'Gov't, private sector tie-ups go a long way'

TWO representatives from Challenge Your World (CYW), an international venture striving to solve pressing global problems by leveraging collaboration between private and public sectors, are currently in the country to meet with environmental groups to discuss sustainable management.

CYW's communications director Will Taylor, who is here for a five-day visit as part of a seven-nation tour to Asia to meet with several environmental proponents to discuss sustainable management, said he has met with Earth Hour Brunei representatives.

He said he left the meeting "feeling that there's a significant synergy and that the representatives were looking forward to their project."

Taylor also said that they will be meeting with a government official in a day or two, but did not reveal from which ministry.

"The idea here is that many of us that are passionate about human sustainability and that it is in our (CYW) mission to address it. We have three key pillars namely environmental, social and economical issues," said Communications Director Will Taylor in an interview yesterday.

The concept that CYW has come up with is that they have gathered the youngest brightest minds around the world specifically universities, both graduate and undergraduate level, researchers and PhD holders to contribute to these types of issues.

"A concept where students are given an opportunity to address case studies or global problems that are brought in by a platform by what we term opportunity organisers," he said.

He added that government agencies, corporations and non-profit organisations can be exposed to significant sustainable issues at local, regional and international levels and will also be able to contribute to research papers and create communities.

"One step at a time, they can start building these solutions that can be implemented at the level of the issue and potentially bring it to other parts of the world where similar problems might also be experienced,"he said.

All this can be done in their website, www.challengeyourworld.com, which CYW Operations and Liaison Director Laura Leoncini dubbed the "social networking site for sustainable management".

"This is really an outreach for the student who is interested in meeting the needs of the world," she said.

For example, water management issues for example, energy efficiency issues or socially, women and empowerment, all these issues can be sectorised, she said.

"By finding a solution for your part of the world in a specific area, you can also bring new ideas to other parts of the world just by sheer collaboration and communication,"she said.

This was what was missing in higher education, Leoncini stressed, that bright young students have been able to come up with innovative and amazing solutions that they have experience in their campus or their own lives, but other students were unaware of these amazing discoveries.

"They do not know of these amazing accomplishments because there is not enough communication between them and for the same reason these bright young minds do not have the chance to be really exposed to other organisations," she said. Hana Roslan

The Brunei Times