$ 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 43 Ambassador-led initiatives addressing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2024/25
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.
Coliba Ghana
Prince co-founded Coliba Ghana in 2016 to address the issue of plastic pollution and to promote environmental sustainability.
Coliba Ghana currently operates 40 recycling centres in Accra plus 16 across Cote D’Ivoire, and has recycled 700 tons of waste in total. Plastic waste is a serious problem in West Africa, and Prince decided to tackle this issue after losing his best friend in a flood disaster caused by plastic pollution.
Currently, about 10% of plastic waste in Ghana is recycled while the rest finds its way into water-bodies, causing environmental and health challenges.
Coliba collects and recycles single use plastic, ensuring that it gets processed sustainably using circular economy principles. The Coliba app allows homes, schools and businesses to request recycling pick ups at the touch of a button. Waste pickers, referred to as Coliba Rangers, then arrange a pick up and bring the collected plastic to the Coliba recycling centres for further processing. Coliba Rangers are trained in environmental sustainability and waste processing, giving them access to work that both benefits their pockets and the planet. The Coliba app also teaches users how to properly separate waste for efficient processing. Rural communities are incentivised to recycle through cash incentives, call credits and other in-kind benefits. Coliba has also established a plastic processing plant in Abidjan, where recycled bottles are turned into plastic pellets which can then be repurposed into new plastic products.
At One Young World 2018 The Hague, Prince was able to connect with some Coca Cola delegates. After returning home, these contacts connected him with a West African subsidiary of Coca Cola called Voltic Mineral Water. Coliba was able to secure a partnership with Voltic Mineral Water, where Voltic committed to setting up 200 plastic recycling centres across Ghana. To date, 40 of these centres have been established, massively increasing the impact of Coliba’s plastic recycling efforts.
Prince has plans to set up a new plastic processing plant in Ghana. Around 90% of recycled plastic that is put back into manufacturing is made at a very low quality, which means that it cannot be processed again after use. Coliba Ghana plans to start a processing plant that produces higher quality plastic items from recycled plastics, to ensure that these products can be kept in the processing cycle.
FINLIT Nepal
FINLIT Nepal - Nepal
Prakash Koirala
Ambassador-led Initiative
1:4
SROI
Prakash founded FINLIT Nepal to ensure that underserved communities have access to financial education and services. FINLIT Nepal has directly impacted 175,000 people across 48 districts in Nepal, teaching them how to manage their finances and helping them to access banking services that were otherwise inaccessible. FINLIT Nepal has hosted 5,000 workshops in rural communities where few people participate in formal banking systems. According to the Global Findex database for 2017, only 45% of adults in Nepal have access to banking systems.
FINLIT Nepal trainers provide workshop attendees with introductory piggy banks to get them accustomed to long term saving and to discourage bad spending habits. This allows attendees to put into action the principles they learn during the workshop. Trainers then return to each community after a month to count the saved funds and help people deposit their savings into a formal bank account. FINLIT Nepal also helps people to use their newly established bank accounts to plan for future business costs, with the goal of supporting them to become self-sufficient in generating an income. This allows people to purchase materials like farming tools, and plant their own food.
FINLIT Nepal also works with banks to help them design banking products that would suit people living in rural communities. One such product was a child friendly bank account to help children better manage their finances. FINTLIT Nepal also hosts workshops at schools to teach students about financial literacy, and how to open up a banking account. In two months FINLIT Nepal was able to reach 1,700 students, with 1,300 of these students going on to open a child bank account. FINLIT Nepal also educates economic migrants about how to manage their finances when working abroad. Many Nepalese people leave the country in search for jobs, with economic migrants making up 10% of the total population2. However, remittances can be lost or mismanaged due to lack of information, so FINLIT Nepal informs workers about the best channels for sending money home. The organisation also works with these people to encourage them to start their own businesses in Nepal to help support the domestic economy internally rather than working abroad. Prakash’s One Young World experience has encouraged him to think more about the long term sustainability of his work and about how to better align the aims of FINLIT Nepal to the UN sustainability agenda.
Creative Skills 4 Peace Book Donation and Library Project
Creative Skills 4 Peace Book Donation and Library Project - Cameroon
Nina Forgwe , Acheleke Christian
Ambassador-led Initiative
1:4
SROI
The Creative Skills 4 Peace project works with young people in prisons across Cameroon, to provide them with education and vocational skills training that can help them to access better opportunities upon release. As a part of Local Youth Corner, the Project currently works with eight prisons across six regions in Cameroon and has impacted 12,000 inmates. One Young World Ambassadors Christian and Nina each lead different aspects of the project.
Christian leads the vocational training, or ‘prisonpreneur’ programme. The programme begins with a consultation process in each of the eight prisons, where the inmates are asked which type of entrepreneurial initiatives they would like to be involved with. Projects range from fashion and jewellery design, to poultry farming, to making soaps and detergents. The products are then marketed and sold by Local Youth Corner. The inmates are able to keep 50% of the revenue, with most of it being put away into secure, individual savings accounts while some is used as spending money. The remaining revenue is divided between the prison, the state treasury, and reinvested into the project to make it self-sustaining. In this project 300 prisoners have been trained by peer mentors, with the intention that the trained participants will then go on to teach these same skills to their fellow inmates as the programme progresses.
Nina works on the book donation and library project and has secured three million CFA Francs worth of books which have been donated to the prison libraries. As part of this project Nina launched an essay competition to encourage inmates to think critically and use the library more. Inmates addressed the question, ‘What can I do as a peace ambassador to make my community better?’ and the winning essays were awarded a cash prize. This programme encouraged inmates to read widely and discuss their ideas with each other, creating a buzz around the prison that encouraged more people to get involved. Some inmates went on to create book clubs after the competition ended. Nina has also led a project to develop a lexicon to tackle hate speech and violence in Cameroon, a rising problem since 2016.
HeySuccess
Milenko founded HeySuccess as a platform to connect curious students with opportunities to work and study internationally. As a student, Milenko found that he had to spend a lot of time searching and applying for all the different study abroad programmes he was interested in. He decided to create HeySuccess in 2014 to help students with a desire to travel abroad find these opportunities compiled on one platform. By providing scholarship details and travel events on this platform, HeySuccess makes studying and working abroad more accessible for young people, regardless of their interests or economic background.
Travelling abroad for work or studies can be hugely beneficial for young people, exposing them to new cultures and different styles of working. HeySuccess provides thousands of opportunities in 190 countries around the world. So far, HeySuccess has around 250,000 registered users, and it has connected more than 8,000 young people to opportunities in other countries. HeySuccess runs on a premium model, and it works with big corporations to help them recruit top talent from around the world for internships and graduate positions.
In 2014 Milenko was awarded a One Young World grant that helped the fledgling HeySuccess platform to organise live sessions at four universities in the Balkans, which led it to gain almost 2,000 new users on the website. This also allowed Milenko to invest some money into the beta version of the site, which launched in 2015. This traction helped HeySuccess to raise further funds, enabling it to become the global platform that it is today
Desarrolladores de Empresas, S.A. de C.V.
Desarrolladores de Empresas, S.A. de C.V. - El Salvador
Miguel Zepeda Yassin
Ambassador-led Initiative
1:27
SROI
Miguel and his family founded Desarrolladores de Empresas, S.A. de C.V., to develop effective communication and conflict resolution skills in communities across El Salvador. Desarrolladores de Empresas has trained more than 9,000 people in the past year, strengthening their employability skills as well as their personal and professional relationships. The organisation runs effective communication workshops for businesses, schools and community groups to help resolve existing tensions and to improve the ability to communicate and empathise between colleagues.
Desarrolladores de Empresas operates on a sustainable social business model. Training sessions are sold to large organisations to improve communication between employees. These funds are then used to help offer similar training schemes for communities in need that are unable to pay. Training sessions are facilitated in a fun and playful way to encourage even the most reluctant members to join in. The sessions are tailored to match the interests and abilities of the age and education level of the participants. Miguel also appears regularly on TV and radio to discuss conflict resolution and empathy, increasing buy-in to the appeal of these principles from the general public. After attending a Desarrolladores de Empresas workshop, participants have reported improved personal and professional relationships and an increased ability to manage conflict.
Miguel attended the One Young World 2018 The Hague Summit as a European Commission Peace Ambassador. Participating in the EC workshop on countering violent extremism through communications narratives inspired Miguel to formulate a project aiming to change the narrative of conflicts in El Salvador that he will execute later this year.
Thriving Talents
Michael founded Thriving Talents in 2012 to develop young talent in Malaysia, which works to improve their innovation and adaptability skills, preparing them for the demands of changing job markets. Today, Thriving Talents operates in 40 countries and has trained 65,000 people. Michael believes that the millennial generation is the most influential in the world, so it is essential to equip young people with education and training that creates economic opportunity and enables them to maximise their positive impact in society.
Thriving Talents specialises in providing services for the millennial generation to drive up employability and entrepreneurship amongst young people in Malaysia and beyond. Young people are provided with coaching, training and development programmes to better prepare them for the working world. The organisation provides consultancy services to Fortune 500 companies, NGOs and government bodies seeking to engage with young people. Thriving Talents also strives to ‘future-proof’ young people through upskilling and corporate training programmes, helping them to launch their own enterprises and social ventures that address issues in their local communities. Thriving Talents is set to reach it’s 41st country, South Korea, later this year. Michael also has a radio show where he inspires young people to contribute to a better world.
Michael attended the One Young World 2010 London Summit, where he presented a Youth Report that he had compiled featuring the hopes and concerns for the future of 32,000 young people across Malaysia. He subsequently compiled a One Young World Impact Report together with fellow Ambassador Jonathan Chu, highlighting the actions taken by 100 young people in Malaysia to create a better world. These findings were presented at the 2011 Zurich Summit. These experiences strengthened Michael’s research capabilities and motivation to support impactful young people in Malaysia, contributing towards the decision to found Thriving Talents in 2012.
World Peace Initiative Foundation
World Peace Initiative Foundation - Benin
Mensah Philippe Houinsou
Ambassador-led Initiative
1:60
SROI
Philippe teaches young people about the benefits of mindfulness and meditation through his work with the World Peace Initiative Foundation. His work has impacted 8,000 people in 27 countries across Africa. Working with his team, Philippe conducts workshops to help people better manage their emotions, enabling them to become better communicators, and to have more productive relationships with their colleagues, friends, and families. Participants are given the opportunity to look at things from a different perspective, improving their social awareness and increasing consciousness of how their own actions can impact others. Philippe is a certified mindfulness and meditation trainer, having completed a meditation fellowship in Thailand in 2015. Two years later, he got certified emotional intelligence practitioner by Six Seconds, the emotional intelligence network. He uses his learnings to help improve the emotional intelligence of participants so that they can build on their conflict resolution skills. Trainings have been conducted in Benin, Niger, Mali, The Gambia, DR Congo, Chad, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde and South Africa, amongst others.
After attending the One Young World 2018 The Hague Summit, Philippe was inspired to further scale his work. He has set up a new organisation by the name of Resonant Africa which focuses on building the Emotional Intelligence (EQ) as well as socioemotional skills of young Africans. The organisation implements three projects including “EQ in Schools”, which strives to make emotional intelligence and social emotional learning a part of the school curriculum. This approach is currently being piloted in one school in Benin, with plans to roll out the project to the whole country and beyond in the coming months. Resonant Africa also promotes the UN sustainable development agenda and provides trainings and workshops to develop the leadership potential of young African people.
Winter Warmer
The Winter Warmer seeks to protect children against the cold during winter by providing them with either blankets or beanies and scarves. Founded in 2010, The Winter Warmer provides clothing items to children to help them keep warm and feel safe, which in turn allows them to focus on their school work.
Maxine and her team of 50 volunteers spend roughly four months each year planning and implementing the project, and have reached over 10,000 people to date. The 2018 campaign prioritised providing children and adults with polar fleece beanie hats and scarves to help them battle the elements on their commute, which can often be long and exposes them to the harshest weather conditions. The Winter Warmer teamed up with 44 beneficiary organisations including various crèches, community centres, charity organisations and shelters to help distribute the donated items. Funds were raised through individual and corporate donations as well as through a competition in collaboration with an online shop. Maxine developed a partnership with a polar fleece manufacturer called Blue Motion through a fellow One Young World Ambassador. Blue Motion agreed to manufacture the hat and scarf sets and sell them to the Winter Warmer team at highly discounted prices, maximising the impact of each donation.
The Winter Warmer is part of “imagine.nation”, a nonprofit in conjunction with fellow One Young World Ambassadors in South Africa that focuses on social entrepreneurship and technology education.
Lidera El Cambio
Lidera El Cambio - Colombia [coordinating region]
Maria Paula Macias
Ambassador-led Initiative
1:5
SROI
Maria founded Lidera El Cambio alongside 15 other One Young World Ambassadors following the 2017 Bogotá Summit. Lidera El Cambio is a leadership development platform for young Colombians to come together and work towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The 2018 Lidera El Cambio conference had 300 attendees from across Colombia, with 40 speakers and panellists sharing their expertise with the delegation over two days. Participants also attended 10 practical workshops lead by top non profit organisations, public institutions and corporations.
More than 700 people applied to attend the conference, of which 300 were selected. Lidera El Cambio, which means ‘Lead the Change’, helped to support ambitious young people eager to drive social change to connect with each other and further increase their impact. The event was held at the Universidad El Bosque in north Bogotá, and covered topics including gender equality, eradicating poverty, education and health. Lidera el Cambio attendees formed a community, thus leading to the establishment of the National Network of Young Colombian Leaders for the SDGs.
After attending One Young World 2017 Bogotá, these Ambassadors were so inspired by the event that they wanted to recreate a similar forum for young people across Colombia to be similarly inspired to start their own social action projects.
Youth Center "Perspektiva”
Luis founded Youth Centre “Perspektiva” to empower young people through educating them about human rights and democracy. Youth Centre “Perspektiva” helps young people to develop their skills through training sessions and workshops, educating 500 young people to date. The organisation was the first to focus on combating and preventing hate speech through non-formal education at the national level. Participants are trained on how to become multipliers and activists of the ‘No Hate Speech Movement’, learning how to combat and prevent hateful messages both online and offline.
Hate speech continues to be a problem in Albania due to the lack of data on the issue and the difficulty of prosecuting perpetrators due to insufficient provisions in the law. Access to justice for victims of discrimination remains difficult, and minority groups continue to face hostility and discrimination. Youth Centre “Perspektiva” organises activities with and for young people in Albania and in the Western Balkans to raise awareness about human rights, promote intercultural dialogue, peer-to-peer education and empower the youth to be active and responsible members of the community. Youth Centre “Perspektiva” uses a range of mediums including street art, music and the visual arts to increase awareness and education about the dangers of hate speech and sectarianism. The ARTivism for Human Rights project follows the UNICEF methodology of human rights education through art
Calabar Youth Council for Women's Rights
Calabar Youth Council for Women's Rights - Nigeria
Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph
Ambassador-led Initiative
1:2
SROI
Kennedy founded the Calabar Youth Council for Women’s Rights to advocate against female genital mutilation (FGM) and gender-based violence in Nigeria. To date, Calabar Youth Council for Women’s Rights has directly impacted 2,000 people, educating them about the dangers of FGM and the harm that it can cause victims.
Despite being outlawed, FGM continues to take place in southern parts of Nigeria, with 24.8% of women in Nigeria having undergone the practice1 . Calabar is the main city in Cross River State, where the rate of FGM is higher at 32%2 . The Calabar Youth Council for Women’s Rights works with communities to dispel myths around the practice, and to better inform them about the health implications and social effects of FGM for victims. The Council deploys strategic social change communication to help turn perpetrators and future practitioners of FGM away from the practice. Women and men are educated about gender-based violence and the harm it causes wider society, with the aim of creating a positive cultural shift.
Kennedy attended One Young World 2017 Bogotá, where he was awarded a Resolution Project Fellowship for his work with the Calabar Youth Council for Women’s Rights. The Fellowship came with $2,000 to support Kennedy’s work, plus specialised mentorship and support. Kennedy has plans to set up a new initiative to help support 5,000 displaced people in Calabar over the coming year.
Warriors Zulu Nation Honduras
Warriors Zulu Nation Honduras - Honduras
Juan Carlos Enamorado Mendez
Ambassador-led Initiative
1:6
SROI
Juan founded the Warriors Zulu Nation Honduras in 2011, with the goal of creating a safe space for young people in Honduras to express their artistic talents and reject gang culture. The organisation has impacted 1,576 young people through cultural programmes and events.
Honduras has one of the highest rates of violence in the world, with 43 people per 100,000 murdered annually. The country also has high rates of extortion and other forms of gang violence. There are currently more than 10,000 active gang members in Honduras2. When Warriors Zulu Nation Honduras was first founded, Juan had to meet with local gang leaders to inform them of his intentions for working in the local community of San Pedro Sula. Warriors Zulu Nation uses hip hop culture, particularly dance and music, to attract young people with common interests to create a safe and supportive community. The foundation offers artist workshops on breakdancing, rapping, graffiti, and even photography. The organisation also offers youth discussion groups on topics such as respect, politics, education and how to counter violence in local communities.
Juan also coordinates music and art festivals, which in recent years have attracted more than 6,000 attendees. The 2018 festival featured 70 artists from various cities in Honduras and other countries across Central America. Students that partake in art workshops also have the opportunity to perform publicly during these festivals. By offering these opportunities, the organisation promotes self-confidence, and empowers young people to present their new found skills on a public platform.
Fundación Para La Tierra
Fundación Para La Tierra - Paraguay
Joseph Sarvary
Ambassador-led Initiative
1:11
SROI
Joseph co-founded Fundación Para La Tierra in late 2015 as a forum to teach children and adults about the environment. The Foundation currently runs nine eco-clubs in six communities, teaching 150 children about the natural world each week. It has also hosted five seasonal winter camps to reach more than 250 children in communities that do not yet have access to regular club meetings.
Paraguay has one of the worst early education systems in the world, being ranked 136th out of 138 countries in quality of primary education by the World Economic Forum . Joseph and his team recognised the need to focus on primary school aged children, and so they started the Voices de la Naturaleza (Voices of Nature) programme to help educate children on the importance of nature and the environment. By creating a network of ‘Eco-Clubs’, the Foundation uses environmental education to encourage young people to champion the cause and become community leaders through their activism. The programme has been built on a belief that there is no age-restriction on taking action. In the final stage of their programme the students, aged 7-12, organise, advertise and execute their own event to address environmental issues in their own communities. High school students volunteer to help manage these clubs, furthering their own leadership development. Fundación Para La Tierra has also undertaken women’s empowerment projects, such as providing a women’s committee with a chicken coop and 100 chicks that they could raise and then sell on as a sustainable income revenue.
Joseph was awarded the Mary Robinson Climate Justice Award in 2017, which enabled him to attend the 2017 Bogotá Summit and granted his foundation £5,000. This grant was provided over the period of a year and helped the eco-clubs to reach new locations and procure more resources to further their work.
95%
Jonathan is the Head Culture Catalyst for ‘95%’, a consultancy that specialises in improving company performance through cultural transformation. Jonathan and his team have impacted 5,800 business leaders across Malaysia since 2015. The name comes from a study that claims that even the smartest person only uses 5% of her brain capacity, thus Jonathan and his organisation work to tap into the underutilised 95%. ‘95%’ strives to turn workplaces into ‘joyplaces’. For an organisation to become a joyplace, two conditions must hold: business must be thriving, and people must be winning. This means that employees should be feeling high levels of fulfilment, satisfaction and growth.
As a corporate culture consultancy, ‘95%’ works to understand how a business is operating and then uses this information to diagnose the problem at hand. Four main criteria are considered in the diagnostic stage: leadership, environment, buy-in, and tools and skills. Leadership is essential to set the direction of the business and to serve as role models to the rest of the organisation. The Environment stage looks at how appraisals are conducted, the priorities of the organisation and relationships, as well as the physical office space. Buy-in is the necessary intelligent understanding of where the company is headed and why change is needed, as well as the necessary emotional commitment and motivation for the changes to be implemented and maintained. The last criterium, tools and skills, identifies possible employee skill areas that can be improved to help workers become more effective and successful. ‘95%’ then develops a strategy for how to resolve any identified issues, and sets about implementing the plan to create a lasting cultural shift within the organisation. Jonathan’s organisation currently operates in Malaysia with some projects in Singapore, Indonesia and the UK, and it is set to expand to the Philippines and further afield in Southeast Asia.
Jonathan expanded his knowledge on the needs of young people in Malaysia through compiling the first One Young World Impact Report with fellow Ambassador Michael Teoh, which was then presented at the One Young World 2011 Zurich Summit.
Seeds of Hope PNG
Seeds of Hope PNG - Papua New Guinea
John Taka
Ambassador-led Initiative
1:18
SROI
John founded Seeds of Hope PNG in 2011 to encourage children in his local community to pursue higher education as a way to minimise tribal conflict and avoid future violence.
Based in Waknam Village, Mul District in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea, Seeds of Hope PNG has impacted the lives of all 2,000 inhabitants through its various programmes.
Seeds of Hope PNG runs a small agricultural operation that helps raise funds towards scholarships to subsidise school fees for children in the local community. Committee members in the village plant and grow produce such as potatoes, cabbage and broccoli, and then sell it to raise funds that support these children through education. Currently 19 school children and seven higher education students have benefitted from this project, and eight of the beneficiaries have already graduated and are in the workforce. As well as providing these scholarships, John also had his former employer, PwC, donate four second-hand laptops to help these children access better educational resources.
Seeds of Hope PNG also supports young entrepreneurs to start businesses, helping five people to begin working including a mother of three who has started a business as a seamstress.
Seeds of Hope PNG also works to improve financial literacy and inclusion in the community. In Papua New Guinea, 85% of the low-income population live in rural areas and do not have access to formal financial services. Thus, Seeds of Hope PNG invites the local bank to come to the towns and villages to inform people about the benefits of saving and to help them open bank accounts. John plans to encourage a saving culture in Waknam, and has helped 80 people open bank accounts so far. This increases their ability to save, making families more resistant to shocks in their income streams from unforeseen crises such as weather related emergencies. Seeds of Hope PNG has built two roads to make it easier for children and pregnant mothers to commute, and is also planning to initiate a new house building programme in the coming year, to further improve stability in the region
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.