¡EcoPibes en los medios!

"Youth Social Technopreneurship"

The United Nations Association
of the National Capital Area

Takashi Fujishima
Program Assistant, UNA-NCA

The World Bank Y2Y Youth Community, in partnership with TakingITGlobal, YABT, IDB YOUTH, and UNA-NCA held a full-day event at the World Bank on Youth Social Technopreneurship on Thursday, October 27, 2005.

“Young leaders are leaders of tomorrow”-- Rakesh Asthana, the World Bank.

As Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been increasingly integrated into traditional development, young people are embracing the opportunities that are provided by the Internet and other global communications tools. The event was to raise awareness that the energy and talent of the young generation can contribute to the development dialogue in this changing global paradigm.

Four innovative examples in contribution to global development effort were introduced in the morning. “I try to create simple solutions for systemic problems through ICTs,” said Saurav Kumar, Co-founder of the Community Friendly Movement (CFM), an initiative aimed at helping connecting communities with customers and benefitting both sides through a cheaper exchange of products. Specifically, CFM provides a network to develop a mass market demand for high quality, competitively priced, laborintensive products from developing countries. The network would help eliminate the need for expensive advertising and promotion, thus repatriating extra profits back to the workers. Introduced by Kumar was an innovative feature of CFM that allows online consumers to “tip” the workers who produced the products they purchased, with tips contributing to projects supporting the workers’ communities. His goal is to improve lives of 10, 000 communities globally through sales and tips.

“I believe that education is the key to sustainable development... I could not resist exploring what could happen if I used these new technologies for environmental education,” mentioned Cecilia Iglesias, Founder of EcoPibes an environmental education project for sustainable development based on ICTs which has more than 30,000 users per month in 29 countries all over the Spanish-speaking world. Ms. Iglesias said, “ICT was a solution to the lack of educational resources for environmental problems in Latin America.” Not only does EcoPibes serve as an educational resource provider, but also as a network for the intercultural exchange of information and experiences and a channel for promoting other organizations and projects.

The other two speakers were from China and Sierra Leone. Wu Yang, 20-year-old from China, introduced his Household Wastewater Recycling Management Project with which he attempts to effectively reduce water pollution in Beijing. Despite his age, he described himself as a dedicated and realistic environmentalist, “The degradation of our environment requires more than compassion, it requires action… ICTs have helped me, in my capacity, to take action and create a movement that has influenced government policy – not an easy task in China.”

Andrew Benson Greene spoke in the video conference from Sierra Leone. He is a founder of iEARN Sierra Leone which addresses the problems faced by former child soldiers and war affected youth, giving them educational support and a vehicle of expression through technology. IEARN is a non-profit global network that enables young people to use new technologies to engage in collaborative educational projects. Greene believes that ICT is a tool of opportunity for children in the region to share ideas with peers across the world. “They are not alone anymore,” he said..

Those four young speakers clearly showed worldly-leading ideas and passions through ICT toward the better future of our world.

The afternoon featured a case study session where 35 – 40 people were divided into 3 different cases, working as a team to create a pitch for a private company, the World Bank, or the government. The purpose of the simulation was to analyze the issues that may emerge in each process and learn how to achieve a successful pitch.

Overall, the whole event was successful, especially in exploring how international organizations can help scale up youth-led development initiatives to the global level. There are many talented young people who lack experiences, resources and opportunities. The event facilitated youth contribution to the global development.