Partner spotlight – World Economic Forum

This month, we’re proud to spotlight the World Economic Forum (the Forum), an international organization for public-private cooperation and a member of the PMNCH private sector constituency. The Forum engages political, business, cultural, and other leaders to shape global, regional, and industry agendas with a goal to improve the state of the world. In a world full of challenges, the Forum continues to be a bridge-builder for global cooperation.  

In January 2024, the Forum launched the Global Alliance for Women’s Health, with PMNCH as a member, which is a multisector platform dedicated to closing the women’s health gap through boosting research and innovation, unlocking financing, and setting a new global agenda for women’s health. A key workstream of the Alliance is the Global Activator Network on Maternal Health (GAN) designed to accelerate comprehensive and inclusive advancements in maternal health towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.1, which is off track in more than 80% of countries. The GAN provides a platform to promote successful interventions, foster country-to-country learning, provide blueprints for effective public-private partnerships, and cultivate robust country-level ecosystems to ensure equitable access to improving maternal health outcomes. Women, on average, live longer than men yet spend 25% more time in poor health. Addressing this disparity has the potential to add years to life and life to years, resulting in a USD 1 trillion boost to the global economy. Leaders across sectors and industries have a role to play in achieving health equity. Closing the women’s health gap starts by realizing the enormous opportunity to empower women and girls and the socio-economic benefits that can be unlocked by doing so. that can be unlocked by doing so. 

WEF has also been a key partner in the development of a Business Leadership Guide to the Action Agenda for Adolescents. The aim is to mobilize and grow the number of businesses that proactively pledge to support the Agenda, recognizing that every action counts. 

Similar to the objectives of the Global Alliance for Women’s Health, a key priority for PMNCH in 2025 is elevating the women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health (WCAH)investment case and undeniable evidence of socio-economic opportunities for effective advocacy and policymaking for WCAH and well-being. Together with Victoria University and other partners, PMNCH published “Adolescents in a Changing World: the case for Urgent Investment,” which presents the need for transformative investment across the five domains of adolescent well-being and in three key systems – universal health coverage (UHC), including primary care (PHC); enhanced schools that focus on learning, health, nutrition and student wellbeing; and support systems based in local communities. Clear from the research is that the economic and social returns to a wide range of investments, as well as the cost of inaction, are high. In addition, as a partner in the Commission for Investing in Health (CIH3), PMNCH plays a pivotal role in generating new evidence to guide health transformation in all countries and reassert investing in the health sector as an indispensable foundation for development.  

Intersectoral financing has also been prioritized by PMNCH with respect to climate change, nutrition, humanitarian contexts, and the right to health. Every stakeholder has a role in ensuring WCAH is safeguarded and funded, especially in the face of crises. Climate change is now the biggest global health threat, affecting every country on every continent. Low-income countries are highly vulnerable due to poverty, poor sanitation, high prevalence of malnutrition, infections, non-communicable diseases, poor quality housing, and non-resilient healthcare systems. Women, children, and adolescents often bear the highest burden. Given the interconnections between climate change and WCAH financing, it is important to consider a joined-up approach with a view to more efficiently and effectively achieving goals.   

PMNCH held a High-Level Roundtable at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, “Building a catalytic public-private-philanthropic partner (PPPP) model to advance maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.”  More information can be found here. 

To learn more about the Forum’s events and initiatives, follow @wef on X and @worldeconomicforum on Instagram, or visit www.weforum.org.