Full report
Published: 9 February 2021

The Davos Agenda 2021: Global Engagement

Overview

Special Address by António Guterres,Secretary-General of the United NationsGeneva - Switzerland, 25-29 January 2021.
Source: World Economic Forum / Pascal Bitz

Engagement by the Numbers

  • 250m: Views of our UpLink-inspired TikTok campaign #MyBigIdea, which became the top-trending banner and hashtag in 50 markets
  • 58m: Views of 115 social videos, including 16 based on interviews with participants
  • 13m: Views of Instagram and Facebook rolling stories
  • 11m: Views of live-streamed sessions on our event page and across social channels, a more than 300% increase on last year’s viewership
  • 1.3m: Users of the Davos Agenda event page, a 51% increase on last year
  • 1m: Page views of articles, including 112 partner blogs
  • 43k: Media mentions
  • 260: Articles published
  • 120: Sessions across six studios with end-to-end live production, including with 12 G20 Heads of State, the President of the EU and the UN Secretary General
  • 119: Interviews by Forum spokespeople
  • 100: Action-oriented partnerships creating impact
  • 75: Sessions featured by media

Impact

World Economic Forum events are working meetings focused on bringing people together to collaborate on solutions to the most pressing issues of the day. This year's virtual The Davos Agenda was no exception.

About 400 registered participants are engaging in almost 100 projects related to a Davos Agenda session.

Here are some of the multistakeholder initiatives featured and developed during the discussions. Discover more impact from the Forum and our partners here.

  • A global coalition of 54 organizations representing 13 industries and 6.5 million employees committed to building more equitable and just workplaces. The Partnering for Racial Justice in Business Initiative provides a platform for businesses to collectively advocate for inclusive policy change and set new global standards for racial equity. Each company commits to one tangible policy change, one board discussion and a new long-term strategy. Read more about the impact.
  • More than 60 business leaders, including members of the World Economic Forum and its International Business Council (IBC), have committed to a set of Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics – universal, comparable disclosures focused on people, planet, prosperity and governance that companies can report on, regardless of industry or region.
  • President Iván Duque of Colombia, together with the InterAmerican Development Bank and the Forum, launched the BiodiverCities by 2030 initiative, which will harness the potential of cities to cut emissions and protect biodiversity while encouraging sustainable urban development.
  • The Mission Possible Partnership is a new coalition bringing together more than 400 companies to forge net-zero pathways and the actions necessary to achieve them. It builds on work launched at the United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in 2019 to help seven heavy industry sectors cut their carbon emissions.
  • Plastic pollution continues to be a global challenge. The Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) welcomed the inclusion of the Government of Nigeria to advance national efforts to fight plastic pollution alongside existing members Ghana, Nigeria and Viet Nam. Since young entrepreneurs play an important role in this fight, GPAP also announced an inaugural cohort of eight youth champions who will serve as project advisers. Read more about the impact.
  • Almost one-half of the global population remains offline. The EDISON Alliance will accelerate digital inclusion, address inequality and connect critical sectors of the economy. It is the first global mobilization of public sector and industry leaders from all industries to ensure everyone can participate in the digital economy. Read more about the impact.
  • More than 10,000 grassroots innovators answered the call made last year by UpLink, the Forum’s digital platform to crowdsource innovation. Some 900 entrepreneurial solutions to protect our oceans, tackle COVID-19 and support our 1t.org’s Trillion Trees initiative have been submitted.
  • The Global AI Action Alliance brings together more than 100 companies, governments, civil society organizations and academic institutions to accelerate the responsible adoption of AI in the global public interest.
  • The CEO Action Group for the European Green Deal has set out to tackle emissions throughout the value chain to create a greener and more resilient economy.
  • The Principles for Strengthening Global Cooperation call for peace and security, equity, gender equality and sustainability. This set of seven principles, developed by the Forum’s Global Action Group, is intended to serve as a compass for global relations.
  • Through the COVID Action Platform, the Forum and its Partners have launched more than 40 initiatives in response to the pandemic. The COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs supports more than 90,000 social entrepreneurs across the world who have a direct or indirect impact on the lives of an estimated 1.9 billion people, providing access to employment, food, affordable energy and other critical services.

Rise of Stakeholder Capitalism

Klaus Schwab proposed the model of “Stakeholder Capitalism” and outlines it in his new book of the same name, released alongside the Davos Agenda. The model is one where companies seek long-term value creation instead of short-term profits; governments cooperate to create the greatest possible prosperity for their people, and civil society and international organizations complete the stakeholder dialogue, helping balance the interests of people and the planet.

“We can’t continue with an economic system driven by selfish values, such as short-term profit maximization, the avoidance of tax and regulation, or the externalizing of environmental harm,” Schwab writes. “Instead, we need a society, economy, and international community that is designed to care for all people and the entire planet.”

Read the press release here.

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