Highlights

What
A public-private partnership to improve childhood immunization coverage in poor countries and accelerate access to new vaccines.

Impact

GAVI has helped vaccinate more than 760 million children in 19 years and has prevented more than 13 million deaths.

How

Despite the promising progress of the previous two decades, by the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), towards the end of the 20th century there were still 30 million children living in poor countries who were not fully immunised. A totally new business model for vaccine access was created to leverage not just financial resources but expertise to help make vaccines more affordable, more available, their provision more sustainable and vaccine demand more predictable.

As a rule, each country co-finances the purchase of the vaccines. As its economy grows, it starts financing more of the cost of each vaccine until the country entirely self-finances its immunisation programmes, moving out of Gavi support. The co-financing scheme became a key feature of this first-of-a-kind 21st century public-private partnership model. It was later replicated for other health and development interventions, such as the Global Fund established in 2002.

Who

With the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledging $750 million over five years in January 2000, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation – what was to become Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance – was launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. GAVI brings together all key stakeholders: UN agencies, governments, vaccine manufacturers, private sector and civil society.

What

A fund created in 2002 to raise, manage and invest the world’s money into the effort to defeat three of the deadliest infectious diseases ever known: AIDS, malaria and TB.

“When I first mooted the idea of the Global Fund, people said I was dreaming… I love dreams. It always starts with a dream.” said the late Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Impact

In the years up to 2018, health programmes supported by the Global Fund partnership saved 32 million lives. Overall, the number of deaths caused by AIDS, TB and malaria each year has been reduced by 40% since 2002 in countries where the Global Fund invests.

How

The idea for the Global Fund arose from a wellspring of grass-roots political advocacy coming face-to-face with the imperatives of global leadership. AIDS, TB and malaria are all preventable and treatable – but solving this problem requires the commitment not only of world leaders and decision-makers but also of those working on the ground to help the men, women and children living with these diseases. The idea for a Global Fund was discussed at a G8 summit in Okinawa, Japan, in 2000. The real commitment began to coalesce at the African Union summit in April 2001, continued at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session in June of that year; and it was finally endorsed by the G8 at their summit in Genoa, Italy, in July 2001.

Who

A Transitional Working Group was established to determine the principles and working modalities of the new organization, and the Global Fund came into being in January 2002 when it was officially launched at the Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters.

What

CEPI helps shorten the response time to epidemics by advancing vaccines that can be released quickly once an outbreak occurs.

Impact

To date, CEPI has committed to investing over $456 million in vaccine development. This includes 19 vaccine candidates against pathogens that could cause public-health emergencies and three vaccine platforms to develop vaccines against Disease X (unexpected diseases). To assess the effectiveness of these platforms, seven additional vaccine candidates are being developed (two against influenza, one against Marburg virus, two against rabies, one against Respiratory Syncytial Virus, and one against yellow fever). As of November 2020, there is now a licensed Ebola vaccine due to the innovation driven by CEPI.

How

CEPI was conceived by public- and private-Industry Partners representing global vaccine manufactures who met at the Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters in January 2016 in response to the ramifications of the Ebola virus outbreak in West and Central Africa. By financing and undertaking the research before a crisis erupts, CEPI dramatically speeds up the ability to counter the spread of an infectious disease such as Ebola. With the advance work that CEPI undertakes, prepared vaccines go straight to phase-three trials and get regulatory approvals faster.

Who

$460 million in initial funding was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the governments of Germany, Japan and Norway, and further commitments were made to create a total of $800 million.

What

A global investing platform to benefit people and communities in states of fragility or displacement, while also generating a financial return.

Impact

The Initiative has begun developing the market in industries, ranging from energy to agriculture to financial services, and regions, from Latin America to Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to developing projects – such as a water supply initiative in the DRC and access to education in Sudan – it supports an ecosystem of funding mechanisms and structures to continue growing markets.

How

Traditional and siloed humanitarian and development responses are no longer sufficient to keep up with the scale, duration and complexity of crises. The Initiative facilitates multistakeholder partnerships to develop pipelines of investable projects as well as financial structures and funds to support those projects.

Who

The Initiative is co-chaired by the World Economic Forum, World Bank Group, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and is supported by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). It applies to institutional investors, asset managers, humanitarian-development organizations, development finance institutions, development banks, governments, and others. It is guided by a High-Level Group that includes more than 20 leading organizations such as Credit Suisse, Mastercard, Gulf International Bank, Novo Nordisk Foundation, GSG, the UN Refugee Agency, World Food Programme, USAID, The UK’s Department for International Development and the Government of the Netherlands.

What

A leading public-private alliance delivering practical improvements to border administration and customs processing.

Impact

An example of the Alliance’s impact comes from Colombia, where the Alliance worked with the National Food and Drug Surveillance Institute to focus physical inspections on priority shipments, eliminating 20,000 inspections and saving $8 million in the first 18 months of operation. By generating $29 in savings for every $1 spent, the project demonstrated how governments, aid organizations and business can work together to get things done faster, better and more reasonably.

How

The goal is to enable trade-led growth, particularly for developing and least developed countries. The simplification of cross-border trade ensures it is faster and more cost-effective, creating new business opportunities, enabling greater economic and social development and reducing poverty. The alliance brings together governments and businesses as partners to address delays and unnecessary red tape in the trade process and to design and deploy targeted reforms that deliver commercially quantifiable results. Active in a dozen countries and growing swiftly, the alliance helps companies solve issues like import licencing, risk management and pre-arrival processing.

Who

The Alliance – implemented by the World Economic Forum, the Centre for International Private Enterprise and the International Chamber of Commerce – builds on the local knowledge of several hundred companies and the funding support of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom and the US.

What

A programme to reach vulnerable girls with essential puberty and confidence education and to donate sanitary pads, so that girls can commit to their education and their future.

Impact

South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, Always has reached over 200,000 girls and donated over 13 million sanitary pads since 2008.

How

Around the world, the onset of puberty marks a low point in girls’ confidence. In many African communities, stigmas and taboos around menstruation mean that many girls do not have information about puberty and are often unprepared when they have their first period. In addition, girls who grow up in poverty often cannot afford sanitary pads, which means that they do not fully participate in school, sports or social life when they have their period. All these issues can lead to increased school absenteeism, and for some girls, even dropping out altogether.

For example, in South Africa, Always partners with the Department of Education and NGO The Footprints Foundation to ensure that girls in over 100 schools – where female absenteeism is alarmingly high – stay in school. They achieve this through puberty education, motivational talks and mentoring

Who

As the company behind Always, P&G has committed to providing puberty education to 23 million girls in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa over the next three years.

What

An initiative to enable access to meaningful and sustainable jobs in in-demand careers through accelerated learning programmes, on-the-job training, certification and experience.

Impact

In France, 1.8 million hours of training were completed in 2018. Over 500 professionals were trained and 25,000 training hours completed through the Experis Tech Academy in Italy in 2019. In Manpower Belgium, over 1500 workers are trained annually through the Logistics Academy, which has been running since 2007.

How

By partnering with universities and educational institutions around the world, the MyPath programme provides opportunities for talent to upskill while they work, improving learnability and employability.

In the US, ManpowerGroup has committed to upskilling 130,000 workers over the next five years and to offering best-in-class online General Education Diploma (GED®) preparation courses, unlimited practice tests, and personal coaching support from application through to graduation for 30,000 workers enabling them to earn their high school equivalency diploma within weeks.

Who

ManpowerGroup – a leader in innovative workforce solutions.

What

A global leadership network of over 80 chief executive officers representing business from diverse industry sectors and regions who use their position and influence to drive change and raise ambition on climate action.

Impact

They provided a strong business voice when they publicly called for “a comprehensive, inclusive and ambitious climate deal in Paris on mitigation, adaptation and finance” ahead of meetings between governments to negotiate the Paris Agreement in 2015. Since then, they have continued to drive multistakeholder partnerships to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

How

They have galvanized support for the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure and have implemented the recommendations.

Who

The mission is achieved through support from: the Forum’s Climate Governance Initiative; the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition; the Mission Possible coalition on decarbonizing heavy industry sectors; and various other initiatives centred on building support for effective carbon markets, improving board capacity for climate risks, and identifying nature-based solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

What

With rising demand for food and consumer products accelerating tropical deforestation, TFA is a global premium platform, to ensure private-sector commitments to remove deforestation from palm oil, beef, soy, and pulp and paper supply chains. TFA identifies key forest frontier challenges and solutions and brings experts from around the world to turn ideas into action, both at the global and the regional level. It operates three regional platforms in Latin America, West and Central Africa and Southeast Asia

Impact

In 2019 members launched a new $20 million BioCarbon fund for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (IPFS). This multilateral fund will promote sustainable development and low carbon use in the Colombian region of Orinoquía. Specific programmes will focus on reducing deforestation and forest degradation, promoting smart climate agriculture and sustainable land use policies. In 2016, the TFA launched the Marrakesh Declaration for the Sustainable Development of the Oil Palm Sector in Africa at the Marrakesh Climate Change Conference. The declaration saw seven African governments (Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone) pledge to protect their tropical forests by shifting to sustainable palm oil production. Together, the seven countries cover more than 250 million hectares of tropical forests, or 13% of the world’s total forests.

How

TFA facilitates the sharing of best-practices of ecosystem conservation and commodity production and works towards mainstreaming “Forest Positive” landscapes and supply chains across partners and in major economies such as the US, Europe and most recently in China. Hosted by the Forum, the Tropical Forest Alliance now works with over 160 public, private and civil society actors, indigenous peoples and international organizations to establish effective partnerships to reduce commodity-driven deforestation and build a positive future for forests.

Who

The work of the TFA is supported by the Governments of the Netherlands, Norway, Germany and the UK as well as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

What

PACE supports partners to scale up action on plastics, electronics, food and the bio-economy. It develops projects as well as business models aimed to transform markets.

Impact

Projects are being undertaken globally. Among them is the Circular Electronics Action Partnership, which aims to unlock the circular economy potential for electronics by encouraging large capital equipment manufactures to commit to a circular economy. In 2019, the work in Nigeria unlocked an investment of $15million to support the Government of Nigeria advance the implementation of its Extended Producer Responsibility regulation in collaboration with UN Environment, the GEF and private-sector partners.

How

Each project works differently, but common tools include convening leaders to help draft guidance based on their varying experiences; replicating models that work; providing a platform on which the public and private sectors can collaborate.

Who

PACE was built and hosted by the Forum and since 2019, is co-delivered with the World Resources Institute (WRI) by a team based at the European headquarters in the Hague. The initiative is supported by both public and private funders, including the Government of the Netherlands. Co-Chaired by the chief executive officers of Royal Dutch Phillips and the Global Environment Facility this is a public-private collaboration between global leaders from more than 70 companies, governments and organizations, who are committed to advancing the principles and practices of the circular economy.

What

An open-source global network of ocean-bound plastics supply chains seeking to keep plastics in the economy and out of the ocean.

Impact

NextWave expects to divert more than 3 million pounds in weight of plastics and nylon-based fishing gear from entering the ocean within five years, the equivalent to keeping 66 million water bottles from washing out to sea.

How

The group shares best practices to develop more use cases for the material and has engaged scientists and advocates working with marine litter and ocean health to advise on a sustainable model that supports the needs of coastal communities and environments.

Who

Dell Technologies partnered with non-profit Lonely Whale to create NextWave Plastics. The group is supported by UN Environment, with private-sector partners invited to sign up to the Clean Seas campaign as part of their commitment. The consortium includes GM, IKEA, Trek Bicycles, Interface Carpets and Herman Miller, among others.

What

AIF provides a scalable and sustainable solution to address malnutrition via local production of highly nutritious foods.

Impact

AIF sells affordable nutritious products to the mass market through retail markets in DRC, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. AIF produces enough nutritious foods to nourish more than 1.5 million children daily.

How

AIF implements a value chain approach. The joint venture purchases locally grown staple crops from more than 35,000 smallholder farmers, mostly women, at prices that guarantee a predictable income and allows them to invest in their farms. The crops are purchased directly from farmer groups in rural areas and processed at a state-of-the-art AIF factory in Kigali. Products are then distributed to beneficiaries throughout Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, DRC and Somalia. Any profit AIF makes that is above a basic commercial return is returned to the Government of Rwanda to fund further nutrition programmes.

Who

Partners are Royal DSM, the Government of Rwanda, International Finance Corporation (IFC), CDC Group and Dutch Development Bank (FMO).

What

A project that has resulted in new drone regulations, allowing for the nationwide delivery of blood supplies.

Impact

To date, more than 20,000 lifesaving deliveries have been made.

How

In 2017, the Forum partnered with the Government of Rwanda to create drone regulations to allow drones to deliver blood to remote clinics. After the pilot, this was scaled up nationally. This has served as a model for other countries and regions, with regulators from other countries visiting Rwanda to understand its approach to managing drones and the European Aviation Safety Agency adopting a similar performance-based approach.

Who

In September 2019, the World Bank announced it would be partnering with the Forum to bring regulators from throughout Africa to Rwanda for the Africa Drone Forum to help them understand how they could create similar programmes in their own jurisdictions.

What

A platform for the design and delivery of decentralized clean-energy solutions for disadvantaged populations.

Impact

A2E has provided access to energy to more than 20 million people throughout Africa, Bangladesh, China, India, Middle East, South Asia and South and Central America. More than 230,000 underprivileged people have been trained in energy-related professions, and 9,622 volunteering days have been completed under Schneider Electric’s VolunteerIn platform.

How

The fund targets 350 million people with no energy access mainly in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines.

Who

Schneider Electric leads an ecosystem of partners.

What

A multistakeholder platform that guides and accelerates multiple reuse models, such as LoopTM, an industry consortium catalysed by the Forum that is building an innovative shopping platform based on durable, refillable packaging.

Impact

Large-scale LoopTM consumer pilots were launched in Paris and New York in 2019, with more than 250 durable-packaged products made available to thousands of consumers in both markets. London, Tokyo and Toronto pilot launches will follow in 2020.

How

Each consumer purchase made via the LoopTM platform prevents a single-use packaging equivalent from entering the waste stream. Durable packaging solutions at scale can, therefore, have a significant impact on reducing waste due to consumption. Furthermore, Consumers Beyond Disposability directly partners with city governments to test and enable integrated packaging reuse systems in a specific urban context.

Who

Led by New Jersey-based recycling company TerraCycle, LoopTM engages leading consumer goods companies and retailers, including Carrefour, the Coca-Cola Company, Danone, Mars, Mondelez, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Tesco, Unilever and Walgreens.

What

A platform to address gaps in digital connectivity, financing, skills and content. A core priority is to design and test innovative digital infrastructure financing mechanisms, collaboration models and policies that can significantly increase internet connectivity, particularly in emerging markets.

Impact

In Argentina, 80,000 young people have been trained in digital skills and there are 11 active projects involving 3-4 million new internet users. In South Africa, the Internet4Mzansi project incubated by the programme has provided affordable connectivity to more than 33,000 people in remote areas. Smart Africa, an alliance of 29 African member countries, 32 businesses and 12 non-business partners, is replicating the Internet for All methodology in new countries.

How

Partners from telecoms, investors, IT, retail, supply-chain companies, governments and multilateral development banks are collaborating on the World Economic Forum Internet for All project platform. The goal for each is to develop local innovations that can then be scaled and/or replicated across the network.

Who

The project is being conducted with a number of global partners including the World Bank, GSMA, ITU as well as several regional bodies.