Welcome

Klaus Schwab
Founder and Executive Chairman,
World Economic Forum 

The nature of the challenges we face today is increasingly complex. In the 12 months since we launched last year’s Outlook on the Global Agenda, the world has continued to undergo a series of transformational shifts.

While the global financial crisis and its after-effects appear to have subsided, the magnitude of other significant global issues continues to increase in scale and scope, such as jobless growth and income inequality. Particularly in developing economies, periods of strong growth have helped close the wealth gap between countries, but severe imbalances persist. In the realm of international politics, we have seen terrorist forces – often appearing without warning – continue to impede progress, threatening stability, peace and prosperity. Innovations in technology are accelerating. Our natural environment remains seriously threatened. 

In short, it is increasingly difficult to effectively design policy and drive coherent decision-making. Our fast-moving, interconnected world requires policy-makers to respond quickly to global challenges and adopt an integrated approach when choosing solutions.

It is this context of complexity and constant change that led the World Economic Forum to create the Network of Global Agenda Councils in 2008. Today’s challenges, which are global in scope, heavily interlinked in nature and critical in urgency, require a system by which we can promote greater understanding and stronger collaboration.

Our 80 Global Agenda Councils, coupled with six Meta-Councils on wider, more encompassing issues, are each formed from a collection of experts from around the world. These experts are renowned not only for their thought leadership, but also for their desire to find solutions that will improve the state of the world.

The Outlook on the Global Agenda 2015 reflects the thought leadership of the world’s foremost intelligence network – a community of over 1,500 global experts. This report offers a comprehensive overview of the world today, as well as an analysis of how these experts expect it to develop in the coming 12-18 months. It also outlines the nature of global trends, regional challenges, global leadership and governance, as well as the emerging issues that should be on the agendas of global leaders. In the spirit of the Forum, we have offered solutions to these issues that have been developed by members of the Global Agenda Councils.

The Outlook 2015 will be launched on the occasion of the Summit on the Global Agenda, which brings together the community of Global Agenda Councils and is held in Dubai from 9-11 November 2014 in partnership with the Government of the United Arab Emirates. We hope that this year’s Outlook provides valuable insights to better understand the important global issues of our time in support of our common efforts to improve the state of the world.