From September 8 – 12th I spent time in Dalian, China to attend the World Economic Forum Summer Davos: Young Global Leaders Summit. As an active part of the Young Global Leader (YGL) community, I felt incredibly energized by my pariticpation at this event as there were several key initiatives that I was able to contribute towards.

One of the groups that I am part of is the Global Business Oath that has been developed by Young Global Leaders launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009 as part of an effort to increase the standard of ethical practices among business managers through a Hippocratic oath. With the help from Engage Learning Systems, I recorded my reading of the oath which you can check out in the following video posted on YouTube. During our session in Dalian, a few YGLs talked about this initiative and then the video was launched.



To learn more, please visit www.globalbusinessoath.org and take the Oath! Following the plenary session with the overall introduction to the oath, I was asked to co-facilitate a workshop with Jen Martin Skibsted (Creative Director of Skibsted Ideation in Denmark) to discuss how we can promote this oath through online social media. We attracted an incredibly talented bunch to our group including Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), Josh Spear (Founder of Undercurrent), Lars Hinrichs (Founder of Xing.com), Matias De Tezanos (founder of Healthcare.com), Andrej Nabergoj (founder of Noovo.com) and others! In our discussion, we talked about ways to promote the Oath leveraging online social media tools - including a widget to promote on Facebook and Linked In.



I was asked to join a panel about the Global Redesign Initiative (GRI) to provide my own perspectives on what I see as some of the key challenges facing the world today and how it relates to the 'case' for redesign. In my remarks, I talked about how we all play a role in designing the world and how important it is that our education systems truly help to enable citizen empowerment so that all people recognize the importance of their voice and contribution. In a world that is increasingly globally connected, we need to nurture knowledge networks to ensure that our approaches to problem solving are comprehensive and multi-disciplinary. We need to cultivate interconnectivity, compassion and global awareness across generations, starting with children and youth.



Other members of the panel talked about how our values and perception of prosperity need to be reset along with our approaches to leadership. John Hope Bryant talked about how we need to have Love Leadership and not leadership based on fear. Overall, the Global Redesign Initiative is about integrated thinking around the food crisis, water shortage, low carbon economy, universal health care, peace and security and creating a roadmap for global cooperation. Some of the comments from the room reflected on our need to focus on frameworks that truly recognize and meet the needs of those living in extreme poverty.



In addition to my role on the panel, I was also invited to deliver a 5 minute presentation with the 'pitch' for the Youth Task Force concept that I put together with Nancy Lublin from Do Something. Our proposal is to formalize global youth participation in the Global Redesign Initiative through (a) town meetings in key markets and (b) technology.

Why youth?

1. Young people are among the most socially conscious and active segments of the population. They are highly affected by and concerned about environmental issues, the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases, the lack of employment opportunities, economic inequality, and human rights.

2. Young people will inherit the world we create today and need to be part of the process of envisioning and shaping the future. It is only when youth are seen as part of the solution, rather than part of the problem, that long-term change can occur.

3. Young people have a unique and fresh perspective on issues and can provide valuable insight into thinking about the problems of the world and how to solve them in new ways. As Albert Einstein once said, we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created our problems.

4. As stated in the World Bank Development Report 2007, youth need to have more opportunities to express their voice in public dialogue:
“Parents do not represent the views and aspirations of young adults as they do those of younger children. Yet youth may still lack the opportunities or self-confidence to represent themselves in public fora. Young people need to be encouraged to participate more fully in public life. And governments and other agencies need to learn to communicate with young people, make their programs attractive to them, and deploy the immense talents of youths as partners in service delivery.”

5. As stated in The United Nations World Youth Report 2005, new technologies have had a growing impact on influencing youth participation:
Youth participation today tends to be issue specific and service-oriented. Reluctant to join a formal organization or council, many young people prefer to find open opportunities created by communities and institutions to become involved in the issues that concern them. As a result, there are emerging forms of youth structures that tend to be based on networks of collaboration and common interests. One example that seems to reverse the decline in traditional participation and civic engagement by youth is Internet-based activities in youth civic and political engagement. Through cross-boundary web sites, tele- and video-conferencing, chat boards and webcams, information and communication technologies are creating new forms of cyber participation that provide young people with creative, open and non-hierarchical channels of participation. Insight can be obtained when these activities are subsequently submitted to policy-making channels. More youth are gradually becoming aware of resources outside their communities and of opportunities to share and reinforce each others work.



Having an opportunity to pitch the Youth Task Force was a rewarding experience. I did not realize how many Young Global Leaders were so deeply committed to youth empowerment and really leveraging their access and experience to be able to connect to younger generations. I facilitated our break-out discussion for the Youth Task Force and we prepared a timeline and action plan for the upcoming months. We will develop a discussion guide to allow for in person Town Hall meetings of anywhere between 20 and 200 youth participants (with a focus on those under 25). We will also invite input from youth online through the TakingITGlobal website along with other online spaces. Stay tuned for more detail on how to get involved!



As one of the Canadian Young Global Leaders, I have also been working on trying to organize a meeting with other Canadian YGLs in Toronto. We are hoping to have a date finalized soon and in our meeting, we would like to talk about how we can play a role in preparing for the upcoming G8 Summit that will take place in Canada next year.