Address global challenges with One Young World Academy

“Learn how to lead the world through its challenges” 

For over a decade One Young World has sought to identify, engage and promote the work of young leaders from across the world with the mission of tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues. These threats are known to us from the climate crisis and corruption to infringement on civil liberties. The biggest challenges humanity faces are global, so why aren’t our solutions?

One Young World Academy 2020 is the first of an annual event series that offers a unique opportunity for young people to learn how to face and address global challenges from some of the world’s greatest leaders and experts in an inaugural online lecture series.

How will the Academy work?

Young leaders who are registered for the One Young World Munich Summit 2021 are invited to enrol in the specially curated online lecture series. One Young World Academy aims to teach young leaders how to use collective, cross-cutting knowledge to solve global challenges through Challenge Based Learning.

Challenge Based Learning is a cutting edge educational framework which enables learning through solving real world challenges. This framework encourages critical thinking about some of the most pressing threats humanity faces which facilitates the attainment of deeper knowledge and understanding of our world.

Each lecture lasts for 20 minutes with a proceeding 40-minute Q&A. Each live lecture is recorded and accessible to registered Munich Summit Delegates.

After each lecture, Delegates are assigned coursework which focuses on addressing the relevant Global Challenge. This coursework takes the form of a short essay, presentation or video submission which is collected and marked. 

One Young World Academy focuses on three perspectives:

1. Business
2. NGOs and Supranational Organisations 
3. Government

When does the Academy launch?

One Young World Academy begins in September, and lectures are released on a weekly basis, and will continue up until the week of December 7th.

All registered Delegates are eligible to gain a certificate of completion or a certificate of participation. In order to receive a certificate of completion, attendees must watch all lectures and submit a minimum of one piece of coursework for each of the three streams.

Who are the lecturers?

The lecturers share their experience, best practice and perspective on tackling global challenges. One Young World Academy offers an unparalleled opportunity to have direct contact and receive advice from these world leaders.

The expert leaders include:

• Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Director general of the World Health Organization
• Winnie Byanyima – Executive Director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
• Ronan Dunne – Executive Vice President & Group CEO, Verizon Consumer Group
• Christiana Figueres – Convener, Mission 2020 & Former Executive Secretary, UNFCCC
• Arianna Huffington – Co-founder, The Huffington Post, Founder and CEO, Thrive Global
• Dame Vivian Hunt – Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company, UK & Ireland
• Paul Polman – Co-founder & Chair, IMAGINE
• Thomas Remengesau Jr., President of Palau
• Senator Murray Sinclair – Senator and Former Chair of Canada’s Truth & Reconciliation Commission 
• Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – Former President of Liberia & Member of The Elders
• Professor Muhammad Yunus – 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate, Founder, Grameen Bank

How do I register?

To be eligible to attend One Young World Academy you must be registered to attend the Munich Summit. Find out more here.

For those who have applied for a scholarship our team is working to assess scholarships by September 2020, and successful applicants are then eligible to register for One Young World Academy. 

Major businesses back youth-led initiatives that are realising the UN’s SDGs 

@OneYoungWorld – the global forum for young leaders that counts Meghan Markle (@KensingtonRoyal) @JustinTrudeau and @EmmaWatson as Counsellors – has announced the winners of #Lead2030 an international project that invests funding and support in youth-led initiatives that are working to realise the @UN United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (#SDGs) by 2030.

For the second consecutive year, Lead2030 Challenge Winners have each been awarded $50,000 and will receive mentorship support from their Challenge Partner to help amplify their impact as they tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues. 

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals were agreed upon by 193 countries in 2015. From ending poverty to protecting the oceans, these goals represent an ambitious to-do list to create a sustainable future by 2030.

In the latest report from the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres that tracks progress against the Sustainable Development Goals – a warning was made that Covid-19 will have impacts and implications on all 17 of the SDG’s. In many cases progress has now been stalled or reversed with world hunger levels rising, inequality heightening and climate change accelerating. Stressing the unequivocal need for global leadership and concerted efforts to create progress as the global pandemic affects millions worldwide.

Formed by One Young World, Lead2030 is the first coalition of global businesses working together to support youth-led innovation aiming to meet the SDGs. The initiative is supported by the Challenge Partners – a range of major businesses working with One Young World.

Following the launch of the second series of challenges in October 2019, the initiative undertook a global search to identify the most impactful youth-lead solutions for the SDGs, analysing more than 2,200 submissions from 140+ countries. In 2020, 11 organisations will join the programme to receive both funding and mentoring.

We’re so excited to announce this year’s #Lead2030 Challenge Winners!

To make the #SDGs a reality by 2030, we need young leaders who are working purposefully to achieve them.#Lead2030 Challenge Winners are doing just that, now with the support of leading businesses. pic.twitter.com/7JbPr83r8x

— One Young World (@OneYoungWorld) June 30, 2020

Julian Padilla, Head of Legal and Compliance SWL, OYW Ambassador, Lead 2030 Mentor, RB, said:

“At RB, we are driven by our purpose to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner and healthier world.  We believe that access to the highest quality hygiene, wellness and nourishment is a right for people,  not a privilege. We continue to play a significant role at the One Young World summit each year.  In line with our Social Impact areas of focus, (Sexual Health and Rights, Maternal and Child Health & Water and Sanitation) RB are proud sponsors of the Lead 2030 prize fund for young leaders making an impact on UNSDG’s 2 (Zero Hunger) and 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation).

“It is an honour to team up with Ekogroup H20+ – Colombia, this year to share our expertise through our purposeful brands.  Together, we will have an impact on our communities and engage many other young leaders to continue fighting for a cleaner and healthier world. We are also delighted to partner with Tailored Food working towards providing sustainable food systems that provide nutritious, delicious, culturally relevant food products at a price that families in extreme poverty can afford and we are proud to support this work towards achieving SDG2 by 2030.” 

Helen Seibel, Global Leader, Community Investment & Philanthropy, said:

“We are very proud to be supporting Lead2030 for a second year as part of our Young Health Programme and to expand our support to 2 challenge winners working to address SDG 3 – good health and wellbeing.  There are more than 1.8 billion young people in the world today.  But for many, especially those in vulnerable environments, their health is at risk.  This alone puts our ability to deliver the SDGs at risk.  We believe that to improve health outcomes for young people, we need to start with young people themselves.  For more than a decade, our Young Health Programme has focused on disease prevention– addressing the primary risk factors that lead to chronic diseases.  We put young people at the centre of the programme, empowering them with knowledge and information to make healthy choices.  And we build their own capabilities to be leaders as well.  Lead2030 is a critically important programme to further develop these young leaders who, at the end of the day, will be the ones who stand to lose the most if we don’t achieve these goals.”

Michele Parmelee, Global Chief People and Purpose Officer, Deloitte, said:

“Access to quality education has taken on a new meaning and importance as teachers, parents and students adapt to the challenges of learning during COVID-19; a task even more difficult in locations with limited resources. Through the development of innovative technology solutions Arielle Kitio and her organization, CAYSTI, are doing incredible work to expand access to education and enable meaningful learning experiences in Africa. It’s impressive to see young leaders like Arielle who are determined to tackle the biggest societal issues we face around the world, and we look forward to working with CAYSTI over the coming year to make an even greater impact.”

Helmut Schuster, Group Human Resources Director, bp, said:

“Lead2030 is a purpose-led initiative that recognises the ambition, innovation and resilience of young leaders from around the globe. bp has been working with One Young World for 5 years now and has seen first-hand the positive impact that young leaders can have in society. We’re excited to be supporting this year’s winner of the SDG 7 award, CLIMATENZA. Akshay and his team have a unique opportunity to provide reliable and clean energy in India. We will support the best we can to make it a success.”

Alex Manson, SC Ventures, Standard Chartered, said:

“In Nepal, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises are a powerful source of wealth creation, yet many of them lack access to financing due to a lack of trust between funders and end-users. This year, we’re excited to work with One Young World and Sonika Manandhar from Aeloi Technologies to overcome this hurdle and improve access to affordable financing through the use of digital tokens. With our access to technologies and experience in helping startups scale, we will mentor Sonika and her team and help them create better financing opportunities for MSMEs in Nepal.”

Marisa Drew, CEO Impact Advisory and Finance Department, Credit Suisse, said:

“At Credit Suisse, we have an ambition to help mobilise the trillions of dollars of private capital needed to solve the world’s biggest environmental and social challenges identified by the UN SDGs.  We have great faith in the next generation of mission-driven leaders and entrepreneurs that are part of the One Young World eco-system to find solutions and be a force for change.  Through the Lead2030 Challenge, we are delighted to have selected SDG14 ‘Life Below Water’ this year in order to give visibility to the absolutely critical topic of ocean health and to support our challenge winner, RePurpose who are tackling the devastating effects on the oceans of single-use plastics.”

About the winners:

Diana Quintero, BIVE

Diana Quintero is the co-founder and CEO of Bive – Fundacion Vive con Bienestar based in Colombia that facilitates access to quick, high quality and affordable healthcare services for low income rural Colombian families. BR13 is Bive’s most recent project, aimed at providing leadership tools and technical knowledge on non-communicable diseases, mental, sexual and reproductive health, for children between the ages of 8-11 living in the rural areas of Colombia.

Edith Soria, Create Purpose

Edith Soria is the President and Nutrition Program Coordinator of Create Purpose – a not for profit organisation that promotes the prevention of non-communicable diseases in orphans and vulnerable children living in low-income and marginalised communities in Mexico. The Caretaker Nutrition Program aims to improve nutrition knowledge among caretakers at orphanages and improve the nutrition quality of meals served to orphans. Over the last two years, the project has positively impacted over 1,000 Orphans and Vulnerable Children across 10 local orphanages.

Arielle Kitio, CAYSTI

Arielle Kitio is the CEO of CAYSTI (Cameroon Youth School Tech Incubator) an organisation whose mission is to develop and promote innovative technology tools to ease equal access to quality education for all and encourage children to venture into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) subjects in developing countries. Since it was founded in 2017, CAYSTI has trained over 6,500 children in Cameroon and DR Congo, and their innovative learning platform, abcCoding, has been certified by the Africa Union and UNESCO ICT.

Thalita Gelenske Cunha, Blend Edu

Thalita Gelenske is the founder of Blend Edu, a social impact startup that creates educational experiences that promote diversity with Brazilian companies and in turn more inclusive cultures. Blend Edu offers organisations subscriptions to bi-monthly webinars that are accompanied by additional resources that make the skills and knowledge to improve diversity and inclusivity accessible and in a scalable format for businesses.

Luna Yu, Genecis

Genecis Bioindustries is a biotechnology company that reprograms bacteria to make premium materials from low-value organic waste. The organisation’s first product utilises high-quality biodegradable polymers that can be used to produce thermo-resistant packaging and compostable coffee-pods. By using organic waste as the feedstock, Genecis dramatically reduces the costs of producing these plastics whilst eliminating the use of fossil fuels to create them.

Svanika Balasubramanian, rePurpose

Svanika Balasubramanian is the co-founder and CEO of rePurpose, a social enterprise building a global community of conscious consumers and businesses that are going Plastic Neutral. RePurpose enables people and companies to take responsibility for their plastics usage by providing a direct means to finance infrastructure that stems the flow of Ocean plastic in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Repurpose verifies that the impact of its investments are ethical and environmentally sustainable and credits those that contribute.

Taylor Quinn, Tailored
A leader in creating sustainable food models in developing countries, Taylor is the founder of Tailored, building sustainable food systems that provide nutritious and culturally relevant food products at a price that families in extreme poverty can afford. Originally from Canada he has worked in Liberia, Kenya and Rwanda – working to ensure the food systems work for all across these countries.

Ricardo Enrique Alba Torres, Ekomuro H20+

Ricardo has produced a first of its kind rainwater collection system, from reused PET bottles. The system creates a vertical water tank which can be used in urban areas to collect and store rainwater. The aim is to save the 125 million hours spent globally collecting rainwater every year. It has had international attention from Colombia to Mexico and Guatemala.

Sonika Manandhar, Aeloi

Sonika Manandhar is a co-founder and CTO of Aeloi Technologies, a fintech platform that mobilizes the grassroots economy to reduce climate change by bridging the last-mile impact financing gap for green microentrepreneurs with digital tokens. She together with her company has won 6 awards from organizations such as the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Welthungerhilfe and she have been named as one of seven in the world, a Young Champions of the Earth 2019, Asia and the Pacific by United Nations Environment Programme

Akshay Makar, Climatenza

Akshay Makar is an Echoing Green Fellow, Forbes 30 under 30 honouree and the founder of Climatenza. Climatenza, a solar thermal company working in India and Chile, develops and applies concentrated solar power (CSP) technology to generate high-value energy for industrial applications directly from the sun. It develops, supplies, and supports concentrated solar thermal technology for the development of cost-competitive, highly efficient, and low- to medium-temperature industrial process heat systems.

Javier Larragoiti, Xilinat
Javier Larragoiti is the co-founder of Xilinat – the company that offers an alternative and natural substitute to the global sugar industry. From the age of 18, Javier Larragoiti had a calling to change the sugar industry after his father was diagnosed with diabetes. Since then, him and his team created a sustainable product, which made from 100 per cent xylitol and converts agricultural waste into this natural sugar substitute. This sugar alternative has helped improved the health and diet of thousands of people around the world.

This year’s, Lead2030 Challenges and Winners are:

SDG2: Zero Hunger – How to end hunger by 2030? – Supported by RB

Challenge Winner: Taylor Quinn, Tailored – Canada

Tailored builds sustainable food systems that provide nutritious and culturally relevant food products at a price that families in extreme poverty can afford.

SDG3: Good Health & Well-being – How do we fight the growing burden on non-communicable disease worldwide? – Supported by AstraZeneca

Challenge Winner: Diana Quintero, BIVE – Colombia

BR13 provides leadership tools and technical knowledge on non-communicable diseases, mental, sexual and reproductive health for rural youth with the goal of reducing mortality rates in rural Colombia.

SDG3: Good Health & Well-being – How do we fight the growing burden on non-communicable disease worldwide? – Supported by AstraZeneca

Challenge Winner: Edith Soria, Create Purpose – Mexico

Create Purpose promotes the prevention of non-communicable diseases in orphans and vulnerable children living in institutions through a caretaker nutrition programme and garden-based learning programme.

SDG4: Quality Education – How do we prepare 50 million futures for a world of opportunity? – Supported by Deloitte

Challenge Winner: Arielle Kitio, CAYSTI – Cameroon

CAYSTI aims to develop and promote innovative technology enabled tools that leverage access to quality education in STEAM.

SDG6: Clean Water & Sanitation – How can we help reduce individual water usage within households? – Supported by RB

Challenge Winner: Ricardo Enrique Alba Torres, Ekogroup H20+ – Colombia

The project works to create a change of attitude about harvesting rainwater as a strategic natural resource for urban sustainability, risk reduction and resilience building.

SDG7: Affordable & Clean Energy – How do we increase the share of renewable energy by 2030? – Supported by BP

Challenge Winner: Akshay Makar, Climatenza – India

Climatenza is working to accelerate the deployment of solar thermal technology across a range of industries.

SDG9: Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure – How can we re-imagine solutions to finance the growth of SMEs and trade to unlock prosperity for the world’s communities? – Supported by Standard Chartered Bank

Challenge Winner: Sonika Manandhar, Aeloi – Nepal

Aeloi is a fintech social enterprise specialising in tracing climate impact finance.

SDG10: Reduced Inequalities – How do we create an inclusive workplace environment for the LGBTI community worldwide? – Supported by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS)

Challenge Winner: Thalita Gelenske Cunha, Blend Edu – Brazil

Blend Edu creates educational experiences to promote diversity in Brazilian companies, building inclusive cultures.

SDG12: Responsible Consumption & Production -Turning waste by the packaging industry into raw materials of inherent value– Supported by Mondi Group

Challenge Winner: Luna Yu, Genecis – Canada

Genecis makes premium materials from low-value organic waste through biotechnology, which provides a solution to the unsustainable nature of single-use plastics.

SDG13: Climate Action – Climate Action & Sustainable Agriculture – Supported by Asahi

Challenge Winner: Javier Larragoiti, Xillinat – Mexico

Xilinat has developed a sustainable and natural substitute for sugar and sweeteners, that can be freely consumed by diabetics and has helped improve the diets of thousands of people.

SDG14: Life Below Water – Investing in the Oceans – Supported by Credit Suisse

Challenge Winner: Svanika Balasubramanian, rePurpose – India

rePurpose is a social enterprise building a global community of conscious consumers and businesses going Plastic Neutral.

One Young World is the global forum for young leaders.

The annual One Young World Summit convenes the brightest young talent from every country and sector, working to accelerate social impact.

Delegates from 190+ countries are counselled by influential political, business and humanitarian leaders such as Justin Trudeau, Paul Polman and Meghan Markle, amongst many other global figures.

One Young World’s mission is to create a better world, with more responsible and more effective leadership. Every year, One Young World achieves this by identifying, promoting and connecting the world’s most impactful young leaders.

One Young World offers an unrivalled platform to affect change at a global level, with over 12,000 Ambassadors in the network driving innovation worldwide, directly impacting more than 26 million people around the world. In 2019 for every $1 invested, One Young World Ambassadors deliver $15 of social value.

Partners sending Delegates include Accenture, Audi, BMW, BNP Paribas, Chanel, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Facebook, General Electric, Google, Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, L’Oréal and Unilever, to name a few.

To date, Summits have taken place in London (2010), Zurich (2011), Pittsburgh (2012), Johannesburg (2013), Dublin (2014), Bangkok (2015), Ottawa (2016), Bogota (2017), The Hague (2018) and London (2019). The next One Young World Summit will be held in Munich, Germany

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, said: “An unparalleled network of forward-thinking, progressive leaders from every corner of the world.”

Bob Geldof, Activist and Musician, said: “It’s not small this, it’s not a talking shop… At One Young World the delegates get to share the problems of their own countries and together, through social media and throughout the year, they engage with their governments and their own leaders to try and resolve the problems. It’s very effective”

Yeonmi Park, One Young World Ambassador, North Korea, said: “I am here at One Young World because I believe that sharing my story is the first step to changing my country.”

VICE: “The world’s largest & most impactful youth leadership summit”

SABC: “At the One Young World Summit leaders old and young come together to say, ‘enough – let’s make the solutions to tomorrow’s problems today.”

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, said: “One Young World gives my generation hope that we might leave behind a better, more compassionate world with no hunger, poverty or war.”