Service and Entrepreneurship Key Young Leaders are Told at World Bank Forums
WASHINGTON, DC – Leadership is challenging but today’s young generation will have to exercise more of it. This was the message to the 150 international young professionals and student leaders attending forums on service and entrepreneurship at the World Bank Monday.
“A leader must be like an eagle and fly alone,” said World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati in welcoming the group. “If you want to be a duck, stick with your friends.” She stressed that leaders need a strong moral compass, drawing on her experience as Indonesia’s finance minister when her efforts against corruption earned her criticism from her peers.
Sr. Mulyani Indrawati, Managing Director of the World Bank.
Brano Kralik, Co-Secretary General, World Bank Youth to Youth.
The forums were part of the 2nd International Young Leaders Assembly, a program on “Moral and Innovative Leadership: Vision, Service, and Entrepreneurship,” held in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. The program drew 800 participants from 75 countries over the course of its nine days.
Sri Indrawati said that “moral” and “innovative” in connection with leadership, are very important terms, noting that technology allows many more innovative approaches to pursuing moral goals. She gave the example of information technology which allowed much greater transparency, an important tool in fighting corruption.
Speakers noted that this is the largest generation of youth the world has ever known and that following past patterns of job creation could not employ them all. The young will have to play a much greater role in building their own futures, and entrepreneurship and volunteerism will be central to that process.
“Volunteerism is at the heart of good governance” and is part of creating engaged and participatory democracy.Concetta Bencivenga of generationOn, a Points of Light initiative, reminded participants that Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi had started their campaigns for justice at the ages of 26 and 24 respectively. Points of Light is a co-convenor of the IYLA program.
