for innovation and enterprise to drive growth and a more equitable, sustainable and resilient global economy.