Build the world we want: Solutions for the next decade

Over the past ten years, we have become adept at identifying exceptional entrepreneurs who utilize technology to address global challenges. We have established competitions, networks, and support systems for these innovators. However, the next challenge is ensuring that their solutions become sustainable and transformative. I have had the opportunity to meet numerous innovators tackling some of the world's most pressing issues.

They have developed new technologies, devised novel business models, and established innovative methods for delivering essential services to individuals previously overlooked by markets. The key distinction between a good solution and a truly great one is that the latter fundamentally alters the way systems function. To achieve this, these solutions must be integrated into the institutions, markets, policies, and infrastructure that influence and shape people's lives.

Our original ambition a decade ago was straightforward: to identify, support, and scale the best global solutions to complex challenges. In the spring of this year, we extended an open invitation to innovators worldwide: How can we address urgent issues and create solutions that scale responsibly over the next decade? We received over a thousand responses from six global regions.

After thorough evaluation, we selected 25 finalists, and in September, we will announce the final ten winners, known as Solvers. These ten teams will present a blueprint for a different approach to building solutions in the upcoming decade.

Three notable patterns emerge from this year's finalists:

1. Technology that acknowledges its limitations: More than a third of the finalists incorporate artificial intelligence into their solutions, but AI is merely a tool to streamline processes, enhance decision-making, or enable possibilities previously unattainable. The technology remains in the background, facilitating paperwork, triage, translation, and other tasks. Humans remain in control.

2. The advantage of proximity: For too long, we have prioritized proximity to capital and power. The next decade should instead prioritize proximity to the problems. The most effective solutions are frequently led by or developed in direct collaboration with the communities they aim to serve. Those closest to a problem possess valuable insights that outsiders often overlook.

They understand why a service lacks trust, why a policy fails in practice, where systemic inefficiencies exist, and what changes behavior. This asymmetric information leads to superior design, increased trust, and often stronger economic outcomes. An Indigenous-led solar-powered river transport system across the Amazon, governed by the communities that utilize it, is one such example.

A platform that directly compensates landowners for preserving land, routing funds to households instead of intermediaries, and a network of local health workers trained and fairly compensated, driving down maternal and child mortality rates across three countries by delivering care where trust already exists, are other examples.

3. Systemic reconstruction: Many of the world's most significant challenges are not resolved by addressing a single point of failure. They persist because the surrounding systems are broken: supply chains stall, referral systems end at the clinic door, and funds fail to reach those in need. The most innovative innovators focus on repairing these connections.

Safer, lower-carbon paper batteries, already in production, replace toxic lithium cells whose waste harms communities where it is discarded. Invasive seaweed is being repurposed into low-carbon products that restore coastlines and support local livelihoods. A rural mental healthcare model links screening directly to same-day care in schools, eliminating the need for children to return home with unfulfilled referrals.

None of these solutions are glamorous; they are labor-intensive and often operate silently in the background. Adoption necessitates infrastructure, and infrastructure is what transforms a great product into a lasting one.