Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lighthouses 2025

The World Economic Forum's 2025 report showcases 'Lighthouse' and 'Highlight' initiatives that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across various industries and geographies. It argues for a shift from simple training to 'fixing the system' through structural changes in hiring, pay, and promotion. The report identifies five common success factors for impactful DEI: nuanced root-cause understanding, meaningful success definitions, accountable leadership, context-specific design, and rigorous tracking. Case studies highlight achievements in gender parity, LGBTQI+ inclusion, and the economic empowerment of people with disabilities and those of African ancestry.

• Corporate DEI strategies are evolving from reactive, training-focused efforts toward a "fixing the system" approach that integrates structural changes into core business operations and supply chains.
• Gender equity remains the most mature and common focus of DEI initiatives, largely because gender-related data is more accessible and straightforward to collect and analyze than data for other underrepresented groups.
• The report identifies five critical success factors for DEI initiatives: a nuanced understanding of root causes, a meaningful definition of success, accountable and invested business leaders, solutions designed for specific contexts, and rigorous tracking with course correction.
• DEI efforts are becoming more balanced across industries, with increased participation from sectors that were previously slower to advance, including Financial Services, ICT, Consumer Goods, and Manufacturing.
• Accenture's LGBTQI+ inclusion initiative has established 90 employee networks across 45 countries and increased self-identification (Self-ID) utilization from 6% in FY22 to 11% in FY24.
• Bank al Etihad in Jordan has increased female client representation from 26% to 36% since 2014 and grew its female borrower base 16 times during the same period.
• Iberdrola's women-only electrician school in Brazil increased female representation in annual electrician hiring from 1.7% in 2019 to 36.4% in 2024.
• LVMH's EllesVMH initiative has increased the representation of women in key positions from 23% in 2007 to 48% by 2025, and increased the number of female CEOs from 0 to 17.
• Schneider Electric's DESFERS initiative in Senegal, Mali, and Niger has provided green skills training to 7,204 women and generated 5,155 women-led green enterprises since 2021.
• Teck Resources' Inclusion Centers in Chile, Alaska, and British Columbia contributed to increasing women-identifying staff in Chilean mines from 16% in 2021 to 27% in 2023.
• Wipro's Women of Wipro initiative increased the proportion of women in senior leadership positions from 7.3% in FY21 to 18.7% in FY24.
• The Together for CHANGE initiative, led by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, aims to sequence the genomes of 500,000 participants of African ancestry across the US, Africa, and the Caribbean to address disparities in genomics research.

APA

World Economic Forum (2025). Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lighthouses 2025. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Diversity_Equity_and_Inclusion_Lighthouses_2025.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lighthouses 2025. 2025. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Diversity_Equity_and_Inclusion_Lighthouses_2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lighthouses 2025 |date=January 2025 |url=https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Diversity_Equity_and_Inclusion_Lighthouses_2025.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2025diversity, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lighthouses 2025}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Diversity_Equity_and_Inclusion_Lighthouses_2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }