Skoll Foundation & UN Foundation Launch ‘We the Future’

The Skoll Foundation, TED, and United Nations Foundation have partnered to catalyze conversations in support of bold systems change models helping to achieve progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The partners will host an event on September 21, 2017, “We the Future: Accelerating Sustainable Development Solutions” at TED Theater in New York, and will engage people around the world through livestreaming and social media conversations.

The event is part of Global Goals Week, an initiative founded by Project Everyone, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the UN Foundation, to engage policymakers, practitioners, and other innovators in events held alongside the UN General Assembly that highlight and advance momentum toward achieving the SDGs.

The SDGs, created in partnership with input from stakeholders around the world and adopted by world leaders at the United Nations, present a bold vision for the future: a world without poverty or hunger, in which all people have access to health care, education, and economic opportunity, with protected and thriving ecosystems. Achieving the 17 goals, which span economic, social, and environmental imperatives, will require broad participation in efforts to drive deep, systemic change.

As global leaders gather for the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly, the Skoll Foundation, TED, and UN Foundation believe this is the moment to come together to share models that transform the way we approach the goals that equip local and global leaders across sectors to accelerate achievement of the SDGs.

‘We the Future’ will gather social entrepreneurs, corporate pioneers, government innovators, artistic geniuses, and other changemakers to explore how we can learn from, strengthen, and scale the approaches that create a world of sustainable peace and prosperity.

Sally Osberg, President & CEO of the Skoll Foundation emphasized, “Social entrepreneurship is indispensable to meeting the ambitious targets of the SDGs. The transformative leadership of social entrepreneurs has proven catalytic to surfacing the most effective solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.”

TEDx Executive Director Jay Herratti added, “The conversation at ‘We the Future’ won’t just be limited to the walls of the TED Theatre. The very same week, the event’s topics will infuse conversations at 200+ TEDx gatherings of organizing teams around the world under the banner TEDxGlobalDay. TEDxGlobalDay is a day of global discussion and impact developed in collaboration with the Skoll Foundation.”

UN Foundation President & CEO Kathy Calvin said, “The Skoll Foundation, TED, and UN Foundation bring unique strengths and audiences to this partnership. Working together we can activate new networks as part of the Global Goals Week effort to drive progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.”

For more information, including how to participate in ‘We the Future’, visit wtfuture.org. To participate in the social media conversation, use the hash tags #WTFuture and #GlobalGoals.

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 About the Skoll Foundation

Jeff Skoll created the Skoll Foundation in 1999 to pursue his vision of a sustainable world of peace and prosperity. Led by CEO Sally Osberg since 2001, Skoll’s mission is to drive large-scale change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and the innovators who help them solve the world’s most pressing problems.

Social entrepreneurs are society’s change agents, creators of innovations that disrupt the status quo and transform our world for the better. By identifying the people and programs already bringing positive change around the world, we empower them to extend their reach, deepen their impact, and fundamentally improve society.

About TED and TEDx

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks delivered by today’s leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED’s annual gathering in Vancouver, Canada, its TEDWomen and TEDGlobal conferences, and at thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world, then made available, free, on TED.com and other channels. TEDx provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world.

About the United Nations Foundation

The United Nations Foundation builds public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and broadens support for the United Nations through advocacy and public outreach. Through innovative campaigns and initiatives, the Foundation connects people, ideas, and resources to help the UN solve global problems. The Foundation was created in 1998 as a U.S. public charity by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner and now is supported by philanthropic, corporate, government, and individual donors. Learn more at: www.unfoundation.org.