Bill and Melinda Gates co-host Goalkeepers 2018 in New York City

United States

The 2018 Goalkeepers events focused on the potential of young people to propel global progress and highlighted themes from Bill and Melinda Gates's 2018 Goalkeepers Data Report. Issued on September 18, the report shows how investing in "human capital" - the health and education of young people-unlocks productivity and innovation, reduces poverty, and generates prosperity.

Three new high-level partnerships, called "Accelerators," were announced at the Goalkeepers event on September 26. These Accelerators will catalyze progress toward the Global Goals by offering funding and programmatic support toward increasing early literacy, eliminating child marriage, and empowering young people to use data to drive progress toward the Global Goals.

Goalkeepers Youth Action Accelerator: This Accelerator will empower young people (ages 18-35) to source and use data to hold public, private, and government leaders accountable for achieving the Global Goals. Led by CIVICUS and the Gates Foundation, with an advisory committee comprised of representatives from the Obama Foundation, the George W. Bush Institute, Restless Development, and Action for Sustainable Development, this Accelerator will provide up to 30 young leaders with hands-on and technical support, mentorship, and direct funding of up to $30,000 each. Applications will be open until October 31, 2019, and program participants will be announced in late November.

Scaling Early Literacy: This Accelerator brings together Room to Read - a leading nonprofit focused on girls' education and children's literacy in Asia and Africa - with a variety of partners to scale the organization's approach to increasing literacy skills and helping children develop a habit of reading early in life. The Accelerator will expand Room to Read's country-specific programming in India, Vietnam, and South Africa with $3.5 million in new funding from Credit Suisse, Dubai Cares, and Four Acre Trust, furthering Room to Read's goal of reaching more than 1.1 million additional children in these countries over the next three years.

Girls First Fund: This Accelerator will launch the Girls First Fund, a collaborative new partnership to end child marriage. Founding donors and implementers include Girls Not Brides, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), the Ford Foundation, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, the Kendeda Fund, the NoVo Foundation, Capital for Good USA, and Geneva Global. The Girls First Fund will identify the most promising community-based organizations, particularly those led by girls, women, and youth, and provide them with multi-year funding to develop and pursue local solutions to ending child marriage.

The Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards were presented on September 25, with participants including Prime Minister Solberg, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mohammed, UNICEF's Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore, and British singer songwriter Ed Sheeran. In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UNICEF, the event celebrated outstanding youth-focused work around the world that is directly linked to the 17 Global Goals. The Campaign Award was presented to Amika George, founder of #FreePeriods, a campaign that works to ensure no girl in the United Kingdom suffers from period poverty. The Progress Award was presented to Dysmus Kisilu, founder of Solar Freeze, which provides renewable energy solutions to smallholder farmers in Kenya to increase agricultural productivity. And the Changemaker Award was presented to Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman who advocates on behalf of her community and survivors of genocide. Loyiso Madinga, stand-up comedian and Africa correspondent on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah," hosted the awards.

During the Goalkeepers event on September 26, President Macron and Bill and Melinda Gates held an on-stage conversation about global progress. Other speakers and participants included President Bio of Sierra Leone, who shared his country's vision for human capital development; Richard Curtis, writer, campaigner, and Project Everyone co-founder; Stephen Fry, actor, writer, and presenter; Graça Machel, international advocate for women and children's rights and Co-founder of the Graça Machel Trust; David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee; Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and child rights activist; David Sengeh, chief innovation officer for the government of Sierra Leone; and Trisha Shetty, lawyer, social activist, and founder of SheSays. The event was hosted by Nancy Kacungira, award-winning BBC World News presenter, and Savannah Sellers, NBC News host.

The Goalkeepers Global Youth Poll, released on September 24, found that young people are more optimistic about their future, the future of their country, and the future of the world than older people. Levels of optimism are highest in lower- and middle-income countries, where young people (ages 12-24) are the most optimistic group across all measures. The poll also found that young people in these countries are more likely to believe they can affect the way their countries are governed and that their generation will have a more positive impact on the world than their parents' generation.

The Goalkeepers campaign was launched with the release of "We the Goalkeepers," a short film based on an original piece by spoken word poet and youth activist Aranya Johar, who also participated in the Goalkeepers event. The film was directed by the award-winning director, Joyeeta Patpatia, and focuses on young "Goalkeepers" working around the world to advance the Global Goals.