World Child Forum

Once a year, people come to Davos to talk about the future.
In suits, behind barriers, with agendas.
We do it differently.

What is this?

Picture a room.
Big enough for a hundred people.
Small enough to talk to everyone.

Now picture a seven-year-old sitting next to a forty-year-old. A teenager from Nairobi next to a retiree from the Swiss Alps. Everyone brought a question. Everyone brought an idea. That’s the World Child Forum.

No panels. No keynotes. Three days, one room, one question: What should this look like when we come back next year?

Why children?

Not because they have better answers. Because they ask better questions – the kind adults have forgotten how to ask. A room where every decision is measured against the wellbeing of the child works differently. It sounds different. It moves differently. And it makes adults believe things are possible they would have called unrealistic the day before.

This isn’t theory. This is years of experience in Davos.

What we promise

The Congress Centre Davos. Three days. The same place where the world’s economy is usually negotiated—open, playable, yours. We take care of everything on site: the rooms, the organisation, the framework.

Honesty. There’s no budget for speaker fees. No catered meals.

A remarkable place. Davos in July. The mountains. A meadow. A room where questions matter more than answers.

About the World Child Forum

It began in 2023 with 120 young voices and a bold experiment in questioning. The first time children and adults gathered as equals to explore what becomes possible when curiosity leads.

In 2024 250+ children from across the globe – including Palestine, Israel, Ukraine, Russia – proving that the biggest questions can bring together even the most divided worlds.

What you bring

A question: A real one – something that keeps you up at night.

Someone: Not required, but the idea matters. Don’t come alone. Bring your child, a friend, kids from your neighbourhood. Or make the trip possible for someone who can’t afford it. The tandem is an attitude: I take responsibility for someone other than myself. The game only works together.

A willingness to play: Children know how. Adults get to relearn.

Two rules

Listen before you speak: No one talks down to anyone here. Not the adult to the child. Not the founder to the teenager. Not the quick to the quiet. If you want to say something, listen first. If you have an answer, wait. The best ideas in this room will come from the people you least expect.

The child’s wellbeing decides: When we don’t know what to do, we don’t ask the loudest voice. We ask: what serves the youngest in the room? This isn’t a pedagogical concept. It’s the compass for everything that happens here. Every decision, every conflict, every open question—we measure it against this. That’s what makes this room different from any other.

If that sits right with you: come

This isn’t for everyone: It’s for people willing to step into a space that isn’t finished. That might get uncomfortable. That guarantees no outcomes—but offers the chance to build something together that’s bigger than anything you could have brought alone. We stay small to think big.

World Child Forum 2026
6 to 9 July
Congress Centre Davos, Switzerland