The Global Development Initiative: Where Does Gen Z fit in?

BEIJING, March 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To encourage young people to fully understand the Global Development Initiative which was brought up by President Xi Jinping in 2021, and to contribute youth wisdom to building a better shared future for humankind, China Daily's episode of Youth Power invited Gen Z guests from around the world to engage in a conversation on this topic. This episode of Youth Power was broadcast online to a global audience on March 30.

With global development at a crossroads, when attending the high-level General Debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, President Xi Jinping proposed the "Global Development Initiative" and put emphasis on staying committed to a people-centered approach, development as a priority, benefits for all, innovation-driven development, harmony between man and nature, as well as results-oriented actions.

President Xi Jinping called upon the international community to strengthen cooperation in the eight areas of poverty alleviation, food security, COVID-19 response, vaccines, development financing, climate change and green development, industrialization, digital economy and connectivity, speeding up the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and promoting stronger, greener and healthier global progress, so as to build a global community of growth with a shared future.

On this episode "Gen Z Responds to China's Global Development Initiative", Generation Z guests from across the world discuss their thoughts on the eight key areas discussed by President Xi and give a fresh new perspective on Xi's initiatives. After all, young people are the future world leaders, their ideas are the seeds for change in the coming years. 

Guests proposed solutions to help push forward progress in at least one or two of the outlined key areas, and a panel of their peers voted to agree, disagree, or abstain.

Guests submitted compelling proposals which received overwhelming support from the panel of their peers. In the area of green development, one guest proposed increased venue capital investment in clean green technologies. Eric Muellejans, from Canada, remarked that people tend to care more about the "green" in their bank account than in the environment. Raising the question "do [businesses] sacrifice having a more sustainable company over immediate profits?" To which he responded that "the imperative to choose green technology over profit will be a question [people won't] be asking in 5 years". He believes that Generation Z as youth future leaders and global change makers, should "look into [their] relationships and communities [they] drive to actually green-up [their] partnerships and what [they] deliver in value to [their] immediate community".

While green development seemed to be a priority across the panel, one guest abstained from agreeing to the proposal. Remarking that there were more pressing issues in his home country, which put green development on the backburner. Shamin Zakaria, from India, argued that for India "there are basic problems that need to be solved… food security or chronic poverty". Shamim later proposed that the solutions to such problems in India could be resolved with a "public-private partnership between the government of India and Chinese Tech-giants with a focus on Artificial Intelligence", praising China for vanquishing "absolute poverty" in 2021.

Beyond large scale government and private sector initiatives, panelists called for increased grassroots action. Widely supporting the idea that individual efforts can make a difference. Jennifer Holstein, from the United States, encouraged fellow young people to become involved in local organizations and push forward grassroots efforts.  Sharing her own example of how she cycled around China and linked her "bike ride to a charity, providing or facilitating healthcare, to abused women, migrant children, all these groups in need…raising 20,000 RMB".

In addition to the panelists, several online guests joined this episode. Alex Tani, from the UK, proposed climate change will impact every part of life ranging from natural disasters to food security issues. To respond to this Tani suggests people "should get together to cooperate and create organizations where they can share dialogue, think of ideas to tackle these problems". 

With the world changing in unexpected ways every day, Generation Z are the leaders, change makers, and voices of the future. In this episode, young people around the world showed themselves to be knowledgeable and ready to tackle the challenges presented in the world today.

Youth Power is a media program under China Daily, an English news platform, that aims to give a voice to young people and see their ideas and thoughts heard across the world.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202203/25/WS623d95e6a310fd2b29e5365f.html

SOURCE China Daily; Youth Power