Humanitas Global Development Blog

What Do You Think Our Future Should Hold?

 

At the end of TedXChange, co-hosted by TED and Melinda Gates, guests were asked to share their vision for our future. 

Share your own vision at   http://www.gatesfoundation.org/tedxchange/Pages/photo-campaign.aspx

Click, Watch, Participate and be Inspired: Melinda Gates and TED Host Special MDG Talk in NYC

 

For those who want access to some of the most inspiring talks on a host of topics, go no further than your computer.  TED is a non profit formed in 1984 that started out as a conference to bring people from entertainment, technology and design together.  Today its scope has expanded, but its mandate of infusing the world with new ideas hasn't.

Today, in New York City, Melinda Gates and TED will be hosting a special event called TedxChange to look at the eight Millennium Development Goals set in 2000 and assess progress and new needs. 

Want to watch?  Special events to watch today's TEDxChange have been organized around the world.  In addition, the entire 90-minute program will be streamed live on TED.com on September 20, 2010 at 11am EDT.

Unconventional Spaces for Exceptional Progress

 
Photo Credit: Reuters. An internally displaced girl, who fled a military offensive in the Swat Valley region of Pakistan, waves to soldiers at a checkpoint in Malakand district while returning back to her village.

Welcome to the first posting of the Humanitas Global Development blog.

This blog is for global citizens who believe that together we can build a better world.  This is a call to people from all professions.  It’s a call to anyone who cares about global issues and might have new and interesting ideas and approaches to solving them.

If we are to scale-up development efforts and push leaders to do right by those who have less, we must all be ultra-engaged.  We need more than those with relevant academic degrees or development experience.  They are an integral part, but the world will be changed by everyday people coming from unconventional spaces.  These people combined with beneficiaries of aid and assistance will ultimately determine if development initiatives succeed or fail and if communities prosper or fall behind. 

We launch this blog leading up to the 65^th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.  This is a very conventional platform for development leaders and heads of state.  But it is our hope to have the opportunity to meet unconventional leaders during the week and showcase ideas and learnings that are unique.

What we know, is that during events at and around the 65^th UNGA Session, leaders will be tasked with looking closely at what it takes to make an exponential impact on empowering women, fighting poverty, combating hunger and malnutrition, reducing disease vulnerability, etc. In fact, this year, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a high-level summit to accelerate progress on the Millennium Development Goals, eight goals to tackle the world’s most significant challenges such as poverty, disease, hunger and maternal mortality.

During a briefing session I participated in last Thursday afternoon in preparation for this coming week’s events, Melinda Gates said that as we look to scale up initiatives and put in systems that can stand the test of time, we need to raise visibility and tell stories where we have success and progress.  I agree. But, I would add that in addition to success stories, we must account for the challenges and failures in development to date because in them exist powerful learning lessons. 

There is a popular phrase that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.  I’m a development person, so feel that I can say this with some authority:  As long as the development community keeps talking to the same people and implementing the same approaches to solving the world’s problems, there won’t be sustained progress.  We need to talk to new people, tap new sectors, equally embrace both successes and failures, and REALLY engage and involve beneficiaries of aid and assistance. 

Keep an eye open for unconventional ideas that make communities better.  Which ones catch your attention and why?  In future posts we'll be sharing programs that stand out to us and what we can learn from them.

We welcome the readers of this blog and hope that together we can push the development envelope even further because people’s lives are at stake.  Here's to a productive week, and here's to unconventional individuals who are bold enough to make exceptional progress happen.