Progress report for
UN Junior Ambassadors for Sustainable Development and SE4All
Achievement at a glance
2018 WOSL partnered with the Ethiopian Space Science Society and the Ethiopian Ministry of Science and technology to provide scholarships to Ethiopian Students joining the 2019 UN Junior Ambassador Program Cohort. Academic instruction on UN SDG's was taken at Claremont Graduate University for several weeks followed by continued instruction at MIT in Boston MA. A delegation of the 2019 Cohort then attended Leadership meetings at Diplomatic Offices in and around Washington DC and New York along with Cohort presentations at the UN Headquarters.2018 Host Country service-learning included travel to Addis Ababa for meetings and discussions with public, private, and government institutions to develop plans to extend SDG awareness and economic development opportunities for local host communities.
2019 WOSL partnered with federal government of Ecuador to investigate affordable housing projects. Government and private company liaisons worked with WOSL 2019 Cohort to analyze and provide recommendations for housing investment and budget proposal. WOSL 2019 Cohort visited local host communities to spread SDG awareness and examine economic development opportunities.
2020 WOSL program revised to accommodate lock-down logistics by hosting interactive virtual instruction with faculty at Claremont Graduate University, MIT, Nasa JPL, and UN. Delegates attending virtual program are eligible for "in person" program post Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
Challenges faced in implementation
As a stand-alone non-profit with no institutional funding, WOSL's objectives and achievements are directly correlated to available budget and corresponding constraints. While most instructional effort is performed on a voluntary basis, hard costs such as travel and lodging require a set budget. WOSL management continue to investigate effective ways of self-financing operations with the goal of refining a sustainable revenue model to grow operations and program outreach.Beneficiaries
All students domestically (USA) and Internationally High school and College Students and "Host" Community Stakeholders.
Actions
Through rigorous academic instruction, cross cultural team building, leadership training, UN Junior Ambassadors are provided with life-changing skills which are tested during host-country service learning projects.Host Communities / Civic institutions - Every engagement with a host country entails identifying an economically, environmental, or societal aligned project with a core stakeholdership. These "project" stakeholders are typically connected to WOSL through business, private, and public liaisons. A clearly defined project scope provide the framework and agreed upon deliverables that WOSL via the UN Junior Ambassador Program commit to deliver.