SDG | GLOBAL BEST PRACTICE

PROGRAMME ASSEMBLY
Leave No One Behind –
Social Development Track
Global Goals Week

EVENT DETAILS
DATE: Thursday, 20 January 2022
TIME: 12:00 - 16:30
FORMAT: Hybrid
VENUE: DEC Hall 2A South
EVENT OVERVIEW
Expo 2020 Dubai’s Global Best Practice Programme aims to advance collective progress towards
the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by spotlighting tangible and local solutions that can
be replicated, adapted, and scaled around the world. The Global Best Practices Programme’s
Assembly will serve as an exciting platform for change makers, innovators and entrepreneurs from
the Programme and beyond to celebrate real solutions to the world’s biggest challenges, create
networks, share ideas, and engage in interactive learning to drive even greater impact.

The event will spotlight select individuals and institutions actively designing solutions for change,
and involve expert facilitators from around the world for three interactive ‘masterclasses’ focused
on skills critical for adapting, scaling, and sustaining meaningful solutions:

• A Human-Centred Approach to Problem-Solving: Working with affected stakeholders and

intended beneficiaries at all levels of the problem-solving process, so that programs and
projects are developed with them, not just for them.
• Identifying & Assessing Creative Funding Strategies: Changemakers and innovators navigate
complex funding landscapes and seek out creative financing strategies to bring ideas to scale
and help reach the last mile.
• Storytelling for Impact: Using the art of storytelling can be used to engage communities,
catalyse partnerships, and encourage the spread of ideas and best practices around the world.

AGENDA

TIME ACTIVITY

11:30 – 12:00 Registration

Start the day with an informal opportunity to meet and connect with other
attendees and best practice projects from across the world.

12:00 – 12:05 Welcome

The event will commence with welcome remarks by Jessy El Murr, Senior
Journalist and Host providing an overview of the diverse programme of the
day and outlining how simple yet impactful interventions are localising the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the world through best
practices.

12:05 – 12:15 Small Steps, Big Leaps

The Expo is a platform that brings together ideas and solutions from across
the world. Hear from H.E. Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for
International Cooperation and Director General, Expo 2020 Dubai, sharing
how the Programme’s 50 success stories are being shared with millions of
Expo visitors with far reaching impacts, ensuring no one is left behind.

12:15 – 12:20 Agenda 2030

H.E Maimunah Mohd Sharif (TBC), Executive Director, UN-Habitat, will provide
an overview of how UN-Habitat’s work is promoting transformative change in
cities and human settlements across the world to drive forward Agenda 2030
and the Decade of Action.
12:20 – 12:30 Building the Next Generation of Changemakers

Blessing Omakwu (TBC), Advisor Emeritus and Deputy Director, Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation where she leads the Goalkeepers Initiative, will deliver a
keynote on the urgency and promise of cultivating the next generation of
change makers to meet some of the world’s greatest challenges. Blessing
Omakwu will draw from her own experience in building systems and networks
to foster and lift-up new ideas, voices and leaders.

12:30 – 13:00 Changemaker Dialogues

Showcasing the diversity and creativity of work from the Global Best Practice
Programme, Blessing Omakwu (TBC) will moderate a round of lightning chats
with representatives from three projects that illustrate best practices in action
across the Programme’s cross-cutting themes: Gender Equality, Climate
Change and Disaster Risk, and Good Governance and Strong Institutions:

Ana María Medina, Laboratoria: Outlining how they train low-income women
in Latin America to develop careers in technology and integrate them into the
digital sector

Fariel Salahuddin, CEO, UpTrade (Goats for Water): Sharing how UpTrade is
enabling off-grid rural communities to exchange livestock for solar-powered
water pumps in Pakistan

Monica Dey, Senior Business Development Strategist, Sanergy: Providing

insights into how Sanergy is building hygienic, affordable and accessible
sanitation throughout Africa.

13:00 – 13:20 Partnerships for Scale

Meagan Fallone, Member Board of Directors and former CEO, Barefoot

College International, Dr. Hayat Sindi (TBC) Founder, Diagnostics For All will
host a dynamic fireside discussion on the importance of partnerships with
diverse actors to achieve scale.

The conversation will touch on the ways partnerships across sectors can
unlock new resources and knowledge bases, and how these partnerships can
help initiatives expand impact and evolve to meet changing needs in new
environments. This session will be moderated by Jessy El Murr, Senior
Journalist and Host.

13:20 – 14:00 Light Lunch and Networking Session

14:00 – 14:40 Interactive Masterclass: A Human-Centred Approach to Problem-Solving

Working with stakeholders and intended beneficiaries at all levels of the

problem-solving process, so that programmes and projects are developed
with them, not just for them.

Bernhard Kowatsch, Head, World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator,

will share insights on ‘human-centred design’ – what it means to truly centre
solutions around beneficiaries’ wants and needs, and how doing so can
transform impact. Guests and participants will learn key design thinking
principles, methods, and techniques for stakeholder engagement throughout
the problem-solving process to define their own needs, and how these
solutions can fit into their own best practices and solutions.

The session will conclude with a Q&A session between participants to share
further learnings and thoughts.

14:40 – 15:20 Interactive Masterclass: Identifying & Assessing

Creative Funding Strategies

Change makers and innovators will learn to navigate complex funding

landscapes and seek out creative financing strategies to bring ideas to scale
and help reach the last mile.

Hear from Lisa Kurbiel (virtual), Head of Secretariat, UN Joint SDG Fund,
sharing her perspectives on partnering with the private sector in funding
social impact innovations towards meeting the SDGs, highlighting two focus
areas 1) Access to financial capital and 2) Advance market commitments.

Following this introduction, the session will feature a case study led by Sue
Stevenson, Director of Strategic Partnerships and International Development,
Barefoot College International and Imran Mufti, Partner, Hogan Lovells which
exemplifies some of the most common financing-related barriers to scale.
Participants will be encouraged to share ideas and rapidly problem solve
together.

The masterclass will end with a summary on how to find and leverage funding
mechanisms.

15:20 – 15:30 Coffee Break

15:30 – 16:15 Interactive Masterclass: Storytelling for Impact

How can the art of storytelling be used to engage communities, catalyse

partnerships, and encourage the spread of ideas and best practices around
the world?

From social movements to non-profits and foundations, stories are an

essential tool to advance innovations which bring meaningful change.
Effective storytelling drives action, spurs donations and mobilises supporters
by building human and emotional connections with the work. This masterclass
will take participants through pathways and tools they can leverage in
creating “identities”, telling their stories, and connecting with their target
audiences.

Ogilvy and Emily Staub, Associate Director, The Carter Center will facilitate
this session outlining how storytelling can and should in still dignity, while
striving to create an environment of positivity that strengthens long-term
relationships between the public, private and the development and
humanitarian sectors. Hear from a number of best practice projects
discussing proven methods to identify and narrate human stories behind their
work to communicate sustainable impact.

The session will end with an interactive Q&A session with the audience.

16:15 – 16:30 Closing Celebration: The Decade of Action

Maher Nasser, Commissioner-General for the United Nations’ Participation in

Expo 2020 Dubai and Clare Shine (TBC), CEO and Director of University of
Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), Co-Chair of the
Global Best Practice Programme will close the event and share their vision of
how ideas, ambitions and innovations from the Expo can be scaled up and
carried forward to achieve Agenda 2030.