On 28 September, Nobel Laureate and SDG Advocate Professor Muhammad Yunus delivered a keynote address at the One Young World Summit in Ottawa on the grounds of Parliament Hill. Professor Yunus’ speech followed that of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the grand opening of the Summit, which brought together 1,300 young leaders from more than 196 countries.
Professor Yunus urged the young delegates to not accept the world that is handed to them but rather build the world of their own dreams. He said he dreams of a world where there is Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment and Zero Net Carbon Emissions. He said that in order to achieve these three things that he saw three mega powers to achieve this – the power of youth, the power of technology and the power of social business. The young people should get to work now to create the world that they would like to live in and create a new civilization as this current greed based civilization would not last much longer.
Prime Minister Trudeau told the young audience that they were the leaders of today, and was happy that the Summit of brilliant young leaders had come to Ottawa. The other two keynote speakers at the opening session were former Irish President Mary Robinson and poverty activist and musician Bob Geldof.
Professor Yunus also delivered a master class on social business under the auspices of the One Young World. During the six hour event, there were presentations and panels on social business from Bangladesh and from Canadian practitioners and universities that are getting involved in social business.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier had a separate discussion with Prof. Yunus on youth issues and later tweeted about his meeting with Prof Yunus stating “Muhammad Yunus has dedicated his life to fighting poverty. @OneYoungWorld delegates are lucky to learn from him this week in Ottawa.”
The global forum brought together 1,300 delegates between the ages of 18 and 30 from 196 different countries. During the three-day Summit, young leaders from all around the world presented their work and interacted with the Counsellors who are global leaders in different fields. This is the seventh One Young World Summit. Yunus has been a Counsellor since the first Summit.
Screenshot of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s tweet on Muhammad Yunus