“There’s an existential question here,” said World YMCA Secretary-General Carlos Sanvee at the start of the morning-long opening plenary session on the second day of the YMCA Accelerator Summit in Mombasa, Kenya, 21-25 October 2024. “‘How do organisations like the YMCA remain relevant in 2050?’”
“The answer? By staying real and relevant for young people and by continuing to teach them the irreplaceable skills – like creativity, emotional intelligence, and leadership – which AI can’t.”
“In just two years, we’ve moved from strategy to infrastructure to implementation. We’ve earned seats at important tables. But sometimes in life, you need more energy to climb a steep hill, catch up, or move to the front of the pack. The YMCA is in that exact moment – for all three of those reasons.”
It was a theme both shared and illustrated by the UN Generation Unlimited CEO Kevin Frey, who joined him on stage.
“What we needed at GenU was focus and alignment, and we got there by moving from a focus on projects – to programmes – to what we call ‘population scale impact’. That’s why I congratulate YMCA on Vision 2030: I think from what I have seen that you have taken the enormous complexity of what is YMCA global and distilled it into a very compelling vision. It’s about execution- it’s about making this vision come to life and deliver impact.”
“And you design a very different programme if at the start you are design with the success metric which is a job, versus a certificate of completion.”
“And use your convening power: you have a huge and trusted brand, that organisations want to be associated with. There are very few organisations worldwide positioned to deliver impact at scale on the lives of young people – one is the United Nations, and another is the YMCA.”
World YMCA Director of Global Partnerships Kathleen Elsig then led a panel discussion on how collaboration with partners, based on shared values, trust, and strategic goals, is creating real change in communities.
Sharon Dimanche from the International Organization on Migration (IOM) pointed out that 281 million people — 3.6 percent of the global population — are migrants. While people migrate for various reasons such as economic opportunities and education, by 2022, 117 million were displaced due to climate change, conflict, and other challenges.
José Caporal, CEO of ACM Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, knows the devastating impact of recent floods that occurred in May in his area in Brazil, which claimed hundreds of lives, affected over 2 million people, and displaced more than 600,000.
John Matogo highlighted IBM’s approach to social investment, which focuses on three areas: workforce development, sustainability initiatives, and volunteerism, while remaining accountable to the company’s corporate office.
Margaret Mengo from Habitat for Humanity International, Africa, spoke about the synergy between their work and the YMCA’s mission. Like IBM, they are focusing on three core priorities: building more and better, expanding advocacy and partnerships, and involving young people at different levels.
The meeting was then addressed via video message by the UN Assistant Secretary General for Youth Affairs, Felipe Paullier, who heads the newly established UN Youth Office.
“Across all of my professional career working on youth affairs … I have seen the transformative work that YMCA is leading around the world. I want to congratulate the entire YMCA team for developing your first ever global strategy, Vision 2030.”
“This strategy is a powerful step forward, and … will enable you to scale up your impact and work more cohesively with partners like the United Nations.”
“Your efforts to address holistically the interconnected issues of economic opportunity, social justice and an environmentally sustainable planet are a model for others to follow, and I want to underscore the importance of working in partnership with public institutions, civil society, and private sector. The challenges we face are too complex for any single actor to tackle them alone.”
The morning-long session also included a review of YMCA progress on the Meaningful Work pillar of Vision 2030, chaired by Pedro Fueyo, CEO of YMCA Spain.
Caroline Mugalla, Regional Director at the International Labour Organization, set the African context of a continent in which almost 80% of all jobs are in the formal economy, with population growth meaning that the youngest continent will get ever younger, with 76 million more young people by 2050.
Jacqueline Spence, Workforce Transformation Manager at Deloitte Australia, shared the findings of YMCA global research which revealed that youth unemployment rates are three times higher than the average, 40% of young people are without hope for their future, and over 50% of young people are affected in some way by mental stress. She set out the 12 Standards of Meaningful Work emanating from the research, which are now being road-tested with partner organisations like the ILO and the OECD.
Amos Chua, Head of Department for Youth Services at YMCA Singapore, then spoke about the realities of transformative work opportunities for young people.
The four heads of the YMCA’s regional Area Alliances (Nirina Rakotomalala, Africa; Juan Simoes Iglesias, Europe; Nam Boo-won, Asia Pacific; and Antonio Merino, Latin America & Caribbean) were then questioned on their responses to Vision 2030 by leaders from the two largest national Movements: Peter Dinsdale, Canada, and Tom Valentine, USA.
Each spoke about both the complementarity and added value of merging regional strategies with a global strategy. They explored issues such as communications, data-gathering and fundraising – challenges and opportunities alike. “But now we all have the same elevator speech,” said Juan Simoes.
“This is about the Swahili word Harambee, or pulling together”, said Tom Valentine. “Vision 2030 is not something which is dropped from above – it’s the expression of millions of acts of kindness in thousands of communities around the world every day which leads to the change of a better world which we are trying to create through the YMCA.”
