Prime Minister Trudeau and Yunus address One Young World Global Summit in Ottawa
Yunus Centre Press Release:
Prime Minister in discussion with Professor Yunus on youth issues before the opening of the One Young World Summit on 28 September at Parliament Hill.
Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus delivered a keynote address at the One Young World Summit in Ottawa on the evening of 28 September on the grounds of Parliament Hill. Professor Yunus speech followed that of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the grand opening of the Summit which brings together 1,300 young leaders from more than 196 countries. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier met with the Counselors of the One Young World Summit . He had a separate discussion with Prof Yunus on youth issues and later tweeted about his meeting with Prof Yunus stating "Muhammad Yunus has dedicated his life to fighting poverty. @OneYoungWorld delegates are lucky to learn from him this week in Ottawa."
Professor Yunus urged the young delegates to not accept the world that is handed to them rather build the world of their own dreams. He said he dreams of a world where there is Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment and Zero Net Carbon Emissions. He said that in order to achieve these three things that he saw three mega powers to achieve this - the power of youth, the power of technology and the power of social business. The young people should get to work now to create the world that they would like to live in and create a new civilization as this current greed based civilization would not last much longer.
Prime Minister Trudeau told the young audience that they were the leaders of today, and was happy that the Summit of brilliant young leaders had come to Ottawa. The other two keynote speakers at the opening session were former Irish President Mary Robinson and poverty activist and musician Bob Geldof.
The flag ceremony took place with one of the 10 young delegates accompanying Professor Muhammad Yunus to the One Young World Summit as the flag bearer for Bangladesh.
The global forum taking place in Ottawa this week bringing together 1,300 delegates between the ages of 18 and 30 from 196 different countries. During the three-day Summit, young leaders from all around the world will present their work and interact and learn from the Counsellors who are global leaders in different fields at the Shaw Centre in Canada's capital on global issues. This is the seventh One Young World Summit. Yunus has been a Counsellor since the first Summit.
Earlier in the day, under the auspices of the One Young World. a special forum on Social Business took place where Professor Yunus delivered a master class on social business. During the six hour event, there were presentations and panels on social business from Bangladesh and from Canadian practitioners and universities that are getting involved in social business. The forum which this year for the first time forms part of the One Young World Summit was attended by 300 participants.
On 29 September, Professor Yunus will address a plenary session attended by all 1,300 delegates of One Young World on how social business can be a tool to achieve the Three Zeroes - Zero Poverty Zero Unemployment and Zero Net Carbon Emissions.
Photo Caption 2: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted " Muhammad Yunus has dedicated his life to fighting poverty. @OneYoungWorld delegates are lucky to learn from him this week in Ottawa"
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