LocationsGeneration17 welcomes three new Young Leaders
June 28, 2023
UNDP and Samsung have invited three new Young Leaders to join Generation17, an initiative that elevates the voices and enables the success of young changemakers working to accelerate progress for the 17 Global Goals. Together, this community of visionaries strives to educate more people about critical global challenges and the solutions needed to deliver a more prosperous future by 2030.
For the first time, UNDP and Samsung conducted an open call that rallied thousands of passionate young people from all over the world. The three new members were chosen from a pool of more than 1,400 applicants. They will add new perspectives to Generation17, and their projects will advance new solutions in education, skills and training and health equity.
Zubair Junjunia is a social entrepreneur in the United Kingdom, advocating for fair and equal access to education through the global learning platform, ZNotes, which he founded.
Zubair refers to himself as an educational activist on a mission to end educational inequality for young people everywhere.
"I started ZNotes at the age of 16, witnessing first-hand the uneven playing field of education with disparities in neighbouring schools, compared to those my family members faced in other parts of the world. What inspires me is the power and impact of young people standing for a cause as ZNotes transformed from a small school project to a global student movement and has organically reached over 4 million in pursuit of Sustainable Development Goal 4 - for every young person to have access to equitable quality education."
Priscilla Efe Johnson is a gender equality activist from Nigeria working to de-stigmatize women’s health through Xari Africa, a female-led organization providing girls with sexual and reproductive health resources.
Efe is passionate about social impact, feminism, media and youth leadership, and believes that young people can make a difference when given the chance.
“The first time I got my period I was scared, stained and ashamed. I did not know what was happening to me. My personal experience led me into the sexual and reproductive health rights space at 18 years when I began my first ‘Pad a girl’ campaign. I visited secondary schools to educate and distribute free sanitary care. Shortly after, I launched Xari Africa to provide education for girls where we created ‘Just period it,’ a practical manual for understanding menstruation, which is now being used in secondary schools across Northern Nigeria. My drive was born mainly from personal experience and a personal responsibility to give future Africans a better experience than I had. Sexual and reproductive health is everybody’s business. This fight, this passion, is personal. I want better for girls like me.”
Mock Yi Jun is an education leader and co-founder of Advisory Singapore, a youth-led charity dedicated to empowering young people from all walks of life to make informed career and education choices.
Yi Jun's Advisory has worked with over 163,000 students and youth since its establishment, raised over $140,000 for its work, and runs Singapore's largest pro bono careers-based mentorship for students with over 11,000 hours of mentorship delivered since 2020.
“Growing up, I saw the transformative power of education in enabling people to be their best selves and empowering them to contribute to society. Our work at Advisory Singapore is predicated on the belief that every young person – no matter their family background, socio-economic circumstance, or schooling history – deserves the chance to pursue their aspirations, to undertake meaningful work, and to have a fair shot at life.”
UNDP and Samsung launched Generation17 in October 2020. Since then, Generation17 has rallied 17 Young Leaders from across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America.
Together, UNDP and Samsung provide the Young Leaders with the latest Galaxy technology, mentorship, access to agenda-setting events and other opportunities to scale their platforms and connect them with their peers and global decision makers. Generation17 Young Leaders have participated in the UN ECOSOC Youth Forum, UN Water Conference, Stockholm +50, COP27, Samsung Galaxy’s Unpacked and side events at the United Nations General Assembly.
Generation17 young leaders, Daniel Calarco, Kristian Kampmann and Thuy Anh Ngo, are seen in this photo, standing alongside other young leaders from around the world at the ECOSOC Youth Forum 2023, which took place in New York in April 2023.
Generation17 is grounded in UNDP and Samsung’s commitment to leverage technology as a force for good. The two organizations first partnered in 2019 to create the Samsung Global Goals app, an education and donation-based mobile app that informs people about the Global Goals and encourages them to take action just by using their Galaxy devices. The app has been installed on nearly 300 million Galaxy devices, including smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, and has enabled the Galaxy community to generate more than US$10 million to UNDP’s work to promote environmental and social resilience around the world.
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