KEY ISSUES…
How often do you think about clean water or climate change? Could you live on $1 a day? According to UNICEF, 25,000 children die each day due to poverty. There are 27 million people enslaved around the world due to human trafficking. Approximately, 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water; 2.6 billion lask basic sanitation. We may complain about the economic crisis and how we have to cut back on our gym memberships, but most of us – those reading this post – are extremely blessed. We have food. We have shelter. We have education. It’s easy to get caught up with the day-to-day of our own lives and not really connect with what’s going on in the larger world around us.
When I completed the Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century Executive Education Program in April 2009 at Harvard Kennedy School of Government my brain was full! The program was specially designed by Harvard University and the World Economic Forum exclusively for Young Global Leaders so we could better address the world’s most serious problems. Faculty included world-reowned scholars David Gergen, Ricardo Hausmann, Joseph Nye, Iris Bohnet, Bill George, Linda A. Hill, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Dean Julio Frenk, among others. In addition to discussing a global leadership framework, we focused on policy areas of critical importance in our age of globalization including:
Even though I had grown up traveling internationally and was familiar with economic development issues particularly in Africa, it was still very eye-opening. In fact, it kept me up for many nights after the program ended. I was disturbed and felt an even deeper commitment to doing my part in improving the state of this world. We each really can play a part so I thought we would continue the discussion here. Many of the issues are interrelated. One place to start is to become familiar with the UN Millennium Development Goals.
Contributed by Teresa Kay-Aba Kennedy, Ph.D., MBA. Part of the Power Living® Empowerment Series.
ADD YOUR VOICE: What global issues are you concerned about or want to learn more about? Post a comment here. I certainly don’t have all of the answers so I may call on some of my colleagues who are topical experts.
Photo Credit: zirconicusso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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