by
John Dutton*
195 of them were drawn from the Forum's Foundations -- the Global Shapers, Schwab Foundation, Social Entrepreneurs and Young Global Leaders. Here are some stories of how Davos helped these communities improve the state of the world.
There are about 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 in the world right now. That's the largest youth population in history, and it's providing young people with an unprecedented opportunity to take an active role in shaping our future.
This year in Davos, at the World Economic Forum's 48th Annual Meeting, we gathered some of the world's youth and social entrepreneurs who are committed to improving the state of the world. The Forum's network of Global Shapers, Social Entrepreneurs and Young Global Leaders operate as a force for good to scale solutions to global and local challenges.
Here are a few of the ways they committed to improving the state of the world at the 48th Annual Meeting in Davos.
1. Bringing light when darkness falls
Global Shaper Jaideep Bansal is the Energy Access Leader of Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE), and is working to electrify remote mountain communities using solar micro grids. Some villages in India are so remote that it can take ten days to reach them, and many of these places lack basic utilities like electricity. During the Annual Meeting, he showed participants how he is bringing them light: "Who are these mountains to decide which child has access and which child does not have access?"
2. Economically empowering women
Women make up 70% of the world’s poorest 1.5 billion people. So when founder of YouthAIDS and Five & Alive Kate Roberts and HRH Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway, met through the Forum of Young Global Leaders, they founded the Maverick Collective to eliminate extreme poverty and engage female philanthropists beyond cheque book giving.
The initiative seeks women, not just those with financial resources, but also those with skills and experiences, to help solve challenges faced by women and girls in developing countries. To date, they have mobilized $60 million in resources for young girls and women, helped more than 800,000 girls and women live healthier lives and launched pilots in 15 countries around the world.
3. Bank for rural women
Social Entrepreneur Chetna Sinha, one of the co-chairs of the Annual Meeting in Davos, founded the Mann Deshi Foundation and is dedicated to economically empowering rural women in India. The Foundation started India’s first bank run by and for rural women, business schools providing women with entrepreneurial skills and a community development programme focused on water conservation. It has supported 400,000 women and aims to reach 1 million by 2022 through a new fund launched in Davos, called "Beyond Microfinance Fund".
4. Ending gender bias via #WeSeeEqual
The Global Shapers Community and Procter & Gamble (P&G) announced a partnership to accelerate progress toward gender equality. Inspired by Procter & Gamble’s #WeSeeEqual campaign, the Global Shapers Community will galvanize the collective power of over 7,000 Global Shapers to raise awareness and mobilize action – to stand up for gender equality.
Shaper hubs from 157 countries will be invited to submit ideas for projects that help to break stereotypes and advance gender equality. Five winning proposals will be awarded $20,000 each to implement their project in their city.
5. Sports for good
Social Entrepreneur and founder of Streetfootballworld Juergen Griesbeck, and Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata launched Common Goal; a commitment of football players to pledge 1% of their salaries to a collective fund. This fund will be invested in charities around the world using football as a tool for social change. To date, 35 football players from 17 nationalities have made the pledge.
6. Affordable support for mental health issues
CitiesRISE, founded by Social Entrepreneur Chris Underhill, is a mental health service, with the goal of reaching 1 billion young people by 2030. It wants to reduce anxiety, depression, suicide and substance abuse among young people.
Its focus on youth is designed to harness the enthusiasm and ingenuity of young people – who are not only uniquely affected by mental illness, since 75% of mental health issues manifest in those under 24 years old – but who also have the capacity to develop imaginative and forward-thinking solutions.
Launched in collaboration with public and private sector leaders in Kenya, Lebanon, Colombia, India and the United States, as well as supported by Philips, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and Harvard University, CitiesRISE will coordinate action to connect formal and informal services that provide affordable support for mental health.
7. Healthy food, healthy planet
Katherine Milligan, Head of the Schwab Foundation, Kimbal Musk, CEO of Big Green, and Kris Groos Richmond, CEO of Revolution Foods, discussed strategies to place healthy and nutritious diets at the centre of global food systems.
8. Blood-delivery via drones
When robotics entrepreneur Keller Rinaudo started his first company at the age of 23, the number of drone strikes in Afghanistan were at an all-time high.
“Most robotic companies were building things that kill people, so we thought it would be cool to build a company that built things that actually make people’s lives better,” he said. Now his drone-delivery company, Zipline, is making last-mile deliveries of blood to health clinics and transfusion facilities across Rwanda.
Zipline delivers 20% of the country’s national blood supply outside of Kigali and has signed a commercial contract with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health to deliver medicines to 10 million of the hardest to reach people in the country.
*Head of Social Engagement and Head of Young Global Leaders Community, Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum Geneva
*First published in Weforum.org
By: N. Peter Kramer
