It all began with the Paris Conference. The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015, had been convened to negotiate the Paris Agreement, a global agreement on the reduction of climate change.
One of the lasting impacts of the conference has been the way it inspired youth to take action and bring their collective energies to foster what belongs to them – the world.
Thus initiated the Young Sustainable Impact by a group of Norwegian youth led by Maiuran Loganathan. The platform was envisioned as a place to bring together the greatest young entrepreneurs from all over the world – To create, prototype and implement real solutions to the 17 UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).
After one year the YSI now comprises of teams in 4 countries and representatives from 25 nations, all geared towards promoting one goal: bringing the greatest youth together to actually create change.
At its first year mark YSI succeeded in convening 20 entrepreneurs under 20 years old in Oslo. The participants were split into four teams and worked for a week on business models built around their chosen SDG.
This year the situation has been absolutely different!
Didrik Strøhm, YSI’s innovation director shared:
“There’s huge potential in getting youth to make something real, to create something that will actually impact the world. If you look at some of the biggest solutions, it comes from people like Mark Zuckerberg–young people who get facilitated in the right direction to utilize their knowledge and skills.”
A total of 10,000 applicants applied from more than 170 countries to be a part of this social innovation campaign.
Out of these 10,000 applicants only 25 entrepreneurs under 25 years old got selected. Five of them are from Pakistan.
Iqra Nadeem
A graduate from LUMS, Iqra Nadeem has a major in Physics and a minor in Biology. She has aslo co-founded the Harvard College Project Code Orange in Pakistan; an organization that caters to help disparities in the slums of Pakistan and worked at Technology for People Initiative at LUMS to help touch lives. Currently she is studying Technology and Policy at MIT.
Ali Mannan Tirmizi
A senior year student of Electrical engineering at LUMS, Ali Mannan is minoring in Physics. For the past two years he has been involved in working on the Space X Hyperloop pod design competition in Pakistan. A recipient of gold medal by the Hesselbein Global Academy, USA for his work in the field of education and leadership, Ali is currently working as design engineer at Soldrive.
Tashfeen Ahmed
A student of Computer Science and Business at LUMS, Tashfeen is the founder of a design-focused product development company, Black. He runs a social venture called Social Technology Hub, an online and offline platform where youngsters have the chance to learn skills to create technology for good.
Azad Saleem
A graduate in mechanical engineering from NUST, Islamabad, Azad Saleem is passionate to be a part of the global paradigm shift towards sustainability and green energy. He is currently pursuing a masters degree from the University of South Florida, US.
Muhammad Junaid
An Information Communication Technologies and MIS expert with specialization in Computer Science, Junaid is . Junaid has worked with various prominent public and private sector organizations in Pakistan and Canada in the Capacity of ICT/MIS Expert. He has been involved in work around developing policy-centered solutions that ensure accountability, sustainability, and transparency.
Speaking about the outcome of the YSI, Strøhm pointed out:
“What we’re trying to do is build a bridge between the youth who are driven and passionate and have a lot of potential and the companies that have a lot of experience and can guide them.”
From the platform of PakWired we wish our social innovators the very best of luck.
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