$ 1 : 16
For every $1 of value invested, One Young World Ambassadors deliver $16 of social value, based on a Social Return on Investment analysis of 45 Ambassador-led initiatives addressing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2023
SDG Impact Tracker
Interested in supporting impactful initiatives led by young leaders? Search this database of over 430 projects from the One Young World Community to find out more.
Tiwale
Tiwale began as a summer project in 2012 when Chmba became concerned that women in Malawi were not receiving the opportunities they deserve. Social pressure and government fees mean that very few women in the country attend secondary education, with only 13% of girls completing upper secondary school, a rate that falls to 2% amongst the most disadvantaged children. Chmba witnessed this reality in her own community and developed a strategy to keep girls in school by helping them learn how to supplement their income.
Chmba recalls being blown away by the 2017 One Young World Summit in Bogotá, seeing large-scale successful projects and initiatives led by young people, some of which had managed to partner with prestigious international organisations. This encouraged Chmba to continue working on Tiwale. She made close friendships and has used the One Young World Community as a resource to further her collaborations with other young people. Tiwale has become a safe space for vulnerable young women, girls, and non-binary people. It offers its members two routes, an education pathway and an entrepreneurial programme directed at older participants. Tiwale hosts educational workshops and has increasingly focused on digital literacy.
The organisation has 413 registered members, and a scholarship system to help high-achieving young women continue their studies. The vocational training offered has led to collaborations with the Swiss Embassy and the Ministry of Health, producing 33,000 masks at the height of the pandemic. Through workshops and seminars across the world, Chmba has reached over 26,000 young people while partnering with universities. On the ground in Malawi, Tiwale is active in assisting women affected by rural to urban migration while also operating sites within the city for young women and the LGBT community.
“One Young World has been a resource in terms of my access to fellow young people. It’s definitely on my resume, when people ask about my experience of being around young people from different spaces it is something I refer to”
TeachSurfing
TeachSurfing - Germany
Miganoush Magarian, Gretta Hohl
Ambassador-led Initiative
5
SROI
TeachSurfing is a social enterprise with its roots in One Young World's 2012 Summit in Pittsburgh. Miganoush and Gretta, wanted to share the experience they had gained as young professionals. Encouraged that the same sentiment was shared by other young leaders, the pair of Ambassadors turned their idea into an organisation shortly after returning to the Summit as speakers in 2015.
The aim of the platform is to connect this supply of expertise with non-profits and educational institutions around the world. Young "TeachSurfers", on travelling to new countries, offer workshops for schools, organisations, or communities that have relevant learning demands. This initial mission was adapted to increase the programmes’ impact on marginalised individuals who had recently migrated to or sought asylum in a new country. In 2019, TeachSurfing ran a project, TSRP, coaching migrants and refugees in Germany on how to share their knowledge with local communities via workshops. This was the outcome of their successful application to the Google.org impact challenge.
Before the pandemic, a key element involved bringing together two cultures into one room, to promote integration. In order to maintain this aspect of the programme during COVID-19 enforced lockdowns, TeachSurfing started the series "Stay Home Share Knowledge", whereby a diverse group of speakers shared cultural insights virtually. The latest initiative is a dedicated university accredited online learning programme for refugees and migrants, organised with the assistance of Erasmus+, to develop their capacity as educators. This developed into the Volunteer Educators E-Learning Programme (eVELP) for young migrants and refugees based in Cyprus, Italy, Germany, and Romania. Between the general platform and these refugee-support programmes, TeachSurfing has built a wide-reaching network of 3,387 educators to date, representing more than 273 different organisations in 135 countries.
In addition to the core programmes, TeachSurfing is a software provider with a team of IT experts. It develops and provides community platforms with matchmaking functionalities to other organisations, such as the Menstrual Health Hub, Stattkapital and e-online Lernplattform of Social Impact gGmbH.
“We have a special relationship with One Young World because TeachSurfing was born there. Since then we have been in close contact with One Young World. Every time we have new knowledge-sharing events or collaboration opportunities we share them with the One Young World team. It comes from the trust we have with One Young World “
Fundación BoaPaz
Despite having a good reputation for socioeconomic indicators such as health and education relative to the rest of Central America, Costa Rica has a significant inequality issue that continues to rise. Jazmin grew up in a low-income family, where she witnessed her mother experience discrimination and a lack of opportunities afforded to men in the community. With her co-founder José, who is himself hearing impaired, Jazmin has dedicated her time alongside her studies to help marginalised communities, primarily women and people with disabilities, pursue careers in social enterprise and by advocating for their rights.
Together they lead Fundación BoaPaz to promote inclusion through education, entrepreneurship, innovation, and human rights for the aforementioned groups. This takes the form of two main areas of action: education and advocacy. The foundation collaborates with local and national organisations to run programmes and activities that equip members of marginalised communities to become social entrepreneurs, empowering them to support themselves and overcome discrimination. Long-form programmes take place over 6 months, including an average of 3 hours of training per week, helping participants develop into promising new entrepreneurs. They also run shorter, one-off workshops which have helped an estimated 2,000 people, including around 40% people with disabilities, and around 60% disadvantaged women in the same field. After attending the One Young World Summit as a Chanel scholar, Jazmin realised the need to provide digital literacy education to the communities supported by the foundation. Most education and training in this field is normally inaccessible to such communities as it requires strong English language skills.
This work accompanies more policy-based initiatives, such as Bill #22.206, whereby Jazmin is advocating for the creation of a National Digital Literacy Program (PNAD). The bill aims to guarantee universal access, universal service, telecommunications solidarity, reduction of the digital divide, as well as digital literacy. Additionally, Jazmin provides private sector consultancy on these issues, which also generates revenue that is reinvested into the non-profit initiatives.
“One Young World opened my eyes to opportunities in the private sector, for organisations like us. They have technical abilities, and connections in your countries, that you gain access to through One Young World. It is a real community. You feel like you are part of a family. You are connected to people with the same problems as you, and the same ambitions.”
Eswatini Sexual & Gender Minorities
Eswatini Sexual & Gender Minorities - Swaziland
Melusi Simelane
Ambassador-led Initiative
20
SROI
Melusi had been working in LGBT spaces in Eswatini for a while, but he found that the question of LGBT rights was only ever framed through the lens of HIV intervention rather than through a more holistic approach. He founded Eswatini Sexual & Gender Minorities (ESGM) to shift the conversation away from an entirely sexualised framework. Same-sex intimacy remains illegal in the country, making a broader conversation around LGBT acceptance difficult. Eswatini is the first country in Africa to reach 95-95-95 status so that 95% of people living with HIV know their status, are receiving treatment, and have a suppressed viral load. With these achievements in mind, Melusi has been determined to broaden the conversation despite immense systemic challenges, bringing a case before the High Court arguing that the LGBT community have been being denied their right to free association.
The 2019 One Young World Summit introduced Melusi to a huge network. He found it fascinating that One Young World puts young people centre-stage, with young people coming up with ideas and taking on leadership roles. He spoke about the impact of poverty on the LGBT community, which opened a space for dialogue in Eswatini and connected him with global partners. As a membership-based organisation, ESGM focuses on policy, as well as advocacy and mobilisation at a community level.
With over 300 active members, ESGM has organised community visits and sensitivity training, reaching a wider audience through workshops and hybrid training. The conversation around LGBT rights has steadily progressed over the last few years. ESGM has worked on human rights, domestic violence, and with community caregivers on LGBT inclusion. During the pandemic, it also distributed 150 food parcels and 1,000 sanitary towels. Melusi has since stepped back from his role, with a young queer woman becoming executive director of the organisation.
“What I found fascinating about One Young World was that it was the young people in charge of everything and it was the young people coming up with ideas. The final word was young people talking about what needs to change”
IMARA Comoros
Haïna left Comoros for Madagascar when she was 17 to attend university, as tertiary education remains underdeveloped in her native Comoros. She returned to discover that little had changed on the islands in terms of educational attainment and the dominance of traditional gender roles. Comorian girls have higher repeater and dropout rates in primary and secondary school than their male peers [1]. Frustrated by this persistent lack of opportunities in the country, Haïna began supporting local children through educational games before founding IMARA Comoros with a like-minded colleague in 2015.
The 2015 One Young World Summit in Bangkok was Haïna’s first exposure to people from all over the world. Discovering so many people who cared about the issues she cared about proved to be a profound moment and a constant source of inspiration for her. She realised that being fully transparent with her students at IMARA was the best way to change the culture of a corrupt society. Her goal is to help create a generation of young Comorians who not only dream big but who are capable of action, by showing them what action looks like and giving them the tools to achieve it. Haïna incorporates aspects of traditional Comorian learning into the curriculum so that parents can participate in their children’s education. This inclusivity has helped IMARA gain wide acceptance in a conservative society.
IMARA has organised fairs and workshops on STEM subjects and robotics with help from consultants in the US, and its pioneering curriculum is the first of its kind in the country. It was also the first organisation on the islands to introduce the production and use of reusable sanitary pads. This initiative has been such a success that international organisations have received training from IMARA-educated children on the issue.
"If I had to summarise my experience with the One Young World Summit, that’s when the world was brought to me and that’s when I realised I wasn’t an island. Three years later I was selected for a leadership academy thanks to One Young World, which was also a life-altering experience for me"
Change 1's Life
Angola has markedly lower rates of electrification and literacy than many of its neighbours in Southern Africa, with less than 40% of its population currently able to access electricity and its youth literacy rate falling behind in recent years. Through Change 1’s Life, Edmilson has stepped in to help solve these almost overwhelming problems and the many gaps in the country’s infrastructure.
Edmilson attended the One Young World Summit at the Hague in 2018. He found it to be a deeply motivating experience, broadening his horizons and giving him a platform to develop the network necessary to build his projects. Change 1’s Life began with a series of smaller initiatives, including education in rural areas and distributing alternative light sources to discourage kerosene usage. These early projects gave Edmilson and his team the community exposure, momentum, and data they needed to begin their main initiative: the transformation of rural communities through the creation of digital, ecological villages. His objective is to provide rural communities with the digital infrastructure they need to accelerate their educational attainment while also protecting the environment.
To these ends, Edmilson and his team have organised the transportation of 20 forty-foot long containers with the help of international donors. They have successfully installed the first medical centre in the village, providing regular checks and ambulances for local communities and increasing the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine in the area. Change 1’s Life also installed a solar-powered mobile food bank and a handwashing station during the pandemic. The mobile food bank allowed for a degree of sociability but the project was also predicated upon encouraging street cleanliness and recycling by users. Construction is underway on other aspects of the village, with the first playground for local children having recently been built.
"I feel like a representative of the One Young World Community. I think the Summit really broadened my horizons, in terms of how much I can do and how much I can have access to if I continue to do it the right way."
Florence Energy
Whilst still an intern, Aushim visited a landfill site in 2009. He was appalled to see a mountain of waste being climbed by children who dangerously scavenged anything of value to sell to be able to feed themselves for the day. This sparked an idea within Aushim for a waste-to-energy solution that could solve the issue in front of him, as well as the issue of energy access that continues to hinder development in South and South-East Asia.
Aushim, whilst studying at the University of Adelaide, started Florence Energy (2010) to establish a decentralised waste management system that produces fuel from plastic wastes in landfill sites. The systems are installed at landfill sites to convert waste to petroleum with zero emissions. The organic component is converted to compost which is given to farmers to reduce their dependence on fertilisers. The technology was optimised in collaboration with MK Aromatics Limited and the University of Adelaide. The company works with government-run landfill sites and directly with packaging companies to source the materials. It directs this waste to large facilities in Chennai and Goa, where their technology is used to safely and sustainably process plastic waste into crude oil. To date, the company has managed to transform 27,000 tonnes of plastic waste into 21+ million litres of petroleum.
In addition to the environmental benefit of creating a circular economy, Aushim is also focused on improving the labour market in the waste management sector. In the industry, labour is traditionally informal, but Aushim ensures that all staff are set up with a bank account into which they receive their salaries directly; and assistance is provided for labour to acquire their government-issued identity cards to access the benefits they are entitled to. This financial inclusion unlocks greater opportunities for development as individuals and participants in the economy.
Florence Energy is seeking strategic partners to assist with the listing of the company on Sustainable Market Indices to leverage the carbon credit savings being generated from its business.
“Florence Energy is advancing human security at pace and at scale, and the clarity with which the company continues to grow can be attributed to the life-changing opportunity of the prestigious One Young World Summit. The world we live in is like a ship and we, as a generation, carry the greatest shared responsibility to serve and protect this ship of humanity for ourselves and the generations to come.”
Barranquilla+20
Founded by Xiomara Acevedo in 2012, Fundación Barranquilla+20 is an educational initiative promoting climate awareness and action to children and young people. Colombia is a country suffering from reduced freshwater, land instability and increasing sea levels, making it highly at risk of future climate disaster. Barranquilla+20 began as a decentralised movement of young people campaigning for climate action, water and biodiversity protection and conservation, before formally becoming an NGO in 2018.
Xiomara has worked with One Young World extensively since first attending the Summit in 2017. She feels that having the support that One Young World can offer is important when working in difficult environments, insofar as it demonstrates that young leaders are not alone and that they can be part of powerful conversations. Barranquilla+20 has gone from strength to strength, organising projects alongside prestigious partners like the Gates Foundation to highlight the importance of gender in climate justice and strengthen the capacity of young women leaders in the climate space. Other projects include Guardians of Bocas de Cenizas, where Barranquilla+20 trains and supports local communities to protect biodiversity in a critical region, and Youth for Climate Emergency, a course and campaign for activists and citizens on climate change management. It has also organised climate marches involving 10,000 people.
Barranquilla+20 has worked to transform school infrastructure in an environmentally sustainable direction, creating a circular model of education which integrates water solutions, energy efficiency, climate curriculum, food waste, and community. The project, known as Low Carbon Schools, has also expanded its reach, working with partners in Paraguay and Bolivia and with hopes to extend their work across Latin America. Xiomara believes in downscaling the conversation around climate change in order to make it more approachable, so that local communities with deep territorial knowledge and climate memory across generations can contribute to the solutions the world needs.
"One Young World has helped me a lot with leadership because it is a Community of leaders, and this shows me that I am in the right community. It is a Community of doers, and One Young World fuels me.”
China Hope School
China’s massive internal migration from rural to urban areas over the last few decades has resulted in a large population of left-behind children, numbering as many as 69 million [1]. These children are usually left in the care of their extended families and often suffer from developmental and emotional challenges as well as poorer educational outcomes [2] due to a lack of adequate support networks and public infrastructure. Stanley co-founded the China Hope School alongside three colleagues in rural Guangxi Province to do what he could to address this growing problem.
Stanley attended the One Young World Summit at the Hague in 2018. He was deeply moved by the event and was inspired by its networking aspect. Though he had an extensive background in corporate social responsibility initiatives before attending the Summit, his One Young World experience helped him build upon and upgrade his philanthropic vision. The connections he made through One Young World also opened new opportunities for him, and as a result, he now mentors MBA students in leadership and coaching.
The China Hope School project has received support from Tencent and Kellogg’s, with the latter providing cereal products so that the children can have access to school meals and snacks. The school also received extensive support from people in China through donations of school supplies and equipment. The curriculum at the school is tailored to the specific needs of rural children and functions as an accelerated programme. It has proven itself to be a place where left-behind children can develop into well-adjusted adolescents who have the ability to pursue further education elsewhere once they have completed their time at the China Hope School. Since 2018, between 200-300 children have passed through its doors.
"I was really touched and moved by the One Young World Summit. I got connected to people from different companies and accomplishments, from Nobel Prize winners to CEOs. Charity and CSR work was a mindset for me but One Young World accelerated and upgraded my vision to a new level"
Seastainable
In 2013, Samantha began to explore the challenge facing 'life below water' when she travelled around rural communities in South-East Asia and noticed the environmental damage first-hand. Her advocacy began and today Samantha’s work is more vital than ever in the region where “marine governance has been a casualty of strategic competition”.
Seastainable is a social enterprise that supports marine conservation in South-East Asia by creating more environmentally conscious populations and channelling funds directly to organisations addressing issues on the frontline. Before 2020, the organisation sold sustainable products such as reusable straws to fund frontline conservation organisations. However, Samantha became concerned that this was contributing to overconsumption. Now, the organisation raises funds from Samantha’s educational talks, and donations from core partners such as Microsoft, The Philip Yeo Initiative, and HSBC. This has funnelled $43,065.61 into 49 different grassroots initiatives. In July 2020, the organisation started the #EASTCOASTBEACHPLAN. Through this, it coordinates weekly community cleanups to prevent marine pollution and provides a space for awareness-raising activities. More than 16.7 tonnes of beach litter have been collected and recycled by a network of more than 1,000 volunteers at 413 different clean-ups. The organisation also partners with fellow Ambassador-led organisation CarbonEthics, helping to plant 2,387 mangrove seedlings and train 16 farmers in environmentally sustainable practices.
Alongside Seastainable, Samantha is part of the leadership team of Stridy, an online platform that has created global a community of “Striders” who collect waste whilst exercising. The app has allowed these participants to track their collections and has gamified litter collection. More than 40,000 pieces of waste have been collected as a result, and for every 500 pieces collected a mangrove tree has been planted.
“Being a One Young World Ambassador has been wonderful as I've had the opportunity to connect and collaborate with other like-minded Ambassadors to develop more opportunities to support marine conservation. We partnered with CarbonEthics to further grow our sustainability programme, and hope to continue to work with other partners.”
Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative
Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative - Nigeria
Victor Ugo
Ambassador-led Initiative
19
SROI
Victor co-founded Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI) with a group of friends in 2016 to combat the stigma around mental health in Nigeria. Mental health is a neglected public issue in the country, outdated legislation continues to frame the crisis and 80% of people with serious mental health requirements are unable to find appropriate care. Victor has first-hand experience of this situation, he was able to access psychiatric services when he needed them but he noticed that many of his friends and peers at medical school could not. MANI emerged as an online campaign, but the group quickly developed a text-based service to broaden their reach amongst vulnerable demographics.
At the One Young World London Summit in 2019, Victor learned practical lessons of leadership that would have been difficult to find elsewhere. The event itself proved to be an inspiration for him, helping to scale his vision for the mental health conversation in Nigeria through his efforts to engage influencers in the country. MANI has worked to simplify discussions away from the seminar-workshop model, in the process building an image of itself to which young people can relate. It has also increasingly focused on policy advocacy and government engagement to tackle the structural determinants of mental health challenges.
Since 2016, MANI has delivered more than 108,000 free sessions, impacting 40,000 people. During the End SARS campaign against police brutality, MANI had counsellors active at protest sites providing guidance and panic attack cards. Through social media, the organisation reaches over 3 million people monthly, and every month it shares a toolkit on a particular mental health condition with insights on risk factors and support in five languages. It also runs conversation cafes in 18 Nigerian states, training over 35,000 people on mental health awareness.
"Before the One Young World Summit I wasn’t thinking about how to engage people who are influential to further the conversation in the country. It gave me a vision to look forward to and inspired my change in strategy to more advocacy based"
LonePack
While seeking help himself, Siddhaarth learned how difficult it can be to find therapy in India. The process is expensive, while the shame and stigma attached to mental health issues exacerbates the challenge of accessibility. The country only has 43 government-run mental health hospitals, and only three psychiatrists per million people, but an estimated 70 million people with debilitating psychosocial illnesses. Siddhaarth co-founded LonePack to make mental health resources accessible to all young Indians.
Given the complexity of the country and subject he is working in, Siddhaarth occasionally found himself demotivated and unsure if he was really helping. The 2019 One Young World Summit in London was an opportunity to learn from his peers in the mental health space, and it gave him the positivity and inspiration he needed to keep going. It was after this experience that Siddhaarth and his team decided to launch LonePack Buddy, a free and anonymous peer support programme where trained volunteers offer their time and skills to people struggling with mental health issues. LonePack received help from the Mind Foundation to develop a 5 hour course to train these volunteers.
LonePack Buddy has directly helped over 1,400 people cope with their mental health and, based on before and after assessments, participants have seen a significant improvement in their mental well-being. LonePack is not just about directing people towards volunteers or even professionals through its directory, it also seeks to build upon community-led initiatives. In collaboration with UberEats India, LonePack Letters reached 95,000 people across 8 Indian states, spreading positivity and raising awareness. Through workshops and webinars, the project has reached a further 9,000 people, advancing the cause of mental health throughout the country.
“The One Young World Summit inspired me to keep moving, and I would say a large part of making LonePack Buddy into reality was the Summit. When I heard stories of people trying wildly different things, some younger than me, I felt that it was worth a shot”
Yayasan HAkA
Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem is a vast 2.6 million hectare forest that has increasingly come under threat from illegal poaching, logging, and palm oil plantations. The area boasts an impressive range of wildlife, but between 2001 and 2014 lost more than 145,000 hectares of tree cover, putting immense pressure on the forest and its inhabitants. Farwiza co-founded Yayasan HAkA to advocate for the conservation, protection and restoration of this important landscape.
Farwiza attended the 2019 One Young World Summit in London on a scholarship with The NewNow, which proved to be an invaluable educational experience and source of inspiration for her. She previously worked for the provincial government’s taskforce for the Leuser region, but upon that agency’s dismantlement, she had her colleagues founded HAkA as a collective, democratic organisation advocating for the ecosystem. HAkA emphasises the importance of educating local communities living within and around the Leuser region on their rights under Indonesian law. The organisation also has an intersectional focus, supporting the establishment of the first-ever group of female rangers in the area.
Since then HAkA has succeeded in winning several legal battles against exploitative companies, has supported the creation of two anti-poaching patrol teams, advocated for and supported the implementation of two provincial wildlife protection laws, and prevented the destruction of over 6000 hectares of forest in partnership with other organisations.
Farwiza is also currently pursuing a PhD, with her research focusing on the political economy of natural resource management in Aceh, Indonesia and a particular focus on the Leuser Ecosystem.
[Information accurate as of interview, 11/01/2021]
“One Young World was probably one of the biggest youth summits I have ever attended in my life. There is a pathway for everyone to think of the way forward. I was encouraged by the youth who attended, how they took ownership of initiatives and took it back to their workplace.”
ParlAmericas
Until December 2021, Emilio was a Program Officer for Gender Equality and Youth at ParlAmericas, the institution that promotes parliamentary diplomacy with the 35 national legislatures of the Americas and the Caribbean. There, he supported the implementation of projects to increase youth political participation and promoted good practices around gender-responsive legislation. In addition, Emilio’s work focused on the planning and delivery of youth political leadership programmes.
A notable example is Impacto Legislativo Joven, a 4-month programme organised with the National Assembly and the National Forum of Women in Political Parties of Panama, that trained 25 young Panamanians in intersectional, gender-responsive and environmentally sustainable political leadership. Learning and working alongside experts from parliaments, civil society organisations, and international organisations, participants explored what it meant to pursue positive change through civic engagement. They collectively worked on a citizen’s bill – a democratic mechanism that allows Panamanians to submit legislative proposals to their National Assembly – to promote and regulate ecotourism in the country. The citizen’s bill was presented to Panama’s National Assembly on September 15, 2021, on the International Day of Democracy, and incorporates provisions for the inclusion of women, local communities, and indigenous peoples in the development of ecotourism.
The focus on promoting youth leadership is something that Emilio took from the Summit, which he attended as a Peace Ambassador in 2019, and that he has sought to incorporate in all his roles thereafter. In a new position at Citizens for Public Justice, Emilio is building a rights-based political advocacy programme focused on refugee and migrant justice in Canada. This includes producing a book that presents the voices of leading advocates in this field – similar to "We Have a Dream”, which Emilio contributed to and was published by fellow Ambassadors. Emilio recently joined the Board of Directors of the Canadian International Council – National Capital Branch, a leading forum for Canadian professionals in international affairs.
“One Young World opened up networks and allowed me to connect with new partners. It allows me to make sure my work is connected to the larger eco-system, as it taught me there are already people doing work around it.”
International Youth Ambassadors Forum
International Youth Ambassadors Forum - Jordan
Abdel Rahman Alzorgan
Ambassador-led Initiative
5
SROI
Abdel is currently employed in the office of the UN special envoy to Yemen, where his work is directed towards achieving lasting and sustainable peace in that country. However, back in his native Jordan, he is the co-founder of the International Youth Ambassadors Foundation (IYAF), an initiative training young people about diplomacy, international relations, and political engagement. Civic engagement remains low in Jordan in terms of membership of voluntary social organisations but Abdel and his colleagues at the IYAF are working to change this trend.
The IYAF has worked with several universities and schools on how to lead model United Nations simulations, and to produce policy outcome documents that are sent to the concerned institutions after the completion of the simulation. The initiative works closely alongside the Erasmus Plus programme in Europe, facilitating student exchanges and training programmes. So far, 6 outcome documents have been sent to international organisations, and the quality of the work the IYAF does is apparent from the fact that these organisations are often surprised that the documents are produced by students and not necessarily people with a political science background.
Following the 2011 One Young World Summit in Zurich, Abdel established a network of contacts with different One Young World Ambassadors from all over the world. He reflected upon the ideas he had and worked with another Ambassador to promote environmentally friendly strategies to the Jordanian government. The IYAF has so far held 8 conferences, 2 of which have been country-wide while 6 have taken place within different universities in Jordan with over 1,000 participants in total. A further 5,000 students have engaged with the IYAF through workshops, field trips, and roundtable discussions since its founding.
"When I applied for a job at the UN, colleagues were very interested in learning more about what I had done and a part of that is One Young World. My connections with different Ambassadors through One Young World allowed me the exposure I needed to acquire new skills and make new professional and personal connections."
How to use to the SDG Tracker
Search for projects by the following case study categories:
- Ambassador-led Initiatives: qualitative and quantitative analysis of the social impact of projects which are led by young leaders in the Community.
- Business for Social Good: written case studies for initiatives ran by corporate partner organisations, led by young Ambassadors/employees.
- Leadership Biographies: short biographies of Ambassadors who are growing into influential leaders for social good in some of the world’s largest companies, organisations, and in government.
- One Young World Funded Projects: detailed case studies of grant recipients from One Young World's funding opportunities, including Lead2030, Rebuilding Communities, and the COVID Young Leaders Fund.