Fiona Smiddy, 2022 Chartered Star and Founder at Green Outlook, represented Chartered Accountants Ireland at One Young World (OYW) in Manchester last week, where she joined a Chartered Accountants Worldwide delegation. Here she shares her key learnings and takeaways from the international youth leadership event.
From start to finish there was no mundane chit chat whether in a workshop or on the dance floor. It was exciting, stimulating and thought provoking.
The unique thing about OYW is the coming together of 2,000+ individuals from over 190 countries all with a shared passion for a better world. Many of the delegates and returning ambassadors have won their place at OYW through competitions or scholarships. While the counsellors are made up of business, humanitarian and political leaders including great Irish representatives Sir Bob Geldof, Mary Robinson, Sinéad Burke and Ronan Dunne. Each individual was open to discussing the many critical and challenging topics that are affecting our society and the solutions that they were implementing locally.
To give an example on Tuesday evening I headed to dinner with a fellow Chartered Accountant James. We happened to sit with two guys from BMW India, Rajesh and Aftab. After an exchange of badge details (name and country) we dived into a quick geography lesson getting an insight into where in India their BMW offices were based. Then came the exciting piece as they told us of the circular economy project they had been working on at BMW, WeX/change. This project was tackling waste in the car manufacturing industry but it had scale to grow and transition across all manufacturing industries. Aftab explained how there didn’t need to be waste from manufacturing by creating a marketplace for packaging, off cuts, excess and by products. He pulled up a presentation on his phone which explained clearly how they were partnering currently with their Indian suppliers to resell secondary materials on the marketplace platform and the plans to expand to BMW Germany and beyond. This project resonated with me for its close links to UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 – Responsible Consumption and SDG 13 – Climate Action. We exchanged contact details and continued the conversation on the dance floor. The rest of the week continued in the same way, during the day we sat in on presentations and workshops while at lunch and in the evening it was a pick and mix of enlightening conversations and lots of dancing.
The Passion
The main stage of Manchester Central was the epicentre of passion at OYW2022. Delegates, Ambassadors, Counsellors and the One Young World founders took the stage over four days as they played on every emotion and ethical bone in our bodies.
The programme for this year’s summit was shaped by five Plenary Challenges and these were the focal point of content we heard:
• Conflict Prevention - How can we prevent conflicts?
• Gender Equality - How can we accelerate gender equality?
• Oceans - How can we safeguard and restore the world’s oceans?
• Ethical Leadership - How can we be and develop ethical leaders, more responsible and effective than previous generations?
• Health - How can we ensure health equity for all?
I was provided the unique opportunity of delivering a workshop with Chartered Accountants Worldwide which was delivered to a packed room of fifty participants. As the summit ran as a hybrid event, I was joined virtually by Dr Caroline McGroary, a Chartered Accountant and former Chartered Accountants Ireland ‘Chartered Star’. The topic of the workshop was Financial Literacy as an enabler of the UN SDGs. ICAS President Indy Hothi opened the workshop with a pre recorded video, followed by an introduction to financial literacy from Caroline and an interactive poll which established the level of financial literacy knowledge and the application of same by attendees. I talked to attendees about ‘The Power in Our Pocket’ and how when we engaged our knowledge of the UN SDGs with our spending and living habits we had the power to change the world. I then facilitated group work where attendees reflected on what they had heard and where they could pledge to take action in their local communities to improve financial literacy, particularly amongst at risk groups. The passion of participants for financial literacy was evident amongst all in the room. Participants were encouraged to get involved in the FinBiz2030 taskforces, a joint initiative between One Young World and Chartered Accountants Worldwide which aims to establish an active and engaged finance and business community globally that is dedicated to achieving the UN SDGs.
The Pride
Overall, the summit was a reminder that no matter how much bad news we hear online, and, in the media, there are people across the world working tirelessly for positive change. The future is bright, and collaboration is key. And so, it was fitting I finished the week with a breakfast catch up with the Chartered Accountants Worldwide delegation group where we reflected on the importance of Chartered Accountants in the transition to Net Zero and the achievement of the UN SDGs. We made plans to stay connected and to support each other on our relevant projects and endeavours.
I now transition from first time attending OYW delegate to a OYW Ambassador. From what I heard and learnt this week, that entails great responsibility. A responsibility to remember the people I met, the passion they displayed, and our responsibility as young leaders to create a new world. To build on the work of those who are championing change and to amplify the voices and needs of those societies most at risk globally.
As Mary Robinson said at the opening ceremony, “What if our best world is still ahead of us”.
Thank you Chartered Accountants Ireland for this opportunity to attend One Young World 2022. I am so proud to be part of such a brilliant community and profession championing positive change. I look forward to seeing the build up to One Young World 2023 in Belfast.