The challenges of the 21st century, summed up in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), call for a new generation of leaders across contexts and around the world. However, the majority of youth living in the Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) have limited access to global networks and few opportunities for the kind of leadership education that will help them to develop connections and practical skills that will help them initiate meaningful collaborative action related to the SDGs.

The Global Leadership Challenge (GLC) brings together emerging leaders in a hybrid format (online globally with in-person components for students in Oxford) to champion an approach to disseminating the science of leadership. Participants aim to co-create action projects focused on the SDGs. This funding supports GLC 2023, to convene 100 emerging leaders, aged 20-30 years working in various disciplines and from around the world. The GLC is a joint initiative of the SDG Impact Lab,  Oxford Character Project and the St. Gallen Symposium, and the project is directed by Edward Brooks and co-directed by Alexander Betts of the University of Oxford.

Throughout the 5-day GLC program, participants will learn from each other and from academic experts and senior leaders from across contexts. They’ll engage in workshops focused on values-based leadership development and work to design actionable impact projects that directly address the advancement of SDGs in communities around the world.

After the GLC program concludes for the year:

• Six virtual character and leadership development sessions to support participants in their leadership journey, followed by monthly peer-coaching calls are planned.
• A dedicated online platform to feature SDG action projects around the world and share various resources for taking meaningful action at the community level will be shared.
• A leadership toolkit containing short readings, questions, stories, poems, and practices that will focus on character development and cultivating virtues necessary for practicing responsible leadership and advancing the SDGs will be provided.