$ 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.
Ebatakar Inspiring Entrepreneurs
Farhad Wajdi is the founder of the Ebtakar Inspiring Entrepreneurs of Afghanistan Organisation (EIEAO), an NGO that empowers unemployed youth and underprivileged women to pursue social enterprises.
During the pandemic, Farhad’s organisation reinvented itself by converting Solar-Powered Food Carts into Solar-Powered Disinfectant & Sanitation Carts with support from the National Procurement Authority. The project offers a free handwashing facility and disinfection service to people who are vulnerable to catching the virus.
EIEAO has received two grants of 10,000 USD to implement two-month-long phases of the initiative. Each phase involved re-training and employing 80 unemployed food cart vendors to operate the carts, preparing and spraying disinfectant liquid on footpaths, streets and venues in Kabul, and running free handwashing facilities in 40 crowded locations throughout the city. The second phase also included the provision of free face masks to the public.
- 80 women employed to run handwashing and disinfectant carts
- 27,000 litres of disinfectant sprayed throughout the city
- 450,000+ inhabitants of Kabul given access to handwashing facilities
- 50,000 face masks distributed
Millicent Designs
Despite spending a decade of her childhood away from home, Millicent retained a strong connection with the Solomon Islands and the memory of being sat around the radio listening to traditional custom stories inspired her to pursue Millicent Designs. Millicent spent time in the Malaita Province and identified a disconnect between indigenous communities and state-distributed information. She designed a ‘custom story tool’, a method of using design and traditional story-telling practices to alleviate impediments to sustainable development initiatives.
The tool has been successfully used in two national general elections. Its innovative communication materials, which were used to introduce a new biometric system, improved civic understanding for target communities at a success rate of 3.7/4 compared to prior methods’ scores of 2.2-2.5. In the 2019 general election, Millicent Designs' innovative approaches produced 500,000 materials focused on boosting female voter participation indirectly resulting in history’s largest women turnout. Millicent Designs has also been contracted to alleviate land settlement issues amongst tribal communities to undertake two major infrastructural development projects. One example is a national renewable energy project aiming to provide access to electricity for 68% of the population (currently only 16% have access), and drive down the cost of electricity (currently almost double the average in the Pacific Islands).
SOCHAI
SOCHAI is a youth-led initiative focused on improving health and nutrition for vulnerable people through education, innovation, and entrepreneurship. SOCHAI creates and implements educational programmes for different groups, like health workers, mothers' groups, adolescent girls and school children. Additionally, it has incorporated social entrepreneurship into its model by involving local artisans and women in making and selling Nutribead and Redcycle Bracelets, low-tech wearable education tools.
The Lead2030 partnership is focused on two main goals: programme monitoring and evaluation, and project management. This includes access to multiple mentors and training sessions within RB, such as connection with RB’s Social Impact Measurement Consultant, Fathma, who introduced SOCHAI to platforms for accurate impact data management, helping them systematise, understand, and quantify their impact.
The grant also helped to expand operations into hard-to-reach communities where intervention is vital, notably 2 new municipalities and 2 provinces. However, due to the implications of the pandemic, they redirected focus towards addressing the immediate impact of Covid-19. The team mobilised themselves on the frontline for food and hygiene package distribution, assessment for early detection of malnutrition and raising awareness in the community. They are also utilising existing digital platforms for mass education on home-based nutritional care and management. The diverse team of mentors at RB have helped them to reach a wider audience to increase the social enterprise’s revenue, and thus sustainability.
What was set to be a one-year mentorship has developed into an ongoing, mutually beneficial partnership. SOCHAI is deeply grateful to the expert support to which they now have access. With support from RB Asia, SOCHAI aims to expand across South Asia and increase the sustainability of its operations in the coming years.
- 1,429 individuals engaged with SOCHAI’s mission
- 684 direct beneficiaries from SOCHAI’s programmes
- 700,000 people reached by online and offline programmes
- 25 new organisations partnered with for project expansion
Deshi Ballers
Despite success at the top level of sport, a very low percentage of the South Asian female population regularly participate in sport (1). This is troubling due to the physical, social, and psychological benefits including the development of ""self-confidence, independence, leadership"" (2). Gulnahar, and her former team member in Bangladesh's national basketball team, Ashreen, decided to rectify the lack of opportunities for women and girls in the sport they love.
The first activity Deshi-Ballers established in December 2018 was as part of a Surf Excel project hosted in front of the National Parliament Building in Dhaka. Space is dedicated to promoting healthy living and safe outdoor activities for children on the first Friday of every month. Deshi Ballers run monthly Car-Free Street sessions for between 80 and 100 children. They are introduced to basketball, but most importantly encouraged to exercise and socialise while the team speak to parents to raise awareness of sport's benefits. Other activities include the Leaders on the Court programme for intermediate female basket players, which develops their sporting ability but also their confidence and leadership skills. They also run outreach programmes and camps to reach girls who do not have access to the sport and to showcase women's basketball outside the main cities, decentralising female participation. Its flagship event is a tournament for female 3v3 teams held on International Women's Day. These various programmes have amounted to over 60,000 hours of basketball.
In the pandemic, Deshi Ballers had to adapt. They ran a virtual talk show with veteran basketball players to set an example for the girls. They also launched ‘Empower Girls and Women Through Sports & Fitness’, an online fitness contest and live panel discussion funded by PLAN International Bangladesh. Through this campaign, they celebrated the remarkable achievements of females in sport and called for action to address barriers faced by girls and women who want to have a career in sports, reaching over 340,000 people with awareness. In 2021, the group hopes to reinstate in-person activities, including the expansion of the 3v3 tournament which they want to increase in frequency to three per year. Long term, Deshi Baller's ambition is to found Bangladesh's first women’s league.
Project First Nations
Project First Nations - Australia
Rory Duffy
Business for Social Good
The rates of teenage pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases in Aboriginal young people in Australia are significantly higher than those non-Indigenous youth. Following his attendance at the One Young World Summit in 2018, Rory Duffy launched Project First Nations with the support of RB to help address this issue.
First Nations aims to improve sexual health outcomes amongst young Aboriginal people in Australia. To tackle this problem, First Nations is attempting to reduce rates of infection through education, testing and social mobility support.
The innovative youth-led pilot study will be driven by young Aboriginal people who are working professionally as trained health workers and community educators at the centre of Aboriginal youth STI control programmes and community-based health promotion.
This means the programme will be 100% managed, implemented and tracked by Aboriginal people themselves. Upon conclusion, there will be a full and thorough evaluation of the effectiveness of this programme so that best practices can be shared beyond New South Wales and help improve Aboriginal sexual health outcomes across Australia. With further funding agreed from RB, First Nations will launch in 2021.
Generation B
Generation B - Switzerland
Jay O'Nien, Jessica Jones, Katharina Hilker, Yasemin Sharityar, Sorana Ionita
Business for Social Good
Generation B was established in 2017 as a grassroots movement within Bühler, by 6 delegates after attending the 2016 Summit in Ottawa. It was founded with the purpose of bringing employees together to create the company that they, and other colleagues, want to work for.
Generation B wants Bühler to be an attractive and diverse workplace, with a culture of trust, and engaged and motivated employees. The movement enables colleagues to take ownership of global problems (such as climate change), through initiatives established by Generation B Ambassadors to create long-term change. Ultimately, this movement aims to shape the future of Bühler.
Throughout 2020, Generation B reached over 1’600 people at their events. One of the flagship events in 2020, was the Virtual Climate week organised as an opportunity to discuss climate change while the pandemic took the majority of people’s attention, and to ensure one emergency was not ignored during another. There were over 500 participants from 34 countries, and from 76 different organisations.
It also continues to run long-term projects such as Women in STEM, the SWAP Program (see with another perspective), and being a sounding board to the company leadership. The impacts include 700 connections made in 2020 with the ‘Women in STEM’ initiative, where Generation B ambassadors encourage women of all ages (in particular school children) to pursue STEM careers. From the SWAP reverse mentoring programme, Generation B connects all 5 generations that currently work in the company, to encourage diverse thinking and exchange. Generation B also provides feedback to the leadership of Bühler on key topics and supports the company to deploy the long-term strategy.
As a grassroots movement, Generation B has 700 members. The events and long-term change initiatives are driven by 75 Ambassadors across 25 locations around the world. At the heart of this team, is an outstanding selection of One Young World Ambassadors helping to drive change in the company and society at large.
One Young World was the original catalyst to start the Generation B movement and continues to be a source of inspiration. Some selected contributions from Ambassadors:
- Jessica Jones led Generation B in Switzerland from Nov 2019 – Feb 2021
- Katharina Hilker part of the Women in STEM movement
- Yasemin Sharityar co-led the flagship event of 2020 the Climate week
- Sorana Ionita leads Generation B Austria
Wings of Empowering Pastoralists
Wings of Empowering Pastoralists (WEP) was founded with the mission to improve pastoralist peoples’ access to support, resources, and human rights in Northern Kenya. To make sure that the population is adequately prepared for Covid-19, WEP created the “Komesha Corona” project.
The initiative delivers hand washing stations to vulnerable villages in Marsabit South and sensitises local pastors on the problems of the pandemic in collaboration with local community health volunteers in each village. Prior to funding, WEP had delivered hand washing stations to 29 villages and trained 580 people.
With support from the grant, the team reached an additional 105 villages in Marsabit South with handwashing stations. As part of the installations, the team trained locally-based Community Health Volunteers who are tasked with ensuring the hand-washing stations are maintained, and equipped with reusable masks and hand sanitisers. The project also trained 2,100 community members on virus mitigation measures.
- 105 handwashing stations installed in 105 villages
- 315 water tanks with 630 soap bars delivered
- 2,100 new vulnerable households reached
She Writes Women
She Writes Woman (SWW) is a women-led movement, founded by Hauwa Ojeifo, which aims to raise awareness about mental illnesses in Nigeria and give people struggling with mental health a voice.
In response to gender-based violence increases amidst lockdowns, She Writes Woman partnered with Women At Risk International to provide broad-based group and 1:1 counselling services, as well as virtual support groups for survivors of gender-based violence. The intervention provided several solutions for survivors including personal empowerment, overcoming the demoralisation caused by social stigma, and preventing future mental health distress.
The first stream of the initiative was a virtual counselling service offering one-on-one and group therapy. However, difficulties with online engagement encouraged the team to launch a 24/7 toll-free helpline instead, supported by in-person counselling sessions held in the Kuchingoro Camp for internally displaced people. Women were supported through these various streams at a time of heightened vulnerability during the pandemic, helping them to deal with pressures of anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
- 107 survivors participated in almost 65 hours of one-on-one counselling
- 67 survivors participated in over 15 hours of group therapy sessions
- 32 hours of counselling provided by Toll-Free Helpline
Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association
Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association - Mongolia
Nomindari Enkhtur
Business for Social Good
Nomindari has worked in the finance sector specialising in sustainable finance since 2013, starting off leading a project for the Mongolian Bankers Association. Nomindari identified the vast potential for social impact if she were able to mobilise the finance sector in a sustainable direction. Shen convened all 12 local banks to explore their potential role to drive sustainable development in the country in the absence of any public sector regulation. In 2015, the collection of banks committed to the Mongolian Sustainable Finance Principles a guiding framework on sustainable lending and internal operations. To eliminate explicitly unsustainable behaviour, they developed ESG risk models to establish self-imposed rules on all business loans over $25,000.
In 2017, Nomindari led the establishment of the Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association (MSFA) as an independent organisation. To continue to improve green finance flows in the banking sector of Mongolia, the organisation developed the National Green Taxonomy to fill the gap left without a national labelling standard for green projects. This has been approved by the national legislature, and member banks now regularly report on their green loan statistics to the Central Bank. Expanding beyond the banking sector, MSFA is seeking to establish a green capital market. Thanks to these successes, MSFA is setting a global example, and sharing knowledge and best practices with countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Cambodia.
Co-Hope Foundation
Co-Hope Foundation - Indonesia
Yosilia Nursakina
OYW Funded Projects
Yosilia is a medical student and healthcare advocate who co-initiated CO-HOPE in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This project is a social program that distributes Personal Protection Equipment to health workers who make direct contact with patients of the pandemic every day. They carry out screenings and care for the patients and yet lack the necessary equipment to protect themselves.
Initially, the project crowdsourced donations to fulfil PPE requirements in 240 hospitals across Indonesia. This reached over 12,000 health workers in these different facilities with vital protective equipment to protect their health.
However, as cases of Covid-19 exponentially grew, securing the grant permitted them to provide PPE for 40 additional under-resourced health facilities around Indonesia. This includes a mixture of equipment, ranging from protective gear like surgical masks and gowns to screening equipment such as nasopharyngeal swabs and PCR.
- 1,450 hazmat suits sourced
- 2,400 N95 respiratory masks distributed
- 1,751 face shields provided
- 4,000 pairs of medical gloves & 4,000 surgical masks donated
Siobhan Gardiner, Deloitte
Siobhan has long had a sustainability focus in her personal, academic, and professional life. She grew up in a mixed-race household, a farmer’s daughter and a strong advocate for diversity in STEM fields. From this foundation, Siobhan pursued a PhD on sustainable smallholder livelihoods and protecting ecosystems in Northern Madagascar, on completion of which she joined One Young World’s longstanding partner Unilever.
Siobhan became R&D manager for future flavours, and due to her sustainability background, became involved in driving the adoption of technologies and sustainable agricultural practices in sub-Saharan Africa. Due to her leadership in this area, Siobhan was selected to be part of the Unilever delegation at One Young World The Hague 2018.
Returning from The Hague, Siobhan participated in mentorship programmes, volunteered for One Young World-led SDG hackathons, and continued to attend One Young World community events. This sat alongside her day-to-day role as Senior Manager in Unilever’s Global Sustainable Technology programme. In recognition of her excellence in the field of sustainable development, Siobhan was selected for a Woman of the Future Award by the Chief Executive of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust.
In January 2020, Siobhan began a new role leading the new Climate Change & Environment Studio at Deloitte (another long-standing partner of One Young World). Within Deloitte Ventures, Siobhan creates cross-industry tech collaborations between research bodies, start-ups, and large corporates to tackle global sustainability challenges. A snapshot of these initiatives includes AI in smart agriculture, remote sensing to monitor endangered habitats, and tracking blue carbon sequestration by protecting whale populations. This all sits within Deloitte’s global climate strategy to commit to achieving net-zero emissions by 2030 through driving responsible climate choices within the organisation and beyond.
Siobhan continues to develop her leadership credentials as a visiting lecturer on Food Systems at Cranfield University and mentor for the Conception X Deep-tech PhD Accelerator and is the perfect example of how young leaders can use their passion and expertise to create global impact for a better world within multinational corporations.
Refúgio 343
Refúgio 343 is a humanitarian organisation dedicated to the response to the biggest humanitarian crisis in Latin America. It rescues Venezuelan refugee families in Brazil, by promoting the socio-economic reintegration of these families into the national territory.
During the pandemic, the team has worked tirelessly to guarantee basic health conditions for survival through the distribution of cleaning supplies, hygiene kits, and food baskets. The organisation is also supporting a temporary emergency hospital with medical equipment and PPE.
Refúgio 343 used the grant to run two emergency initiatives in Boa Vista and Roraima where there is a high concentration of Venezuelan refugees, to provide emergency assistance to 804 families in 14 occupancies lacking infrastructure, electricity or drinking water, and health access.
- 2,094 refugees supported
- 600 food parcels distributed
- 502 hygiene packs and 800 cleaning kits donated
RiseNOW Survivor Safe Haven
Amanda Nguyen, the CEO of Rise, penned her own civil rights into existence and unanimously passed the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, after having to navigate the broken criminal justice system after her own rape.
Amanda has established the Survivor Safe Haven initiative to provide the increased people at risk of sexual and domestic violence with access to resources and information during the government enforced lockdown. Survivor Safe Haven partners with restaurants, grocery stores and other essential establishments to provide access to rapid response for survivors of domestic abuse.
With funding support, RiseNOW has expanded its operations to 19 different regions all across the USA, including Washington, New York City, and Nashville. They have also managed to develop flyers in Spanish, Korean, and Vietnamese so that they are shareable with the general public, and are working to do the same for 8 other languages.
- 37.6 million Americans have access to a Survivor Safe Haven
- 19 regions throughout the USA with businesses the project
- 11 different translations of essential support information
World Dream Project
Taichi and Ibun founded the World Dream Project to showcase the dreams and stories of international leaders in one place and share the borderless sustainability lessons. With support from Iroha Publishing, they have produced a book that showcases 201 dreams from 201 countries for students across the world
Klassroom Global
Klassroom.xyz is an online platform where anyone can learn anything, anywhere. It empowers the youth by providing quality skills development training, and mentorship to battle unemployment, and lack of skills. It has connected more than 18,000 youth and helped them to learn about IT, programming, English and career opportunities.
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.