Davos 2023 Key Takeaways

The World Economic Forum held its annual meeting on January 16 – 20, 2023 at Davos, Switzerland to address the state of the world and discuss the priorities for the incoming year. It offered a forum for engaging in fruitful, forward-thinking discussions and supported the development of solutions through public-private collaboration.

Businesses and governments have a strategy to ‘build better’

The World Economic Forum will host a new alliance led by Swiss President Alain Berset along with 31 government ministers as well as civil society organizations and private companies. The Davos Baukultur Alliance aims to hasten the development of flourishing, sustainable communities.

During the public session on Cities Rebuild, the Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Maimunah Mohd Sharif collaborated with business leaders in the commitment to apply the Baukultur principles which sees the entire designed living environment as a coherent whole.

The Chair and CEO of Avison Young, Mark Rose, emphasized the importance of placing social value at the heart of efforts towards urban transformation.

Climate action in cities must be based on nature and circularity

The Mayors of Freetown, Sierra Leone (Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr), Monterrey, Mexico (Luis Donaldo Colosio), and the Lord Mayor of Melbourne (Lord Sally Capp) urged for increased funding and emphasizing nature-based solutions in fighting climate change.

Leaders from the public and private sectors exchanged best practices to ensure that cities remain robust socially and environmentally in the future during the public session on Evolution of Urban Life.

The World Economic Forum launched Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA) – a worldwide initiative to support and expand new and ongoing public, private, and philanthropic partnerships (PPPPs). This will assist in releasing the $3 trillion in funding required annually to achieve Net Zero, stop the destruction of the environment, and restore biodiversity by 2050.

The possibilities of urban life are being redefined by entrepreneurs and innovators

The Global CEO of Deloitte, Joe Ucuzoglu and the Chief Impact Officer of Salesforce, Suzanne DiBianca, collaborated in their commitment to launch the World Economic Forum’s place-based UpLink innovation challenge addressing sustainable cities, the first of its kind. In order to foster creative solutions tackling environmental and social entrepreneurship, this new initiative will be tested in San Francisco and will bring together businesses, investors, and other local stakeholders.

As part of the public session, Bold New Cities Take the Stage, NEOM in Saudi Arabia and Capital City of Nusantara in Indonesia came together as new greenfield cities at Davos 2023. This session aimed to reinforce collaborative learning and to bridge innovation hubs across new and traditional cities worldwide. 

Good governance is essential while technology accelerates urban transformation

The Chairman of Arup Group, Alan Belfield highlighted that better data is needed to advance the decarbonization of buildings and cities. Meanwhile, the CEO of AVEVA Group, Peter Herweck stressed that the improvement of city services and enhance the quality of life for residents, developing nations are now harnessing smart city technologies.

The State of the Connected World 2023 report was published by the Council on the Connected World of the World Economic Forum. This demonstrates the need of corporations and governments working together to address important issues linked to connected technology, ethics, security, and accessibility.

A new standardized tool for smart cities was introduced by the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance to promote the application of ethical and responsible smart city technology applying the best practices around the world.