The other 51 weeks: what happens before and after Davos?

For many people watching the Davos public programme, it can seem overwhelming. Much like a COP or G20, it can be hard to relate to any tangible outcomes. Each Davos, there are more than 200 livestreamed sessions covering multiple topics, ranging from EV supply chains to the global debt burden, and from carbon pricing to reinventing retirement.

Accords and initiatives are announced, pledges made and prognoses given. But it’s what happens during the other 51 weeks of the year that the impact of the meeting and the World Economic Forum gathers speed.

For 56 years, the Forum has brought together leaders from all areas of life, from business to government, academia and younger generations. In doing so, these people work together to try to make sense of what’s going on in the world, with the ultimate goal of making progress collaboratively. This happens 52 weeks of the year through events, initiatives, communities and research.

Davos runs over the course of a week, and like the Forum itself, is a sum of many parts. It is the hard work of thousands of people year-round – whether they are a business leader advocating for change, a Forum expert managing an initiative or a community member taking action locally – that generate the progress that ultimately makes a difference in the world.

The Forum seeds many initiatives, produces research papers, supports multiple communities and manages year-round events throughout the globe. Among the forthcoming meetings is the Global Collaboration and Growth event, which will take place in Saudi Arabia in April.

The organization’s focus is broadly on five areas: the economy, geopolitics and trade, people, planet, and technology. Some of the initiatives remain managed by expert teams in-house, others take on a life of their own.

One of the best examples of this is Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. What began as an idea to reverse declining immunization rates resulting from unaffordable vaccines, has, 25 years later, become an international network, responsible for vaccinating more than one-half of the world’s children.

Here are some of the other most memorable in recent years – and ones that are already having a sizeable effect.

Plastic pollution is an urgent global challenge, with 19 million tonnes entering the environment annually and production projected to triple by 2060.

Launched in 2018, the Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) brings together more than 2,000 stakeholders with the aim of turning commitments to reduce plastic pollution into action. Specifically, it’s seeking to advance a circular plastics economy worldwide.

GPAP is achieving this by launching roadmaps, which help countries measure their plastic footprint and develop strategies to meet their plastic reduction goals. Additionally, it informs global processes like the Global Plastics Treaty and Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions. This helps to align ambition with reality and supports collaboration in areas like financing.

Through its work creating 25 national partnerships, locally owned solutions have benefited 1.5 billion people, while its equity activities have supported 20,000 informal waste workers.

The Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (GATF) seeks to simplify trade procedures, particularly in developing countries. During the course of its decade in existence, it has supported 26 projects in 25 countries, engaging 2,000 local micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). These efforts have helped unlock more than $213 million in savings for traders.

At the heart of each project is public-private partnership, which ensures that solutions are tailored to the local situation. Typically, initiatives focus on streamlining processes related to the movement of goods, ensuring cross-border trade is safer and faster.

A consortium of global organizations leads the alliance, with support from the governments of Canada, Germany, Sweden and the European Union – all committed to promoting inclusive, sustainable economic development through improved trade facilitation.

It’s estimated that closing the women’s health gap could boost the global economy by $1 trillion annually. The health gap is significant; currently women spend 25% more time in poor health than men. Not only does this have ramifications for the individual, but also for the wider economy. And yet, it’s been shown that every $1 invested into women’s healthcare, produces $3 of economic growth.

It is this situation that resulted in the creation of the Global Alliance for Women’s Health, the aim of which is to transform how women’s health is researched, funded and prioritized. Reflecting this, the alliance focuses on advancing science and innovation, seeks means to unlock financing, and helps reshape policy narratives. There’s also a focus on data to better highlight the benefits of improved health outcomes for women.

The alliance pursues specific areas of activity, including cervical and breast cancer awareness, diagnostics and treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa, and offers a tracking platform designed to measure and monitor women’s health gaps, which in turn, supports policy and investment decisions.

GDP growth is itself a topic of great interest and concern, particularly in such uncertain times. Increasingly, however, the quality of growth has also come into focus. These are issues covered in the Future of Growth Report, which in the 2024 edition introduced a framework to assess the quality of economic growth in 107 countries. Alongside this, the Future of Growth Initiative takes as its basis that the world needs not just faster growth, but also growth that’s more innovative, inclusive, sustainable and resilient. To achieve this, the initiative seeks to offer new ideas about the policies that are required to boost growth rates, while at the same time, avoiding the growth-at-all-costs approaches that have characterized the past.

Its data-based Future of Growth Framework reveals how economies are performing in terms of growth characteristics, including pace and quality. Alongside this, 2025 saw it launch a series of economic scenarios based on 2030, designed to show how the changes affecting the global economy may affect businesses and sectors.

A series of champions help translate the initiative’s work and activities into action, while its new accelerators network marks individual collaboration with governments, the first of which has been Egypt.

It’s 10 years since the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution emerged, and many of the fundamental changes to the way in which we live, work and relate to each other, which were once forecasts, are coming to pass.

Keeping abreast of this era of swift and radical change is the Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network. Consisting of 21 independent centres in five continents, the network supports the organization in its mission to drive technological innovation to help support sustainable, inclusive progress.

The network comprises country as well as issue-specific centres. Among the latter are centres focussed on global government technology, cyber economics, industry and technology, trustworthy technology, and space futures.

Using pilot schemes and partnerships, the 21 centres support policy-makers and aim to accelerate the responsible adoption of technology and industry transformation. Currently, the centres have 70 initiatives under way. The centre in Saudi Arabia, is for example, spearheading the development of a national quantum strategy, while the one in Malaysia is working with the country’s manufacturing hubs to digitalize their operations and adopt sustainable technology.

The world feels particularly complicated at the moment, marked by geopolitical and trading tensions and rapid technological change. The Forum – and its events like Davos – offer an impartial platform. The Forum doesn’t shy away from bringing together diverse – and sometimes diverging voices – because its aim is to support discussion that will lead to collaboration. This is what makes Davos – and the organization’s other 51 weeks of work – valuable.