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.
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A ‘system value’ approach can accelerate the energy transition. Here’s how
Monday 22nd of June 2020
COVID-19 has brought the global economy to its knees, but with this disruption comes an opportunity to rebuild with climate change as our centrepiece. We now have a chance to steer the world towards a transformative new age, where sustainable policies can give rise to clean industries that protect the lives of future generations. To get there we need to shift political and commercial focus from costs to value.
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COVID-19 gives us a chance to design an aviation industry fit for the future
Monday 22nd of June 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic will have significant financial implications for most communities around the world. But it is also amplifying a few truths of which we were all aware, but which we have never reacted to with the urgency they demand.
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The ongoing impact of COVID-19 on global supply chains
Monday 22nd of June 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the business environment for many organizations around the globe, and has highlighted the importance of being able to react, adapt and set up crisis management mechanisms in order to weather situations of uncertainty. As the acute restrictions and lockdowns created many urgent situations that required immediate attention in the early days of the pandemic, many companies have now begun to move to a “recovery mode” and have started planning for the longer term. As companies seek to strengthen operations and business resilience, the importance of supply chain resilience and risk management is more apparent than ever.
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Forget 2009, this is the real credit crisis of our time
Monday 22nd of June 2020
The events leading to the Great Recession that started in 2007 are often referred to as a credit crisis. But that is true only in a narrow way. The recession was driven primarily by the bursting of a housing bubble and the related impacts on the financial system. The real credit crisis of our lifetime is turning out to be the coronavirus recession.
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3 little things businesses can do to have a big impact in times of crisis
Monday 22nd of June 2020
The coronavirus has spared no one. Lives and livelihoods have been turned upside down. Families have been separated by lockdown measures. Businesses and communities have been brought to a screeching standstill. And too many lives have been tragically lost.
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Opportunities for a circular economy post COVID-19
Monday 22nd of June 2020
COVID-19 has several similarities to the climate crisis. We are limited by the capacity of a system, be it nature’s capacity to rejuvenate, or the healthcare system’s capacity to treat the sick. We are forced to look for alternatives in order to do the things that are not viable anymore.
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Digitalization is changing banking – These 3 trends will help shape its future
Monday 22nd of June 2020
Before Coronavirus, the 2020s were already being framed as the decade for digital bank transformation. Such changes reflected a mounting hunger for must-have innovations including seamless, hyper-personalised user experiences.
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IMF: These 3 charts show how lockdown has affected the global economy
Monday 22nd of June 2020
The Great Lockdown is expected to play out in three phases, first as countries enter the lockdown, then as they exit, and finally as they escape the lockdown when there is a medical solution to the pandemic. Many countries are now in the second phase, as they reopen, with early signs of recovery, but with risks of second waves of infections and re-imposition of lockdowns. Surveying the economic landscape, the sheer scale and severity of the Global Lockdown are striking. Most tragically, this pandemic has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide. The resulting economic crisis is unlike anything the world has seen before.
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Why it’s crucial we redefine the workplace in the wake of the pandemic
Monday 22nd of June 2020
Last month, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the company would allow its employees, currently working from home in accordance with social-distancing protocols, to stay there for good. Several other big businesses – from Facebook to the French automaker PSA – have followed suit with plans to keep far more employees at home after the COVID-19 crisis ends. Will the office be yet another casualty of the pandemic?
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How forest loss has changed biodiversity across the globe over the last 150 years
Monday 22nd of June 2020
The Earth’s forests have been changing ever since the first tree took root. For 360 million years, trees have grown and been felled through a dynamic mix of hurricanes, fires and natural regeneration. But with the dawn of the 17th century, humans began replacing large swathes of forest with farms and cities.
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How to talk about race in the workplace, according to this management professor
Monday 22nd of June 2020
So, your company wants you to talk about race? You are not alone. Over the past few weeks, countless companies have spoken out publicly against racism and other injustices after the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks, and the racist encounter between Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper (no relation) in Central Park.
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Is the K number the new R number? What you need to know
Monday 22nd of June 2020
Just a few months ago, no one, aside from epidemiologists and their ilk, had heard of the R number. Now, thanks to the coronavirus, everyone has heard of it and most people can tell you that it’s the reproduction number, an indicator of whether the number of infected people is increasing or decreasing.
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COVID-19: Top science stories of the week, from a life-saving drug to one billion at risk
Monday 22nd of June 2020
First life-saving drug identified and it’s cheap and widely available
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This underwater sculpture is helping to restore coral reefs in Thailand
Monday 22nd of June 2020
Dive beneath the brilliant blue waters surrounding Thailand’s Koh Tao island and you might come face to face with a giant sculpture of the sea goddess Mazu.
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Unemployment worries spike around the world as coronavirus remains top global concern
Monday 22nd of June 2020
Unemployment worries spiked to a five-year high in May, as the coronavirus crisis moved into its next phase.
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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 22 June
Monday 22nd of June 2020
1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe
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How data science can help India’s frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19
Monday 22nd of June 2020
Healthcare workers, police officers, municipal workers and many others; standing in the line of duty, those working on the COVID-19 frontline have risked not only their lives, but their family members. Are these COVID-19 warriors being adequately taken care of? Are they diagnosed or monitored regularly? What happens if frontline workers get infected, and can this be proactively identified? What responsive measures have been put in place? And are these measures sensitive to how this crisis might be taking a toll on these workers’ emotional, social and physical wellbeing?
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5 ways the ocean can contribute to a green post-COVID recovery
Monday 22nd of June 2020
The COVID-19 epidemic has profoundly emphasised the links between nature and human health – placing it among the 70% of emerging infectious diseases originating from wildlife and domesticated animals.
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For resilient, sustainable city mobility after COVID-19, these trends must continue
Friday 19th of June 2020
Initial response efforts to the COVID-19 lockdown fueled surprising progress in the mobility space. Lockdowns reduced car traffic, encouraged walking and cycling and minimized emissions. One-of-a-kind partnerships emerged quickly between governments, private mobility operators and public transit systems.
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Stuck at sea: How to save the world’s seafarers and the supply systems they support
Friday 19th of June 2020
Clapping for essential workers on suburban streets cannot be heard at sea, where hundreds of thousands of crew members are stranded on ships they can’t leave, risking their lives to put food on our plates.
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COVID-19 made cities more bike-friendly – here’s how to keep them that way
Friday 19th of June 2020
After COVID-19 lockdowns, roads emptied and transit agencies either completely stopped service or drastically reduced service, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to take back streets and sidewalks. As cities reopen, we have the opportunity to reset our transportation system and take multi-mobility into account.
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The world’s most vulnerable must be protected: WHO briefing
Friday 19th of June 2020
Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, joined the WHO’s media briefing on 19 June, ahead of World Refugee Day on 20 June.
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Why COVID-19 is an opportunity to close the connectivity gap for refugees
Friday 19th of June 2020
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, refugees were already among some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Although access to ‘quality education’ has long been recognized as a basic human right, as many as 3.7 million school-age refugees were not enrolled in school before the arrival of the coronavirus.
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How COVID-19 and the climate are transforming the real estate sector
Friday 19th of June 2020
The real estate sector has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in unprecedented ways – and if we focus on the financial side, the impacts are already visible.
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How supply chain transparency can help businesses make the right calls
Friday 19th of June 2020
Faced with major disruption events, decision makers need to get their heads around the why and when to act (the reaction) before working out how best to mitigate the impacts (the response). The speed of reaction and the efficacy of response will decide the ultimate outcomes for people and the environment.
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A brief history: here’s what you need to know about Juneteenth
Friday 19th of June 2020
For more than a century and a half, annual celebrations have been held across the United States on 19 June to commemorate the end of slavery, a date known as Juneteenth Independence Day.
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This is how blockchain can be used in supply chains to shape a post-COVID-19 economic recovery
Friday 19th of June 2020
The COVID-19 crisis has rattled supply chains around the globe and created serious questions about the future of commerce. Critical to recovery and restoring economic activity is regaining trust in these systems. This challenge presents an opportunity for the integration of blockchain, a technology with the potential to fundamentally alter the future of supply chain.
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A leading COVID-19 modeller answers our questions
Friday 19th of June 2020
A senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town, Dr Sheetal Silal has spent her career developing and using mathematical models to understand the spread of infectious diseases and how public health policies can most effectively control them.
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Discovering the real impact of COVID-19 on entrepreneurship
Friday 19th of June 2020
The onset and spread of COVID-19 have left few people, if any, unaffected. Governments the world over have been repeatedly tested and stretched. They have set new rules and norms to try to re-establish confidence and give economies a chance of survival.
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Collective action could fuel a post-pandemic renaissance for social justice. Here’s how
Friday 19th of June 2020
From Future Fridays to anti-government protests and employee-mobilization efforts, 2019 was a notable year in global collective action. This energy has carried into 2020 and gained strength and momentum as the universal challenges and urgency of COVID-19 have galvanized both likely and unlikely actors to mobilize and support their communities.
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What does ‘Defund the Police’ really mean?
Friday 19th of June 2020
It’s a phrase that’s spurring momentum for fundamental change. It’s also drawing heated backlash, often due to misinterpretation – either inadvertent or intentional.
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What we can learn from refugees in the fight against COVID-19
Friday 19th of June 2020
• Eighty million displaced people worldwide are among those most at risk during the coronavirus pandemic.
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4 ways to be an ally in the fight against racism
Friday 19th of June 2020
• Police brutality is just a surface manifestation of deeper systemic racism.
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This is how your smartphone could be used to test for COVID-19
Friday 19th of June 2020
It may seem far-fetched, but it’s possible to use your smartphone to detect diseases. Mobile devices can be turned into tools to rapidly identify a variety of disease-causing agents, including bacteria, toxins and viruses.
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These are the countries that spend the most and least time on social media
Friday 19th of June 2020
On average global internet users spent 2 hours and 23 minutes on social media per day, though trends differed widely by country. In around half of the markets that Global Web Index surveyed, social media use had shrunk or plateaued in Q1 2019 when compared with 2018 figures.
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On the right track: How Bangkok turned an old unused train line into a park
Friday 19th of June 2020
A new park in Thailand’s capital – built on an abandoned train track – can be a model for turning the city’s other unused spaces into much-needed green areas to boost well-being and mitigate climate-change impacts, urban experts said on Tuesday.
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The Vatican has urged Catholics to drop investments in fossil fuels and arms
Friday 19th of June 2020
The Vatican urged Catholics to disinvest from the armaments and fossil fuel industries and to closely monitor companies in sectors such as mining to check if they are damaging the environment.
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COVID-19: 3 ways businesses can find growth opportunities during the crisis
Friday 19th of June 2020
The intense innovation activity ignited by the global pandemic shows that some elephants can dance when they must. Companies are moving faster and taking bigger risks than could have been imagined a few months ago. A further impetus to rethinking established and cumbersome innovation approaches is the acceleration of many trends that are already underway. The lock-down has brought forward a shift to on-line work practices and team-sharing platforms while creating new opportunities. For example, 3D printing is getting a boost by helping to replace faraway suppliers with nearby 3D printing contractors and make supply chains more resilient. To capitalize on this shift, HP accelerated their “3D as a service” business model innovation, where customers pay only for what they print. The digital transformation of industries did not pause for the crisis.
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UNHCR: Businesses have a vital role to play in helping refugees through COVID-19
Friday 19th of June 2020
Governments and businesses must do more to integrate refugees into the economy and stop them falling through the cracks during the coronavirus pandemic, a top United Nations official said on 18th of June.
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COVID-19’s impact on global supply chains will cause a recession like we’ve never seen before
Friday 19th of June 2020
For nearly three decades, global supply chains were the quiet engines of economic globalization. From 1990 to 2008, they drove the rapid expansion of trade, accounting for 60-70% of its growth. More than a decade later, however, they have stalled – and may in some areas be going into reverse.
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On World Refugee Day, a look at how COVID-19 is affecting refugees and asylum seekers
Friday 19th of June 2020
Around the world, refugees and asylum seekers are suffering from the physical and political effects of COVID-19, which are compounded by the circulation of misinformation, provoking fear and uncertainty.
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Race, racism and COVID-19 – this week’s World Vs Virus podcast
Friday 19th of June 2020
Why are people of colour – ethnic minorities in Europe and North America – at greater risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19? There’s not yet a definitive answer, but Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University, has some ideas.
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Michelle Obama’s 3 life lessons for students graduating right now
Friday 19th of June 2020
“A lot of us are reckoning with the most basic essence of who we are. Over these past couple of months, our foundation has been shaken.”
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What is an immunity passport and could it work?
Friday 19th of June 2020
Weeks into lockdown and with economic indicators signalling a deep global recession, governments around the world are searching for ways to get their countries back up and running. But emerging from a cocooned state could risk a second spike of coronavirus infections as people start mixing once more.
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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 19 June
Friday 19th of June 2020
1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe
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Why business schools can’t “return to normal” after the COVID-19 pandemic
Thursday 18th of June 2020
Encouraged by a decline in COVID-19 cases, governments around the world are starting to restore normalcy after months of lockdown. This emphasis on “returning to normal” has sparked debate, with some commentators arguing that a simple reset would underestimate the growing economic anxiety and social unrest that’s been mounting since the 2008 financial crisis.
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Siberia’s weather is weird – and it’s causing problems
Thursday 18th of June 2020
One minute it’s T-shirts, the next it’s snow boots. Siberia is experiencing some wild weather swings in 2020.
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3 lessons public market investors can learn from private equity
Thursday 18th of June 2020
As we move through the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of active ownership to accelerate the public market shift to “stakeholder capitalism” is becoming even more clear – particularly as inequalities are exacerbated and both investors and companies look to do the right thing for their partners and shareholders, as well as for society at large.
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This is how many people are forcibly displaced worldwide
Thursday 18th of June 2020
More than 1% of the people on Earth were forcibly displaced by the end of 2019, a new UNHCR report shows, and displacement numbers are increasing over time.
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What’s needed to prevent cyberbiosecurity threats and protect vulnerable countries
Thursday 18th of June 2020
The CT lung scan showed the ravaging signs of COVID-19 and the inflammatory response, the cytokine storm. But what if the CT scan was wrong?
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How COVID-19 can prompt a reset on leadership for better health
Thursday 18th of June 2020
During this fast-moving COVID-19 pandemic, organizations are faced with a unique set of challenges summed up in one word: uncertainty.
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How has COVID-19 affected Oman’s plans for a post-hydrocarbon future?
Thursday 18th of June 2020
Early, decisive and clear action taken by the Omani government to combat COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on containing and slowing the spread of the virus nationwide. Clear and regular communication with the general public in multiple languages, with the Oman vs COVID-19 initiative as its linchpin. This sharing of information played an important part in the implementation of a successful “stay home” and social distancing campaign and did so even even before the first death from the virus was recorded in the sultanate on 1 April.
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This footballer has promised to plant 3,000 trees every time his team wins
Thursday 18th of June 2020
Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin said he will ensure 3,000 trees are planted for every victory by his team over the rest of the season to highlight the need to tackle climate change.
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5 facts about how COVID-19 is affecting unemployment in the U.S.
Thursday 18th of June 2020
The COVID-19 outbreak and the economic downturn it engendered swelled the ranks of unemployed Americans by more than 14 million, from 6.2 million in February to 20.5 million in May 2020. As a result, the U.S. unemployment rate shot up from 3.8% in February – among the lowest on record in the post-World War II era – to 13.0% in May. That rate was the era’s second highest, trailing only the level reached in April (14.4%).
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I redesigned a school playground for my PhD – and the children got better grades learning outside
Thursday 18th of June 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the education of at least 1.5 billion school students. That’s more than 90% of the world’s children. Although many schools in the west, along with private schools in the developing world, have continued some school activities online, more than 50% of learners worldwide do not have a household computer. The absence of face-to-face learning and opportunities for playing with friends will have hugely impacted child mental health.
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Around the world, women have fewer rights than men – and COVID-19 is making it worse
Thursday 18th of June 2020
Worldwide, an estimated 1.5 billion people face legal problems they cannot resolve, while 4.5 billion – particularly women, the poor, and other vulnerable people – are excluded from the protections and opportunities that the law provides.
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World Bank: COVID-19 recession is expected to be twice as bad as the 2009 financial crisis
Thursday 18th of June 2020
Current forecasts suggest that the coronavirus (COVID-19) global recession will be the deepest since World War II, with the largest fraction of economies experiencing declines in per capita output since 1870. Output of emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) is expected to contract in 2020 for the first time in at least 60 years.
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This UK footballer just won free school meals for kids in the summer holidays
Thursday 18th of June 2020
On the field, Manchester United and England player Marcus Rashford is an accomplished striker. But he’s just claimed an important off-the-field victory by persuading the UK government to provide free meals for 1.3 million children this summer.
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3 ways to stop COVID-19 from drying up start-up talent pools
Thursday 18th of June 2020
In a matter of weeks, the challenge facing most innovative start-ups has shifted dramatically. Not long ago they were neck to neck, competing to acquire high-calibre talent to join their ranks. Now, the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 is threatening start-up numbers, and by extension, any demand for talent.
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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 18 June
Thursday 18th of June 2020
1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe