The inaugural cohort of the Generation Connect Young Leadership Programme (GCYLP) fellows completed their development week in Switzerland.
The GCYLP, an initiative launched by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in partnership with Huawei, supports 30 fellows each year for a period of three years. Aged 18-28, the fellows will receive mentorship and financial support in their projects to use digital technology to drive community development through the course of one year.
The week-long activities included leadership fireside chats, an intergenerational panel discussion, and visits to Geneva University, Palais de Nations, as well as Huawei Switzerland in Zurich. In addition to the initial development week, the program also provides online mentoring sessions, virtual “fireside chats” with industry experts, group projects with other participants, and other online programs.
The program has generated high levels of interest. The 30 initial fellows were selected by a global jury from a pool of 5,249 applicants from over 200 countries worldwide.
Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, said he looks forward to having the fellows, who represent 28 countries spanning across five continents, bring their innovative ideas to life to impact people’s lives around the world.
“Seizing opportunities and creating new ones, being collaborative and resilient, as well as adopting a multi-disciplinary approach for a multi-sectoral world in which we find ourselves, will go a long way in helping you succeed,” he said.
John Omo, Secretary-General of the African Telecommunications Union, as well as GCYLP’s global jury members Corinne Momal-Vanian, Executive Director of Kofi Annan Foundation and Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, Undersecretary, Department of Information and Communications Technology of the Philippines, encouraged the fellows to make their digital development ideas a reality.
Selina Wen, Chief Representative to the EU Institutions and Vice President of Public Affairs for Europe at Huawei, said young leaders “have played and will continue to play an important role in the digital era, at a time when the enabling power of technology should be further harnessed to address the most pressing social challenges”.
“The projects you have presented are exactly what the real world is calling for,” she said. The fellows’ project ideas cut across fields from inclusive healthcare, innovative digital skills training to efficient energy storage and circular economy.
The program was announced in November 2023 by Huawei Chairman Liang Hua and ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, and applications for the inaugural cohort opened in February. Over the next two years, two more groups, totally nearly 100 young visionaries from around the world, will embark on a similar journey.