by Jody McBrien, AWG Paris
This year’s Global Leadership Challenge brought together young people from around the world online for one week to tackle the challenges presented by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), 4 (Quality Education), 5 (Gender Equality), and 13 (Climate Action). Co-sponsored by the St. Gallen Symposium in Switzerland and the University of Oxford, over 1,500 youth from over 50 countries applied for the 100 positions. The young people were divided into four groups to determine impact projects along with senior advisors that included Luis Guillermo Solís, the former President of Costa Rica; Arunma Oteh, former vice president and treasurer of the World Bank; and FAWCO member Jody McBrien, who is a professor at the University of South Florida and member of the American Women’s Group in Paris. This year’s theme was “A New Generational Contract,” recognizing the importance of collaboration and respect among diverse generations to create responsible actions and mentorship to address global challenges.
The groups came up with 20 impact projects. From there, three were selected as finalists to be presented on the final day of the conference. The finalists included a project to address the challenge of inadequate technology in some countries and of technological waste in others to recycle technology and create e-learning centers in areas of need. An environmental project suggested a technology application to help consumers select environmentally-friendly and locally-sustainable products and businesses easily. The third finalist argued for revising curriculum to address global issues through public-private partnerships. Their presentations were recorded as part of the closing ceremony of the Global Youth Leadership Challenge.
While the judges met to determine the winning project, Kaylen Barell from St. Galen’s interviewed Simona Scarpaleggia, former CEO of IKEA Switzerland and a Board Member of EDGE Strategy, about SDG 5, Gender Equality. Ms. Scarpaleggia discussed a holistic view of increasing equity by going beyond rhetoric to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of measures intended to produce gender equality. She also discussed the usefulness of intergenerational collaborations and dialogues to further progress, as well as creating safe spaces for employees to speak up on issues and challenges. There was also some discussion of the problem faced by women who may find themselves as, for instance, a brown employee in a business dominated by white males. Ms. Scarpaleggia discussed the importance of going beyond “ticking boxes” in diversity to treat all employees with respect and seriousness.
The judges’ panel consisted of Professor Alexander Betts, Professor of Forced Migration at Oxford University; Doyan Atewologun, Dean of the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford; and Professor Amanda Shantz, Professor of Management and MBA director at St. Galen’s. Their selected winner was Tech-to-Teach, the project working to create partnerships to recycle technology to places in need, noting that it would additionally address other SDGs through educational progress. These participants will be able to attend the 51st St. Gallen Symposium and apply for mentoring in entrepreneurship with EWOR Education and leadership with the Oxford Character Project.