How are Young People creating an Impact at Davos

Every year in January, the small Swiss town of Davos becomes the highlight of the entire world where more than 2500 leaders from business, government, international organisations, civil society, academia, media and the arts will gather. The theme of this year’s meeting is ‘Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World’, which is very much relevant in the present day scenario. The need of the hour for our world today is to develop a shared narrative to improve the state of the world. This cannot be done in silos and calls for a greater cooperation and collaboration between the different stakeholders of the society at national and international level.

When one talks about Leaders from Businesses and Governments, one can imagine a room filled with people in the age range of 50–70 years and some even at 80 years, discussing the narratives that will shape the world. And you start thinking that, hang on, the decisions take today will not impact their generation, it will impact the youth, you and I. Over 50 percent of the world’s population is under the age of 27. So if someone is going to decide to shape our future, we the youth, have to be part of this dialogue, a bigger part of this narrative of co-creating the future.

Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, realized this very early on and he founded the Global Shapers Community to empower young people to play an active role in shaping local, regional and global agendas. With the largest youth population in history, there is an unprecedented opportunity for young people to take an active role in shaping the future. This generation has inherited enormous global challenges, but has the ability to confront the status quo and offer youth-led solutions for change. They are today’s leaders!

50 Global Shapers from 376 hubs based in 156 countries are selected to represent the youth voice at Davos each year. These Shapers represent the youth population and come armed with specific agendas to give youth the voice at Davos and to be a very integral part of the dialogues that happen at the Magic Mountain. The Forum goes as far as to provide the voices a platform to speak and be heard of their opinions through multiple speaking roles on the several panels over the 4 day course of the meeting. As a Foundation Board Member of the Global Shapers Community, I had the opportunity to attend Davos twice and I can confidently say that we Shapers make an unprecedented impact on the thought processes and decision making that helps in shaping the agenda of Businesses, the Governments and the civil societies.

Here are some really inspiring stories on the impact of having Global Shapers representing the youth voice at Davos over the last 3–4 years.

Youth have the immense power to become ambassadors of work and can tell the story from an on-ground perspective. My suggestion to any leader who really wants to showcase development or change is to listen to what the youth have to offer about it. The passion and voice they can lend to the story of change, no one else can.

What really empowers these Shapers to share the stage with the world leaders and nudge them into taking action? This is possible only because each of these Shapers have an on-ground experience of working with the communities at a grassroot level. They are changing also the narrative of seeing the youth as the problem. They are actually the solution. The Global Shapers are an action oriented community working on projectsthat are wide-ranging — from responding to disasters and combating poverty, to fighting climate change and building inclusive communities. The shapers are diverse in their expertise, education, income and race, but are united by their desire to bring about change. And when you are empowered with the grassroots knowledge, you can stand shoulder to shoulder with the business and political leaders and advise them to do the right thing.

Professor Schwab conveys it in the best possible manner “You are the first generation to face the impact of the decisions being made by your predecessors, and the last generation that can do something about it”. Armed with this mission statement, here are my three calls to action to all those who are reading this article and who really want to be accountable for our present and the future generations:

1. “I can do it!” If you still think “Someone will do it”, wake up. We have to start shaping the world for our future generations, and change has to happen within you first, with the belief “I can do it”

2. “Time is Now!”If you have the belief that “I can do it”, then the “time is now”. What are you waiting for?

3. “Together we are strong” No one individual can shape the world but together we can. For together, we are a strong bunch that cannot be broken. The path is not easy, but when we work together and the going gets tough, we shall get going.

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