Youth innovators explore global governance solutions

Judges: youth play vital role in global governance and biodiversity conservation

Apart from the contestants, the competition also gathered 11 esteemed judges to help the participants optimize their proposals in the finals.

Keiichi Ogawa, a judge and a professor at Kobe University, recognized the advantages youth bring to global governance, and encouraged them to grow more and think more comprehensively to make a practical difference.

"The youth are good at doing researches, and have more flexible mindsets, so their ideas can be really innovative, and can provide much reference to policy makers such as governments, organizations and industry experts," said Ogawa.

A five-time judge of the competition, Veronica Rebreanu, is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law of Babes-Bolyai University in Romania. She has been monitoring the youth's performance across several past editions and regards the YICGG as "fruitful".

"The youngsters were raised up with the concepts of environmental responsibilities such as recovering, recycling, reusing things and protecting the planet. So their subconscious is already prepared to come up with some solutions. And through working together with other teams from across the world, participants can learn experience from other regions," she said.

"It was really wonderful to hear how the youth see the problem in different perspectives and propose solutions in a way that only youth can do," commented Binayak Malla, assistant professor of School of Management at Nepal's Kathmandu University.

Malla pointed out the important link he saw between the youth and technology. "The youth are trying to use technology for the betterment of not just humanity, but also the living means all around the world. This is a strong message, when we are talking about the technology being evil."