The Global Gender Gap Report 2014
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Through the Global Gender Gap Report 2014, the World Economic Forum quantifies the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracks their progress over time. While no single measure can capture the complete situation, the Global Gender Gap Index presented in this Report seeks to measure one important aspect of gender equality: the relative gaps between women and men across four key areas: health, education, economy and politics.
Latest blog posts >>
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Education can’t keep up with our fast-moving world. Here’s what needs to change
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
How do we plan for something we can’t predict? This is the challenge facing the education field today.
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How two questions can help you develop the ‘must-have executive skill’
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
Having someone encourage me to “make lemonade out of lemons” is the kind of thing that makes me want to squirt some metaphorical lemon juice in their eye.
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Machines could soon be able to understand and summarize text for you
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
We humans are swamped with text. It’s not just news and other timely information: Regular people are drowning in legal documents. The problem is so bad we mostly ignore it. Every time a person uses a store’s loyalty rewards card or connects to an online service, his or her activities are governed by the equivalent of hundreds of pages of legalese. Most people pay no attention to these massive documents, often labeled “terms of service,” “user agreement” or “privacy policy.”
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Fighting the rise of fake news means taking another look at your phone. This is why
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
Today’s digital devices and social networks deliver so much information that even the savviest consumer cannot evaluate all of it. We seem to be living in a version of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, where truth is drowned in a sea of irrelevance. But the future need not be the dystopia that the present seems to suggest.
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Here’s what space tourism could do for science and health research
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
The announcement of the draft Spaceflight Bill in the Queen’s Speech will allow the development of spaceports in the UK. This could see members of the paying public launched into space as tourists, or taking sub-orbital flights from London to New York in just 45 minutes.
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It’s likely that our Sun had a twin, 4.5 billion years ago
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
When our sun was born 4.5 billion years ago, it was almost certainly part of pair—but that’s true of every other sun-like star in the universe.
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Thanks to the internet, the voices of China’s vegetarians are being heard
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
Misunderstanding and even hostility are daily realities for China’s vegetarians, but advocate Zhang Si hopes to bring meat-free living out from the fringe and into mainstream discourse as a modern topic of personal choice and social activism.
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How our filthy money could help scientists track disease
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
We live in a dirty world. Wherever we go, we are among microbes. Bacteria, fungi and viruses live on our phones, bus seats, door handles and park benches. We pass these tiny organisms to each other when we share a handshake or a seat on the plane.
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Sweden has passed a law accelerating its timetable to become carbon-free
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
Approaching Carbon Neutrality
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A new tool that measures strength in adversity
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
Measuring the resilience of Syrian children and adolescents displaced by conflict could help humanitarian organizations design programs for these young people and their families.
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How the US and China compare on action against climate change
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
When G7 leaders failed to convince President Trump to keep the US in the Paris Climate Accord back in May, French President Emmanuel Macron turned to the others and said, “China leads”.
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What nature teaches us about managing risk
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
In the last few weeks, I’ve attended more than my usual number of international cybersecurity conferences, and the perspective, scope and dimensions of the discussion have evolved quite a bit in the last few years.
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What Bhutanese hazelnuts tell us about using data for good
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
How are we going to close the $2.5 trillion/year finance gap to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Whose money? What business model? How to scale it that much? If you read the recent development economics scholar literature, or Jim Kim’s new financing approach of the World Bank, you might hear the benefits of “blended finance” or “triple bottom lines.” I want to tell you instead about a real case that makes a dent. I want to tell you about Sonam.
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China’s Belt and Road policy can foster trade and inclusive growth
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
The world is facing a backlash against globalization from some of the most advanced economies, while the global trading system undergoes the biggest threat it has ever experienced to its existence.
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How China’s social enterprises can prosper alongside the country’s state-run businesses
Tuesday 27th of June 2017
Globally, the consensus about social enterprise is that this new type of organization, possessing both social purpose and business traits, and combining innovation with entrepreneurship, can play an important role in poverty alleviation.
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How China became an AI leader
Monday 26th of June 2017
Rarely does a new technology transform consumption, production and society. But with artificial intelligence (AI), that technology has arrived.
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A ‘robot pilot’ has landed a Boeing 737 in a simulator
Monday 26th of June 2017
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.”
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China’s ‘Uber for bikes’ model is going global
Monday 26th of June 2017
After a recent funding round, Beijing-based Ofo netted $450 million and joined the unicorn club of private companies valued at over $1 billion. Among its backers are ride-sharing giant Didi Chuxing and Jack Ma’s Ant Financial (part of Alibaba).
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Four key questions for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Monday 26th of June 2017
Rapid change and rampant inequality are testing the resilience of economies and societies. It is in our hands to ensure that the potentially disruptive shifts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution not only herald a change of guard in the highest echelons of the global economy, but also rebalance opportunities and outcomes across geographic, generational and gender boundaries.
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These are the best books for someone just starting out in their career
Monday 26th of June 2017
Leaving school and entering the workforce can feel overwhelming.
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China’s mobile economy, explained
Monday 26th of June 2017
What is the most celebrated Chinese holiday globally, by the Chinese and by everyone else? Here’s a hint: It’s not the Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year. It is November 11, known as Singles’ Day.
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9 lessons from the world’s Blue Zones on living a long, healthy life
Monday 26th of June 2017
I’ve spent over a decade studying the areas in the world where people live longer and healthier lives than anywhere else on the planet. These “Blue Zone” regions are incredible because the people there live not only longer, but better. Besides having a large percentage of people that live to 100, the aging population also remains active well into their 80 and 90s, and typically do not suffer the degenerative diseases common in most of the industrialized world.
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Democracy is under threat from bots. This is why
Monday 26th of June 2017
Propaganda bots posing as people are increasingly being used on social media to sway public opinion around the world. So says new research from the University of Oxford’s Internet Institute, which found automated accounts and other forms of social media propaganda are rife in Russia, the US and Germany among other countries.
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Lessons from the latest wave of cyber-attacks
Monday 26th of June 2017
On May 27th, 75,000 people were left stranded because a contractor inadvertently switched off the power supply at a British Airways data centre. The cost has thus far been estimated at $100 million dollars. The week before, a large cyber-attack using WannaCrypt Ransomware infected more than 230,000 Windows PCs in 150 countries. This attack affected schools and universities, railways, and government computers across the globe. Most notably, the ransomware attack wreaked havoc across the National Healthcare System (NHS) in the UK, causing operations and medical appointments to be cancelled, Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, has called the cyber-attack the “largest ransomware attack observed in history.”
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Artificial leaves could power tomorrow’s cars – and China may be best placed to lead the way
Monday 26th of June 2017
It’s been described as one of the “holy grails” of 21st century chemistry.
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These are the top 10 emerging technologies of 2017
Monday 26th of June 2017
A diverse range of breakthrough technologies, including “artificial leaves” that turn CO2 into fuel, and a technique that harvests water from air, could soon be playing a role in tackling the world’s most pressing challenges, according to a list published today by the World Economic Forum.
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Education must foster creativity – and fight inequality
Monday 26th of June 2017
Nowadays, two of the most frequently discussed topics in the media are perhaps the growing gap between rich and poor, and the challenges presented by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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6 ways silence can make you a better leader
Monday 26th of June 2017
Sometimes, words are not all they are cracked up to be. Silence can yield more power than words. Inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci said, “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
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5 ways virtual reality could improve your health
Monday 26th of June 2017
Virtual reality is much more than just a new form of entertainment, it is increasingly being used in a wide range of medical applications, from treatments to training. Here are a few of them.
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Our growing cities are forgetting about water. We need to be much smarter
Monday 26th of June 2017
In 1900, just 15% of the world’s population lived in cities. Now that proportion is over 50%, which is a lot of people. In fact, it means around 4 billion human beings rely on urban infrastructure to keep them warm, mobile and clean.
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The next particle collider will be three times bigger than the large hadron
Monday 26th of June 2017
LHC PT. 2
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One fifth of the world’s population could be a refugee by 2100
Monday 26th of June 2017
In the year 2100, 2 billion people—about one-fifth of the world’s population—could become refugees due to rising ocean levels. Those who once lived on coastlines will face displacement and resettlement bottlenecks as they seek habitable places inland.
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South Africa’s public works programme is creating jobs, but it can do more for women
Monday 26th of June 2017
The South African government recently reported that around 6.5 million job opportunities have been created through its Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) since 2004. This should be good news given the high levels of unemployment in South Africa, especially for women, who are disadvantaged in the job market and are specifically targeted by the programme.
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Gordon Brown: we’re failing to give refugee children an education
Monday 26th of June 2017
From Fawaz’s home in a makeshift refugee camp just across the border from Syria, where he lives with his now-displaced family, one danger has been traded for another. “There are no schools. There is no education. My children have no toys. They play only with mud,” he says. “Our life was better in Syria.”
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Why gender-neutral Swedish preschools could make children more successful
Monday 26th of June 2017
Inside a handful of public kindergartens in Sweden, toys are never divided into traditional gender camps. Dolls and baby strollers mingle freely with cars and wooden blocks. In posters, dump trucks haul around beaded jewelry, a bionic robot wears a tutu, and it’s not a female or male Barbie who does the dishes—that’s left to a skeleton.
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The fall and rise of global borders
Monday 26th of June 2017
The world is becoming more global. More than ever people are proactively deciding where to live, where to study, where to work. Sometimes it’s out of necessity, sometimes it’s out of choice. But the opening up of the world thanks to technology and other factors like simpler regulation means we don’t need to stay within the borders of the country in which we were born. It’s even possible to be an e-Resident of a country.
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6 things to know about our meeting in China
Monday 26th of June 2017
The Forum’s 11th Annual Meeting of the New Champions takes place in Dalian, China this week. With its futuristic focus on science, technology and innovation, it is unlike any other meeting the Forum organizes during the year. Here are six things you need to know about it.
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We have the power to code a new operating system for humanity
Monday 26th of June 2017
Since humankind’s earliest days, we have used stories to communicate knowledge, to form our understanding of the world, prescribe behaviour, and imagine our futures. Therefore, the stories we tell and the identities we construct about our future are literally writing the next operating system for humanity.
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China’s $900 billion New Silk Road. What you need to know
Monday 26th of June 2017
You’ve probably heard of the Silk Road, the ancient trade route that once ran between China and the West during the days of the Roman Empire. It’s how oriental silk first made it to Europe. It’s also the reason China is no stranger to carrots.
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Nature-inspired design: how the Amazon can help us solve humanity’s greatest challenges
Sunday 25th of June 2017
The Amazon system stores an estimated 10 years’ worth of global greenhouse gas emissions, removes over 2 billion tonnes of CO2 every year, and presents a mosaic of ethno and linguistic diversity. Its ecosystems harbor about 25% of land biodiversity; while its abundant rainfall generates 20% of the freshwater input into the world’s oceans.
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3 ways the world’s fastest growing economies can close the infrastructure gap
Sunday 25th of June 2017
How much does it cost to power the world’s fastest growing economies?
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From smog diamonds to algae street-lights. This man is designing a cleaner, greener, brighter future
Sunday 25th of June 2017
Daan Roosegaarde stole the show at last year’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin with his “Smog-Free Project”, a tower that sucks up polluted air, cleans it and releases it back into parks and playgrounds. Another aspect of the project saw the captured smog turned into diamonds.
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Soul music: how ‘unresponsive’ patients learned to communicate
Sunday 25th of June 2017
Advances in medical care and technologies have exponentially increased the number of individuals who are minimally responsive to their world, and who have little to no ability to interact with others.
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The numbers that make China the world’s largest sharing economy
Sunday 25th of June 2017
In the last decade, the sharing economy has grown from a fringe concept to an economic powerhouse, reshaping various industries like tourism and mobility at a lightning pace.
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The Internet of Things will power the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Here’s how
Saturday 24th of June 2017
What does “the Fourth Industrial Revolution” actually mean?
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Globalization and soccer in China, the rise of RegTech and other stories you may have missed this week
Saturday 24th of June 2017
How to check globalization’s status? Look at China’s spending on football.
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10 astounding facts to help you understand China today
Saturday 24th of June 2017
1. China is building a brand new city twice the size of Manhattan. In a bold move to tackle overcrowding in Beijing, China is building a whole new “green, modern and liveable” city called Xiongan, 100km southwest of the capital. While the initial phase will be double the size of Manhattan, it is ultimately expected to sprawl 20 times that size to an area of 2,000 sq km, more than twice as big as New York City or Singapore.
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Why you should consider betting on emerging markets’ tech companies
Saturday 24th of June 2017
More than half of the world’s internet users are now in Asia. The majority of the global middle class is in emerging markets (EM), and nearly 90% of the next billion entrants will come from Asia, according to the Brookings Institute. Instead of paying with cash or credit cards, EM consumers use mobile wallets to get lunch or pay for utilities, making the most of swift modern digital infrastructure especially in buzzing urban hubs.
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The inner path to becoming a systems entrepreneur
Friday 23rd of June 2017
As the world grapples with increasingly complex and seemingly intractable challenges, a new answer is gaining momentum: systems change. But what is systems change? What are the qualities needed of leaders who aim to transform our economies and societies in ways that go beyond the reach of a single organization? Leaders who can build movements, and successfully engage all the stakeholders affected by an issue towards collaborative action?
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How technology is helping the push for financial inclusion in China
Thursday 22nd of June 2017
The biggest challenge facing China in its drive for financial inclusion has been how to expand banking services to private businesses and individuals.
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5 trends for the future of manufacturing
Thursday 22nd of June 2017
Manufacturing is a hot topic again, undergoing the industry’s greatest change in more than 100 years. Domestic jobs have evaporated from many countries with globalization, offshoring may be reverting to near shoring and automation threatens to replace more workers every day. The way we build and deliver the goods and products that fuel our economies and our lives will never be the same.
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Scientists just found 40 new genes that affect your IQ
Thursday 22nd of June 2017
A scientific breakthrough has revealed the extent to which human intelligence is determined by our genes.
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4 books that will help you understand China in 2017
Thursday 22nd of June 2017
It is the world’s most populous country, the world’s largest trading nation and is expected to become the world’s biggest economy. Yet the outside world still knows surprisingly little about China today.
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Towards a human-centered model of economic growth
Thursday 22nd of June 2017
Based on GDP and other measures of well-being, humanity has never been better off. The number of people living in absolute poverty has fallen four-fold since 1980. Fewer people die today from violence or conflict than any prior era. Individuals generally live longer and more comfortably than any prior generation.
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If we don’t change the way research is funded, we risk running out of new drugs
Thursday 22nd of June 2017
Professor Maria Elena Torres-Padilla is Director of the Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, where she leads a team that is decoding the factors necessary for successful embryo implantation following fertilization. She believes policy makers, educators and society at large need to have a more fundamental understanding of the way science works – and the way it should be funded. Here she explains why and how this can be achieved.
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Podcast: Are we ready to live and work alongside robots?
Thursday 22nd of June 2017
How advanced will specialized robots that can interact safely with their environment be in the near future? What is the entrepreneurial system around these today, and how will the emerging investment trends shape their development? Which sectors would be most impacted by the integration of these robots and how prepared are our regulatory frameworks for them?
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It’s time to think differently about cyber security
Thursday 22nd of June 2017
Whilst the Fourth Industrial Revolution is opening up new opportunities for organizations to embrace emerging technologies, rethink business models and improve the lives of employees and customers, it also has a darker side – increased security risks.
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12 lessons to take charge of your career
Thursday 22nd of June 2017
Sticking your neck out and taking charge of your career is no trivial matter. Whether that’s switching careers, going back to school, or walking away from a j-o-b to start your own business, it takes a lot of guts.
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These are the countries with the best paternity policies in the world
Thursday 22nd of June 2017
As the US still struggles to secure basic maternity leave policy, some countries have already moved on to improving time off just for fathers.
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Why disappearing jobs keep students out of college
Thursday 22nd of June 2017
After states suffer significant job losses, college attendance drops among the poorest students of the next generation, a new study suggests.