Reflections from Davos: Youth are shaping their communities with human skills — will the world’s leaders engage them?

In January, I had the opportunity to attend the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, at the invitation of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

As a social entrepreneur, Davos is always an energizing and unique opportunity to connect with the world’s business and political leaders and to participate in impactful dialogues.

This year, I was particularly pleased to learn that six of the meeting’s co-chairs were under the age of 30.

I appreciate Davos as an opportunity to promote the meaningful engagement of youth in shaping the future economy. As a passionate believer in young people as catalysts for positive global change, seeing the World Economic Forum embrace youth as leaders was a reminder of the impact of shining a light on the power and potential of young people.

I was grateful for the opportunity to join a panel hosted by A.T. Kearney about the future of our digital workforce, and I attended multiple sessions focused on our shared economic future. You can view many of the livestreamed public sessions here. I particularly recommend Tackling the Growth Paradox, which features Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland, and a panel discussing the social aspects of Davos’ 2019 theme of Shaping a New Architecture for the Next Wave of Globalization.

Here are three of my takeaways from the week — key insights that emerged from the multiple ongoing dialogues about Artificial Intelligence, disruption, and shaping our global future:

Human skills are the key to our future economy.

Klaus Schwab set the stage this year by releasing a manifesto ahead of the annual meeting that emphasized a global shift to a circular and shared economy. In a digital world that will be driven by Artificial Intelligence, he reasons, we will need shifts in education to encompass learning that cultivates empathy, sensitivity, collaboration, and passion in order to use technology inclusively and effectively.

At DOT, our focus on supporting youth to develop “soft skills” — or human skills, as Seth Godin has dubbed them — integrated with digital essentials, is creating digital resilience that is resulting in economic opportunities and new livelihoods for young women and men.

Human skills will be essential assets in the future economy, and skills for both work and life are key to an economy that will only grow and prosper if sensitive to human factors.

Youth are using their human skills to transform their communities — at scale.

Young people today are increasingly purpose-driven. They are caring and interested in the world. Indeed, 70% state that they know what needs to be done to make their community better — and want the opportunity to do so.

When we support youth to develop their human skills and identify opportunities around them, they can transform entire communities.

We know that one young person can make a significant difference in the lives of people around them. With digital skills and a spirit of innovation, jobs and opportunities can be created — young people can be leaders and role models.

And, if enough of these leaders and role models are empowered in a community, they can transform outcomes for that community.

By 2045, there will be 460 million youth entering the workforce in Africa. Imagine if we supported just a fraction of that new workforce to be involved in transforming their communities and creating an inclusive future economy with opportunities for all.

At Davos, the world heard this from youth, loud and clear: youth are ready, but leaders are lagging.

The world needs to see how it’s done: shining a light on role model youth.

When we shine a light on the power and potential of young people, we can inspire not only youth but also the development community, the private sector, and world leaders to take notice.

By appointing as Davos co-chairs six young Global Shapers with inspiring impact in their communities, the World Economic Forum is doing this.

This year at Davos, with the emerging emphasis on architecture for the next wave of globalization, I was motivated to share Jeanne’s story as an example of a young woman who is single-handedly transforming financial systems for some of Rwanda’s most marginalized.

Jeanne was supported to build the human skills and digital skills she needs to apply her creativity and problem-solving to the challenges she saw around her. Her vision for a digital-first, accessible, and locally relevant financial system is already causing ripples and waves in Rwanda.

This visibility of the power of young women and men is important. We must listen to youth — a theme reinforced at Davos, and which I very much champion — but the world’s elite are not yet doing enough to meaningfully engage one of the largest and fastest growing populations.

Imagine a world in which the leaders at Davos, in discussing Shaping a New Architecture for the Next Wave of Globalization, listened to and involved the contributions of young innovators like Jeanne. Imagine if they were talking about the potential in those 460 million youth entering the workforce in Africa.

Youth like Jeanne are already shaping the architecture for the next wave of globalization. Will their voices be in the room?