Prior Meetings

GEM22 - Healing in an Unequal World explored the different dimensions of inequality, with a particular focus on the impact of the pandemic and the ensuing economic and social recovery.

Business leaders, policymakers, development practitioners, and academics explored catalyzing forces shaping the world of development at GEM 2020 - Re-encountering Homo Moralis: Making Sense of a Seemingly Irrational World.

At GEM 2019 - The Coevolution of State Capability and Economic Development, the coevolution of state capability and a society’s economic development was at the core of the debate.

At 2018 GEM - The Sense of Us, Societal Identities and Policymaking, participants and speakers explored some of the catalyzing forces that shape the way societies promote cooperation, define policy priorities, and tap into global knowhow.

GEM 2017 - The Sense of Us, allowed for wide-ranging discussions around what defines a society’s “sense of us, "how policymakers make decisions within the constraints of societal identity, and the importance of authentic leadership for building state capability and unlocking economic growth.

The 2016 event, How Individuals & Societies Learn, focused on how individuals and societies learn and the vast socio-economic implications of this process.

2014 GEM - A GEM With Big Ideas wove a compelling story about the world today, in particular the inequalities in livelihoods and social equality brought about by technology and digitization, and the globalization of problems without globalizing solutions.

The theme for the Global Empowerment Meeting 2013 was Trillion Dollar Ideas to Build Prosperity. The goal was to examine transformational shifts in our strategies for creating prosperity that are poised to revolutionize economies and empower the global poor.

GEM12, the fifth in the Global Empowerment Meeting series, brought together experts from a broad range of disciplines, such as neuroscience, network science and behavioral economics to discuss ways these fields can help us answer development questions.

GEM 2011 brought together one hundred senior policy makers, business leaders, development experts, and academics to continue the previous year’s productive discussion on new strategies for accelerating growth and unlocking the potential of developing countries.

At GEM 2010, the discussion explored innovative ways to facilitate diversification, unleash entrepreneurial talent, and improve access to markets for individuals and companies in the developing world.

The second annual GEM focused on opportunities and challenges for financial empowerment in developing countries, with the goal of extending markets and financial services to more than two billion people who are currently unbanked or under-served.