The 2024 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) has been launched, revealing the most innovative economies in the world, and providing insights into global trends in social entrepreneurship, and its role in advancing innovation globally.
The global launch event, held in Geneva on September 26, 2024 brought together heads of states, business leaders and innovation experts from around the world.
The event opened with remarks by Mr. Daren Tang, Director General, WIPO, introducing this year’s theme “Unlocking the Promise of Social Entrepreneurship”. This year’s edition highlights the growing significance of “social entrepreneurship,” a crucial source of innovation often overlooked by policymakers, innovation economists, development agencies, and funding institutions.
“At WIPO, we see a growing interest in innovation from around the world. More and more countries are realizing that unleashing the innovation potential of their people is critical to growth and development, as well as addressing local and global challenges. The challenge for policymakers is how to build a vibrant innovation ecosystem that helps a great idea make real impact.” – Mr. Daren Tang, Director General, WIPO
Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President, Republic of Türkiye, delivered an opening statement at the launch event, highlighting Türkiye’s improvement in the rankings, and how achievements reflect Türkiye’s commitment to building a dynamic and strong innovation ecosystem.
“We aim to be a hub for advanced technologies by embracing innovation in science and technology. In addition to these measures, we adhere to the principle of “leaving no one behind” in order to avert the exacerbation of injustice.” – H.E. Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President, Republic of Türkiye
Mr. Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister, Socialist Republic of Viet Nam spoke on the importance of adopting a whole-of-people approach with emphasis placed on multilateralism and international cooperation in order to advance innovation globally.
“It is imperative for us to recognize that innovation is impacting everyone and every aspect of life across the globe, including socio-economic development. To promote innovation, we must adopt a global and whole-of-people approach with emphasis placed on multilateralism and international cooperation.” – H.E. Mr. Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister, Socialist Republic of Viet Nam
Ms. Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister, Barbados shared the implications of the country’s inclusion in the report for the first time in eight years, underscoring its commitment to education, digitalization, and fostering a culture of entrepreneurship to chart the course for future innovation capacity.
“Resilience and adaptability have to be our calling cards, and behind that, a culture and spirit of innovation is required.” – H.E. Ms. Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister, Barbados
Marco Alemán, Assistant Director General, IP and Innovation Ecosystems Sector, WIPO, led a Q&A session with the GII 2024 team. The contributors shared some key findings from the report, innovation and investments trends, and views on the future of innovation and social entrepreneurship.
Technology continues to progress rapidly, technology adoption is growing, and the socioeconomic impact of innovation has mostly turned positive again. However, green technology and environmental indicators have either been progressing more slowly than before or have declined.
In terms of the socioeconomic impact of innovation, the situation is starting to look more positive again–many indicators have returned to growth relative to what was reported in the 2023 GII edition, but some have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. Key socioeconomic indicators, like global poverty reduction, labor productivity, and life expectancy are also improving.
Key highlights from this year’s country rankings include:
- Switzerland ranks first in the GII for the 14th consecutive year. Sweden and the United States (US) maintain 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively. Singapore (4th) moves further into the top 5, followed by the United Kingdom (UK) (5th).
- China – still the only middle-income economy within the GII top 30 – moves up the ranking to edge closer to the top 10, reaching 11th position.
- China, Türkiye, India, Viet Nam, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Morocco are the middle-income economies that have climbed the fastest in the GII ranking since 2013.
- In the GII 2024, 19 economies outperform on innovation relative to their level of development, the majority still located in Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia, East Asia, and Oceania.
- The world’s five biggest science and technology clusters are all located in East Asia; Tokyo–Yokohama is the biggest S&T cluster globally, while Cambridge the most S&T-intensive.
Marya Besharov, Academic Director, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, and Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, Head of WIPO’s Composite Indicator Research Section, spoke on the WIPO-Skoll Social Entrepreneurship Study, a critical part of this year’s report. They shed light on the underexplored linkages between innovation and social entrepreneurship, highlighting social entrepreneurship as a prominent part of the international development and innovation policy dialogue, and a growing area of interest for cross-border cooperation.
The presentation also addressed key barriers faced by social entrepreneurs, including financing. Traditional innovation models and ecosystem studies have not always been conducive to socially motivated, community-based, and localized innovation models. As a result, innovation policy has not been optimally designed to support social entrepreneurship. Ms. Wawira Njiru, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Food for Education, shared her journey as a founder and her experience in overcoming these barriers to successfully scale her social enterprise.
“Having a comprehensive report on the state of innovation is invaluable. The report gets right that social enterprises are the key for driving change in tandem with governments. This combination enables the creation of tangible change in key areas.” – Wawira Njiru, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Food for Education
A panel discussion with social entrepreneurs and innovation experts highlighted the need for a supportive ecosystem, including regulatory and legal frameworks, funding mechanisms, and training programs, to support social entrepreneurs and realize the full potential of social entrepreneurship for creating tangible impact in key issue areas.
The speakers also dove into the role of young people in advancing social entrepreneurship, and innovation at large. For many young inventors and innovators, social entrepreneurship offers a chance to align their work with the desire to create positive change in their communities and the world at large.
Panelists included:
- Mr. Soumitra Dutta Co-editor of the GII and Dean, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK
- Ms. Sasha Kramer Co-Founder and Executive Director, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), Haiti
- Mr. Frank Aswani Chief Executive Officer, African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA), South Africa
- Ms. Ece Çiftçi Founder, SosyalBen Foundation, Board of Trustees, Türkiye
“The dream to create a more inclusive vision of innovation was what started the GII back in 2007. It began as a way to understand the various elements of innovation that are not traditionally captured by metrics.” – Soumitra Dutta, Founder, Global Innovation Index
Officially in its 17th edition, the Global Innovation Index remains a powerful tool for developing and evaluating policies to promote innovation, and benchmarking progress on the regional and global scale. The GII is actively used by over 90 economies to better understand and monitor innovation ecosystems, as well as to develop innovation policies and programs.
The GII is published annually by the World Intellectual Property Organization in partnership with Portulans Institute.
The 2024 edition is now available for download here.
Read the full press release here.
