$ 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.
Codi
Codi is an innovative organisation combining coding and digital skills with leadership training to facilitate economic inclusion and employability in Lebanon. Codi focuses on sustainable employment, providing participants with skills that are resilient to innovation and open new career opportunities.
The organisation focuses on reaching underprivileged communities through training the most vulnerable affected by Lebanon’s multilayered crisis. Its flagship programme is a full stack web development boot camp running for six months, with cohorts of around 30 students. Since its inception, 347 people have been trained through Codi’s core programming, with over 85% of participants entering the workforce upon completing the training.
In 2023, Codi announced a shift in its economic model to drive sustainability and scale. Hortense has received considerable support from her Lead2030 challenge sponsor, Deloitte, in pursuing this transition from completely free education to an accessible model where participants only pay for the training they have received once they are gainfully employed. This model ensures that the programme remains truly diverse, with Codi even covering transportation costs for participants, while allowing the organisation to remodel itself as a sustainable social enterprise.
Hortense’s mentorship with Deloitte happened in two phases; the first revolved around automating monitoring and evaluation processes. The second phase focused on Codi’s transformation strategy thoroughly and systematically.
Codi has used the Lead2030 prize money to invest in monitoring and evaluation capabilities and to support its central infrastructure. It has also upskilled its team with pedagogical training and further enhanced the organisation’s active learning methodology. The Lead2030 programme with Deloitte has helped smoothen Codi’s transformation into a viable business while retaining its transformative educational methodology.
“Winning the Lead2030 Challenge for Quality Education has significantly elevated Codi. Receiving mentorship from Deloitte coupled with strategic unrestricted funding has been pivotal for the organisation; supporting our transition do drive sustainability and scale”.
116 participants trained through Core programme in 2023, and 200+ trained through community workshops
Ocean Bottle
Ocean Bottle was founded by Will Pearson and Nick Doman in 2018 to empower individual consumers in the fight against plastic ocean waste. The company funds plastic collection in coastal communities, with 11.4 kilograms of plastic collected for each Ocean Bottle sold. The plastic collectors are able to exchange the waste they collect for money and get access to other social resources. Ocean Bottle has funded the collection of 11,400 tonnes of plastic so far, the equivalent of over one billion plastic bottles in weight. The company’s own bottles are made of recyclable stainless steel and recycled ocean-bound plastic. Each bottle has an embedded NFC enabled smart-chip, allowing bottle owners to further fund plastic collection by tracking refills on the Ocean Bottle app.
Through the mentorship opportunities offered by the Lead2030 programme, Will and his team have been introduced to employees from the challenge sponsor who work on banking solutions. The challenge sponsor also supported Ocean Bottle in producing a full analysis of its marketing collateral for business-to-business customers, and provided feedback to ensure the material is optimised for Ocean Bottle’s strategic priorities.
Ocean Bottle is using the funding from Lead2030 to scope out a public facing audit for its collection data, the first time such an audit will be conducted in the ocean waste collection industry. This will help establish industry compliance standards, but also assist Ocean Bottle in becoming as transparent as possible, communicate its success, and continue to lead the plastic collection space. Ocean Bottle’s Lead2030 challenge sponsor has provided support in communicating, framing, and publishing the audit's process and results of the audit to Ocean Bottle’s community.
“I think it's been just a big confidence boost for us to have support for doing things and taking decisions that we're not really comfortable or didn't have full confidence in taking. So they've been really reassuring, and I think a big part that explains that is that they've been really supportive and reactive on communication. So I think it's been really positive to work with them.” - Emilien Henrotte, Impact Manager at Ocean Bottle
3,400 tonnes of plastic collected in 2023
ClimateScience
ClimateScience is a science communication organisation making the realities of climate change easily intelligible to all. ClimateScience began during the devastating 2019 Amazon Rainforest wildfires. Michael noticed that while climate change increasingly dominated the news cycle, most people lacked access to free easily digestible science-based information. ClimateScience’s website had 500,000 visitors in 2023, with another 300,000 views on its YouTube educational videos. The organisation offers educational material in 18 languages.
ClimateScience has worked closely with its Lead2030 challenge sponsor, Deloitte, to better retain its users and better guarantee their educational outcomes, as well as expand its user base. After consultation with his mentors at Deloitte, Michael hired a new coder to improve user experience and ClimateScience’s product iteration pipeline. The organisation’s website conversion rate now stands at 12.5%, which is high for a platform that is entirely free to use, and Michael hopes to bring it to 20% next year.
The organisation has also introduced the format of its already successful Olympiad competition for young people with promising climate solutions to corporate professionals. This personalised and gamified solution serves all stakeholders’ interests and is tailored to the practicalities of corporate professionals’ lives. This engaging format allows professionals to learn and help solve global challenges alongside their day jobs. Working with his mentors from Deloitte highlighted the importance of the private sector for Michael. The lessons he has learned through working with his mentors has helped him conduct conversations with potential partners. The importance of quantifiable indicators of ClimateScience’s impact has been an additional highlight to come from Michael’s engagement with Deloitte through the Lead2030 programme.
“I think the biggest upside of the Lead2030 programme came from two different places...it came, firstly, from the One Young World Summit experience. It was the place where kind of everything came together for me. Secondly, it helped me get a bigger perspective in general on how the private sector and corporates work and think. The Lead2030 name actually has a lot more gravity than what I expected, like people recognise the title, the association and so they get quite impressed.”
60,000 users interacting and engaging with educational climate content in 2023
Litehaus International
LiteHaus International was founded by Jack Growden in 2017 to tackle digital inequality, particularly device poverty. It does this by installing ground-breaking digital classrooms with professionally refurbished digital devices equipped with Niunet’s free and wireless e-learning platform containing 6.3 million educational materials. Through its Digital Inclusion Program, it has also provided 5,600 underprivileged high school students in Australia with personal digital devices. The organisation has expanded rapidly, now working with 293 schools worldwide – of which 220 are in Papua New Guinea – impacting 202,000 people.
As part of the Lead2030 programme, Jack received mentorship from Deloitte Australia and the opportunity to attend the One Young World Summit 2022 in Manchester. This mentorship emphasised the importance of having a broad outlook and understanding of organisational strategy and direction to Jack, while the Summit provided him the opportunity to connect with other young leaders tackling digital inequality.
LiteHaus used the Lead2030 grant money to build 10 computer labs in Papua New Guinea’s Jiwaka province, helping the organisation scale its work in the country. The organisation’s partnership with Deloitte, its challenge sponsor, has only grown since the conclusion of the Lead2030 programme. This partnership has culminated in 43 computer labs now built, reaching 35,000 people. LiteHaus has also been onboarded as one of Deloitte Australia’s WorldClass digital literacy charities, receiving $50,000 annually in addition to priority access to pro-bono services and additional mentoring opportunities. Deloitte has donated 600 digital units to LiteHaus International so far.
“The Lead2030 programme has just been the beginning of a wonderful partnership with Deloitte. And just by virtue of having more resources, I've been able to do more. Without the Lead2030 programme, we wouldn't have gotten this Deloitte partnership.”
15,000 students and teachers gained digital access from the Lead2030 programme
El Derecho a No Obedecer / Corporación Otraparte Clean Air Advocacy School
El Derecho a No Obedecer / Corporación Otraparte Clean Air Advocacy School - Colombia
Alejandro Daly
OYW Funded Project
El Derecho a No Obedecer is an advocacy platform that aims to empower young people in Latin America to pursue advocacy in public decisions. It works across issues such as air pollution, climate change, refugee rights, and peaceful mobilisation. The organisation has educational initiatives on approaches to air pollution monitoring and the effects of air contamination on health outcomes. The organisation is also involved in the legal consultation presented by Colombia and Chile to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. They are also connecting their work on air quality with health issues and the health system by working with medical centres and medical professionals to establish mutual understanding of the issue.
As a result of the Lead2030 programme and the support of AstraZeneca, The Right to Not Obey has been able to develop the second version of the "Nuevos Aires" Activist School for Climate Justice and Air Quality. This relationship with AstraZeneca has facilitated greater understanding of the connection between air pollution and health problems, and has closed the gap between students, activists, and health professionals.
Lead2030 funding will allow El Derecho a No Obedecer to buy air quality monitoring kits, which will be given to students educated in climate change, air pollution, and monitoring systems. The platform is also developing an app using Lead2030 funding through which people can monitor air quality and make informed decisions about their mode of transport. The organisation will also invest in internet infrastructure in the schools with which they work to ensure the results from the monitoring can be maximised. El Derecho a No Obedecer will also host a series of workshops across Colombia.
280 air quality monitoring kits distributed to students
120 health professionals engaged in conversations about air quality and public health
4 cities in Colombia impacted and one air quality and mobility app in development
Maseroto Beatrice Shai, Deloitte
Maseroto Beatrice Shai, Deloitte - South Africa
Maseroto Beatrice Shai
Leadership Biography
Maseroto was active in sustainability issues during her university years. She came into the social impact and sustainability space professionally after being headhunted for a role addressing inequalities in South Africa. After joining Deloitte as a Consultant, Maseroto attended the One Young World Summits in Munich 2021 and Manchester 2022. She has since become WorldImpact Manager at Deloitte Africa. Maseroto credits her experiences at these Summits with further boosting her knowledge on current socio economic issues and enhancing her leadership capabilities, aiding her professional development at Deloitte.
Currently, in her WorldImpact managerial role, Maseroto is Lead of Deloitte Africa’s Impact Every Day portfolio, part of Deloitte’s WorldClass initiative, and is responsible for the implementation of employee volunteerism. WorldClass is the company’s strategic goal to impact 100 million people by 2030. Deloitte Africa aims to impact 14 million people through quality education, entrepreneurship to ensure decent work, reduced inequalities, and agriculture. Maseroto and her team implement the WorldClass strategy through partnerships and volunteer programmes with Deloitte employees utilising their skills to impact communities. She is responsible for engaging stakeholders internally at the company to ensure that volunteerism is happening, through which Deloitte employees can offer their time and skills in support of their company’s WorldClass goals. Through WorldClass initiatives at Deloitte Africa, Maseroto and her team’s efforts have reached 1,500,000 people so far.
In her daily role, Maseroto is also responsible for engaging with Deloitte’s key partners and stakeholders from both private and public sectors to align their work with WorldClass. She is also responsible for ensuring Deloitte’s compliance with the South African government’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment legislation, a comprehensive initiative to enhance the economic participation of Black people in the South African economy. Maseroto ensures that 1% of Deloitte South Africa’s net profit is dedicated to social impact work.
Maseroto is committed to delving deeper into social impact in Africa, especially in education. She is passionate about growing social impact, both within the corporate sector and outside of it, ensuring that companies become the solutions to the issues facing society. At Deloitte, within the WorldClass targets, Maseroto hopes to expand the company’s focus to other educational interventions beyond its current work with traditional education institutions.
“I got an opportunity to physically go to the Manchester Summit, which is mind blowing. Seeing people coming together and finding solutions collectively for each other, I was actually inspired to see that we are a generation that is looking towards solutions and wanting to better the future for the next generations to come. So that was definitely a key highlight for me when it came to One Young World.”
Alex Kennedy, Standard Chartered
Alex Kennedy, Standard Chartered - United Kingdom
Alex Kennedy
Leadership Biography
Alex is a huge supporter of One Young World, having first attended the Summit in Bangkok, 2015 after one of his mentors suggested a career move from traditional banking into sustainability. Alex also saw value in attending the Summit to support the social enterprise – the Feel Good Bakery – which he helped found between London and Nairobi. He learned important lessons on sustainability and climate change at the Summit, which have informed his perspective as a social entrepreneur and in his professional role at Standard Chartered ever since.
“One Young World came at an amazing time in my life because I was at this crossover point between what I was doing in my career and what I wanted to do in my career. And I think it was a good push. The opportunity to be surrounded by like-minded individuals with really cool ideas, from all around the planet, was amazing. It was a huge catalyst in shaping my career and was a really amazing way to build a network.”
It was during an internship at Standard Chartered in 2008, whilst working on Seeing is Believing (the Bank’s flagship preventable blindness charitable programme) that Alex became interested in a career at the company. He joined Standard Chartered’s graduate programme, where he trained in banking, before using that experience to eventually transition into a sustainability-focused role. In 2018, alongside five colleagues, Alex co-created the sustainable finance team at Standard Chartered.
Currently Head of Sustainable Finance Solutions, Alex has helped develop over 40 sustainable finance products. His team were the first to create a sustainable deposit product for corporates. They also author Standard Chartered’s sustainable finance frameworks, including the Transition Finance Framework, which define what ‘green’, ‘social’ and ‘sustainable’ mean within the Bank, how transition finance is governed, as well as how the Bank mitigates greenwashing risk. Standard Chartered was the first major international bank to publish one of these.
Alex recently became Chair of the Bank’s Adaptation Innovation Hub, through which the Bank is exploring how it can mobilise capital to support emerging markets to become more resilient to the effects of climate change. As part of this, Alex is currently creating a market-first Guide for Adaptation and Resilience Finance in collaboration with KPMG and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).
Alex is a trustee of the Vision Catalyst Fund, which aims to eradicate preventable blindness globally. To date, the organisation has donated millions of pairs of glasses to communities in low and middle-income countries and has recently started offering eye health accelerator grants. In the future it aims to mobilise billions of dollars of catalytic capital to fight preventable blindness.
Alex helped set up the Feel Good Bakery. This social enterprise takes young people from London, most of whom are former gang members, on volunteering trips to Kenya. Upon returning to London, these young people are then employed at the bakery. For every sandwich or coffee sold in the Bakery, a young person is fed at one of the projects in Kenya. The Feel Good Bakery now runs three coffee carts in London and is in the process of opening a coffee shop. In Kenya, Alex has helped finance the growth of an orphanage in Nakuru and a slum school in Nairobi.
Amanda Bartley, KPMG
Amanda Bartley, KPMG - Canada
Amanda Bartley
Leadership Biography
Amanda’s passion for social justice and human rights matured during her time at the University of Toronto where she received an Honours Bachelor of Science in Economics and Psychology. After graduating university, she started her career as a Human Behaviour Researcher at in sync, Publicis Health. At her time at Publicis Health, Amanda was exposed to several research projects illuminating inequity in healthcare. During two global studies that were particularly impactful to her, Amanda mapped the female contraceptive journey in Italy, Brazil and China and completed a market understanding on the impact of a tropical disease across the Philippines, Indonesia, and Mexico.
Upon leaving Publicis Health, Amanda continued her research career at Unilever Canada, where her passions led her to embed equity throughout her work and ultimately attend the One Young World Summit in The Hague, 2018. At Unilever, Amanda expanded her research populations to amplify the hair care experiences in women of colour. She also served as Co- Chair of N’Abling, a business resource group focused on disability awareness within the workplace. Amanda’s experience at the Summit and Unilever solidified her perseverance to bring human rights to the forefront of her work.
“One Young World is where you find your intellectual kin. Thousands of people from around the world gathering to address the most pressing human rights and social justice challenges of our time. It’s a catalyst for our futures, a place to meet new friends and co-conspirators in this fight for a better world. And, despite how gut-wrenching the realities of today may be, you leave with hope for a better tomorrow.”
Currently, as a Senior Manager in Advisory Services at KPMG Canada, Amanda continues to do just that. Amanda is the Co-Chair of the National Black Professionals Network (BPN), a group dedicated to creating a greater sense of belonging for Black employees across the firm. The BPN has 300 members and runs several initiatives centring mentorship and community building. She also supported the development of KPMG’s Anti-Racism Strategy and co-authored a talent playbook for organisations to combat anti-Black and other forms of racism across Canada. The playbook covers all aspects of an employee’s professional journey, providing tangible solutions to critical moments where they are subjected to racism.
Throughout her community, Amanda remains dedicated to equity. She currently serves as a Governor of the University of Toronto and is one of the youngest alumni to hold this position. At the Governing Council, Amanda oversees both academic and business affairs of the university and is a member of the University Affairs Board and the Academic Board. She is also part of the Constituency Council at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada’s biggest mental health hospital. In this role, Amanda focuses on advising the board and senior executives on anti-Black racism, key programs, and the strategic plan.
Previously, Amanda served as Vice-Chair at Family Service Toronto, a century old organisation dedicated to supporting Torontonians experiencing precarity. During her six-year tenure, she was instrumental in the development of their strategic plan refresh, and the recruiting of the Executive Director and many fellow board members.
Amani Terhas Boros, State Street Bank International
Amani Terhas Boros, State Street Bank International - United Kingdom
Amani Terhas Boros
Leadership Biography
Amani was involved in social impact spaces before she began her Sustainability and Impact Investing professional career in banking. She attended the One Young World Summit in London, 2019, as a banking sponsor of the Summit. Amani’s time at the Summit inspired her to continue her social impact work, and it encouraged her to grow further as a leader.
“My experience at the Summit was incredible. It was the best time, honestly, meeting so many inspiring young people and the founders, of course. And it was just wonderful to witness all of the ideas, social impact, environmental impact and to see what was being developed in person and all the innovation from all parts of the world. It helped me a lot, the One Young World experience, I feel very grateful and it inspired me to grow further.”
Amani was introduced to female coffee farmers during a trip to Ethiopia in 2017, after which she founded Amatte Coffee to tackle gender inequality. The company works with women farmers, empowering them economically through the sale of their coffee. Amani also founded the Amatte Foundation, through which she works with two orphanages in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Amani hopes to upscale the impact of Amatte Coffee in the near future to continue empowering women coffee farmers.
Amani believes that diversity efforts within companies should go beyond gender, race, sexual orientation, and disabilities. In her previous role, Amani founded and chaired the EMEA Black and Asian Employee Network of her previous employer. She worked with the board to ensure equal access to opportunities for candidates regardless of their background, levelling the field to make the industry accessible to people from underprivileged backgrounds. Amani’s advocacy resulted in a commitment from the bank’s board of directors to double the number of Black talent in VP and MD roles. She also helped build the bank’s impact investing and Sustainability team, working on issues such as affordable healthcare and housing. Amani was part of the team that worked on The Wildlife Conservation Bond, also known as the Rhino Bond, an innovative approach to helping rhino conservation efforts in South Africa.
Amani currently serves as Managing Director, Head of Sustainability, at State Street Bank International, the European arm of State Street. She is in charge of building their sustainability department, and has advised the company’s board on reducing emissions and addressing social issues within State Street’s business. Amani is responsible for the creation of State Street Bank International Sustainability department and Strategy, which addresses the European Central Bank’s climate change requirements and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
Amani believes that the finance industry has a huge role to play in the fight against climate change and social equity. She has focused her efforts on educating and training key decision-makers within State Street Bank International to integrate sustainability measures, like climate and environmental risk, into their new product, credit risk, market risk, liquidity, and other financial products. Amani is also the global co-chair for State Street’s Women’s Network, promoting gender parity in the workforce and is part of the global Black Leaders group at State Street.
Selva Montealegre Mendoza, AB InBev
Selva Montealegre Mendoza, AB InBev - Mexico
Selva Montealegre Mendoza
Leadership Biography
Selva discovered her passion for gender equality during an internship and decided to dedicate her life to diversity and inclusion. She worked in the first Gender Unit of the Veracruz Office for Economic Development; her role involved implementing campaigns such as He For She. During this time, Selva was selected for Fundación Botín’s Programme for Strengthening Public Service in Latin America. She remains an active Botín alumni and member of the Red of Servidores Públicos de México, facilitating collaboration between the government and corporate sector.
Selva joined AB InBev as part of their Global Management Trainee programme, and then went on to various People Operation roles. She was responsible for the development of employees and their journey at the company, at the time a relatively new area of operations for AB InBev in her region. Selva was able to bring new perspectives to her work, including gender representation in the logistics department of AB InBev.
Selva attended the One Young World Summit in The Hague, 2018. The Summit helped her tie together her previous social impact experiences with her role in people development at AB InBev. Selva served as the One Young World Coordinating Ambassador for Central America and Mexico in 2020. During her time in the role, she helped organise virtual events, including on societal transformation driven by young people, to keep the One Young World Community for Central America and Mexico active during the pandemic.
“One Young World is a constant reminder that young leaders will drive the change in the future; it is a source of inspiration and action. Today, we must not just celebrate young people creating change, but also empower them with tools for this change in the future. And I believe One Young World is key to this process.”
Selva is the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Talent Attraction Director for Middle Americas, the largest region in AB InBev globally covering over 40,000 employees. She aims to create an inclusive and safe workplace where everyone can be the best version of themselves. To achieve this, she has led and supported various initiatives.
The Basic Conditions initiative benefited more than 20,000 employees across distribution centres and breweries, ensuring access to services and support across operation and production lines, and developing pilots for accessible heavy lifting machines for women. The Parental Leave Benefits policy has impacted more than 8,000 families. Additionally, her allied leadership and inclusive workplace concepts, implemented through psychological safety awareness, have reached upwards of 16,000 employees.
Outside of AB InBev, Selva has recently founded Monti, her own project creating educational toys for children with disabilities. This ties into Selva’s goal for the future to expand her diversity and inclusion work beyond gender equality, both at AB InBev and externally.
Sebastian Garrido Lecca, Bristol Myers Squibb
Sebastian Garrido Lecca, Bristol Myers Squibb - Peru
Sebastian Garrido Lecca
Leadership Biography
Sebastian’s interest in social impact was shaped by his childhood growing up and witnessing the consequences of social inequality in Peru. As a young adult, he was involved in social projects focused on the economic and social empowerment of marginalised communities displaced by terrorism, specifically children and their mothers. He first attended the One Young World Summit in Bogotá, 2017, an experience that opened his eyes to the magnitude of impact he can generate as an employee of a global multinational company.
“It's having not only this experience at the Summit, but also the tangible projects that came out from the experience. So it's always an asset to have, and to share this. And the fact that I'm still working as a core team member for One Young World at Bristol Myers Squibb just speaks to it.”
A physician by training, Sebastian is currently the Renal Cell Carcinoma Lead in the World Wide Medical Oncology organisation at Bristol Myers Squibb. Outside of his daily responsibilities, he has been involved in various company inclusion and diversity initiatives since becoming a One Young World Ambassador.
Following the Summit, Sebastian collaborated with other ambassadors on the design and execution of the company-wide network of inclusion ambassadors. He played a key role in developing a grassroots initiative of 2,000 employees across 31 markets in support of the science-based inclusion approach branded as “Possibility Lives.” This network has become an integral part of Bristol Myers Squibb with representation from each of the company’s functional areas ensuring operational alignment with the inclusion and diversity strategy.
Sebastian is also part of the core team working on the One Young World – Bristol Myers Squibb partnership. He has led the company’s workshop presence at the Munich (2021), Manchester (2022) and Belfast (2023) Summits. The workshops he led provided practical roadmaps for delegates to apply their inclusion and diversity ideas at their companies, such as the Hip Hop Public Health initiative to share learnings on harnessing the power of music and culture to improve health outcomes in underserved communities and a sustainability initiative that partners with internal talent to share successful project implementations at a multinational company.
As an introvert, Sebastian also played an integral role on another key project on inclusivity called Valuably Quiet. This initiative highlights the necessity and value of including introversion and personality diversity in conversations around inclusion and diversity within Bristol Myers Squibb.
In the future, Sebastian aims to become more involved in helping sustainability efforts at Bristol Myers Squibb. He is currently active in discussions on how best to reduce the carbon footprint of medical conferences.
Dr. Annika Hauptvogel, Siemens
Dr. Annika Hauptvogel, Siemens - Germany
Annika Hauptvogel
Leadership Biography
Annika’s interest in sustainability stems from the beginning of her professional career at Siemens Mobility. As part of the company’s service team, she oversaw the maintenance of trains and developed digital services to ensure availability and to help promote sustainable transportation. At the One Young World Summit in Ottawa, 2016, she applied to be part of the Siemens delegation, and finally gave a keynote alongside three fellow Siemens Delegates. She still remembers the title of the keynote ‘Make real what matters!’, where Annika discussed Siemens’ efforts on maintaining the Skytrain in Bangkok and ensuring that people have safe, efficient, and sustainable means of transportation to get around the city.
“I was very interested in the presentations at the Summit, to see those great people like Kofi Annan. He, for example, said, you are never too young to lead. And that stuck in my head. I mean, I was 29 at that time, and just afterwards, I was in my first leadership role with Siemens. So it was good to have this encouragement from One Young World when you go back and start your first leadership role.”
After the Summit, Annika was promoted to her first leadership position at Siemens as Head of Service Engineering at Siemens Mobility. Looking back at the Summit in Ottawa, she was grateful for the lessons she learned on leadership and sustainability through One Young World.
Annika’s career has progressed in the last few years and in her current role as Head of Technology and Innovation Management at Siemens, her focus is on how the company can develop and use emerging technologies to prepare its products for the future. As part of this role, her first and most significant task has been to reshape the company's core technologies. Annika is passionate about open innovation and has developed Siemens’ open innovation strategies, aiming to collaborate with others to achieve Siemens’ sustainability goals.
In her daily role, Annika enables her teams to analyse the company’s sustainability needs in terms of decarbonisation, circularity, and other metrics. They helped generate a sustainability portfolio for Siemens Technology to ensure that the company’s technological research and development is focused on creating sustainable products.
Annika is also heavily involved in academia, to foster partnerships between professional and academic institutions. She helped Siemens establish a sustainability MBA in partnership with the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg University. This MBA is open to everyone, and is aimed not only at Siemens professionals but all those interested in sustainability. One of the course modules on Sustainable Technologies is headed and lectured by her – an activity she enjoys as it combines passing on crucial knowledge as well as interacting with highly motivated students.
Annika is also still in contact with her former university. In 2015, she completed her doctorate in mechanical engineering at RHTW Aachen University. Today she is part of the university’s mentoring programme for PhD students as well as a visiting lecturer. Annika and her Siemens team constantly collaborate with Aachen to jointly drive innovation ensuring sustainability.
M-SCAN Uganda
Phyllis co-founded M-SCAN Uganda in 2017 while participating in a community-based educational research project in medical school. She was posted to a rural, underprivileged part of Uganda, where she witnessed firsthand a severe lack of available resources for the care of pregnant women. Upon returning to the capital, Kampala, she along with her colleagues first conceptualised M-SCAN Uganda, an initiative specialising in innovative, portable ultrasound technology that reduces maternal mortality rates through early detection and effective intervention.
Phyllis attended the One Young World Summit in London, 2019, which she found deeply inspiring. She heard from industry experts in healthcare, which pushed her further in her social impact journey. She also made several promising connections at the Summit, and remains in touch with her fellow Ambassadors.
M-SCAN Uganda has so far performed over 8,079 ultrasounds, impacting more than 7,850 women. Its groundbreaking technology has detected over 991 complications through early diagnoses, working closely with the healthcare system to refer these pregnant women to hospitals that can provide them with the necessary care to ensure their safety. M-SCAN Uganda’s technology is significantly cheaper than more traditional ultrasound machines, and the organisation divides its revenue with the health clinics in which it operates, thereby helping to reinforce Uganda’s wider healthcare infrastructure. It also provides laptops through which its technology can run, and its solutions are solar-powered. M-SCAN Uganda has also directly trained nine frontline maternal health workers in rural communities in the country.
“I was mind blown by how much my scope of imagination was widened at the Summit, especially because you hear all these stories from people out there doing these formidable things. It inspired me to keep pushing the flag higher because it feels like there's a force out there that's fighting for the global good and I must be a part of it.”
Sembrando Conciencia
Sembrando Conciencia - Paraguay
Alberto Núñez
Ambassador-led Initiative
5
SROI
Alberto is the Founder and Executive Secretary of Sembrando Conciencia, an initiative that began during the pandemic to support vulnerable and marginalised communities in Paraguay. It aims to bring socio-environmental wellbeing to marginalised communities, improve their quality of life, and guarantee food security. Alberto has scaled the project from his initial efforts donating food from his orchard for community-wide lunches to providing harvest training to these communities. His efforts have facilitated a greater self-reliance through the creation of community gardens, environmental and waste management education, and psychological support.
Alberto attended the One Young World Summit in Manchester, 2022. He spoke on a panel with María Juliana Ruiz, Former First Lady of Colombia, and fellow Ambassador Liliana Estigarribia Franco. After attending the Summit, he has frequently collaborated with One Young World’s regional team and his fellow Latin American Ambassadors.
Sembrando Conciencia has created nine community gardens so far, feeding 800 people, including 600 people who were provided free meals during the pandemic. The organisation has provided environmental awareness education to 300 students and teachers, while its waste management and composting workshops have reached an additional 450 people. Sembrando Conciencia has also provided gardening supplies to the local communities in which it operates so that they can create their own orchards. Through its waste management efforts, it has helped local communities compost 600 kilogrammes of organic waste for use in communal gardens. The project also offers sports classes to local community members and provides psychological support to those in need.
“Being part of the One Young World Summit has led me to position myself as a leader in a different and stronger manner. As a widely recognised event, it has opened new avenues for me to be part of other events and establish new partnerships. I am currently leading the Red de Jóvenes para la Acción Climática in Paraguay and I believe that all the lessons on leadership I took from One Young World have led to me leading in this position.”
Rinesh Sharma MP
Rinesh Sharma MP - Fiji
Rinesh Sharma
Leadership Biography
Rinesh Sharma MP began his career as a social entrepreneur, founding Smart Farms Fiji to modernise farming and introduce innovative urban farming techniques to the country. He was instrumental in assisting clients with personalised hydroponic farms while designing training programmes on hydroponics for students and teachers at various schools.
Rinesh returned to Fiji after attending the One Young World Summit in London, 2019, with a broadened perspective and the motivation to bring green innovation to Fiji. Rinesh was randomly selected to be his country’s flag bearer at the Summit, a moment of immense pride for him, and he has remained connected with the wider One Young World Community ever since. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rinesh received funding from One Young World and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to deliver food supplies to vulnerable families in Fiji and develop agro-technology to ensure the country’s food security. His work introducing innovative green agriculture culminated in Smart Farms Fiji providing hydroponics training and kits to six marginalised settlements on the island of Viti Levu. Rinesh has trained over 13,000 people on sustainable and climate-smart agriculture, soil management, and financial literacy and worked with UNDP in Fiji.
“Going to this Summit, I think the most beautiful experience was being able to hold up my country's flag among thousands of other people on the world stage. And then to receive funding from One Young World with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, I think it was huge. Today a farmer can be a Member of Parliament at the age of 29 years old. So I tell the young people to believe in your aspirations and ambitions, and I want them to do it better than me and at a younger age than me. You are never too young or small to make a difference”
Rinesh was invited by the Indian High Commission to Fiji to visit the Parliament of India as a young changemaker. He had the opportunity to meet with ministers and politicians and, upon returning to Fiji, interviewed with the General Secretary of the FijiFirst political party, presenting his vision for sustainable development and growth. Rinesh was selected to run in upcoming elections by the party, and was elected as the second youngest Member of Parliament from the 2022 General Election at 29 years old.
As an opposition MP, Rinesh’s role is to hold the government accountable, put forward motions, and table the concerns of the voting public in parliament. He plays an important role in representing the views and interests of his peers, debating issues, proposing legislation and advocating for positive change within Fiji and the Pacific region. For Rinesh, being an MP is a valuable experience in governance, public speaking, critical thinking, and leadership skills, which is required to develop solutions to societal problems and help shape policies that affect the people of Fiji.
Rinesh strives to make himself available to Fijian citizens experiencing hardship or difficulties, assisting and connecting them with solutions while demanding the greatest possible level of transparency from government officials.
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- Ambassador-led Initiatives: qualitative and quantitative analysis of the social impact of projects which are led by young leaders in the Community.
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- 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.