One Young World 2021-22
DAY 1 – Thursday
As we entered the Manchester Piccadilly station, the excitement rose beyond words as we saw many volunteers wearing the One Young World t-shirt, to guide us to our respective hotels. The opening ceremony of the summit was beyond our expectations. Right from the opening dance number to Lemn Sissay’s poetic welcome, the ceremony did not fail to astound us.
The highlight, however, was the performance by the dance trio - Joseph Well-Main, a differently abled dancer who had performed with the Royal Ballet, Elizabeth Griffits, and Scott Kidd, who is non-binary, breaking traditions and stereotypes of ballet.
The grand finale of the opening ceremony was beautifully set by the flag bearers representing 201 countries and territories, closing with a graceful keynote speech by the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Marble, accompanied by the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry.
DAY 2 – Friday
The second day of the forum focused on several topics, including ocean conservation and D&I.
“We need to protect nature and the oceans as if our lives depended on it - because they do.” Sylvia Earle
Sylvia Earle, marine biologist and one of Time magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet”, shared with us some of the key findings from her research. She then introduced six delegate speakers who had all developed solutions for safeguarding and restoring the oceans. For example, an American delegate created the first glass recycling facility in Louisiana, tackling both pollution and erosion issues in her state; a Fiji delegate started an NGO aimed at collecting and upcycling plastic to eradicate plastic waste in his country.
A discussion on diversity and inclusion in the creative industries followed, moderated by Caroline Casey, a brilliant woman committed to building a global movement on inclusive business for those living with a disability. She addressed issues of representation in the fashion industry with Sinéad Burker, a disability activist, known for her TED talk "Why Design Should Include Everyone", and in the film industry with Daniel Durant, lead actor in the Oscar-winning film CODA.
DAY 3 – Saturday
Our third day commenced with two sessions about responsible impact investing and uniting medical professionals in efforts to support young leaders at the frontlines of healthcare.
The plenary session of the day focused on the challenges of health and conflict prevention. Leaders spoke about how we can ensure health equity for all and steps that can be taken to prevent future conflict. Day three also featured two Summit Spotlight Sessions, one of which focused on international threats and global security, while the second highlighted the causes of migration around the world. Winners of the One Young World Politician of the Year Award 2022 spoke about how they are impacting their home countries and using their positions of leadership to benefit young people specifically.
DAY 4 – Sunday
On the last day of One Young World, we had extremely interesting action sessions such as Web 3.0, blockchain and the metaverse, Period Poverty, Breaking the Glass Ceiling, Disaster Relief and Aid, etc.
In addition to these action sessions, we had the pleasure of listening to speakers who touched upon various ways to take a concept from idea to action. To name a few, we had the opportunity to listen to Asa Skogstrom Feldt - the Managing director IKEA Social Entrepreneurship on building a better future of life at home, John McCalla-Leacy - a partner at KPMG, a talk on ethical leadership, Magali Anderson on circular cities, and many others.
After 4 days of an overwhelming load of information, inspiration, and ideas, the summit concluded.