• A two-day event from March 14-15 with 91 speakers from 18 countries: From AI to the care economy, climate change, human rights, and development cooperation, shedding light on SDGs implementation challenges
  • Serving as a global platform in which world leaders, scholars, professionals in the sustainable development field from 36 countries worldwide, including Juan Manuel Santos, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2016)

SEOUL, South Korea, March 11, 2024 -- Yonsei University (President Dong-Sup Yoon) is set to host the 6th Global Engagement and Empowerment Forum on Sustainable Development (GEEF 2024) from March 14 to 15, 2024. The Global Engagement and Empowerment Forum on Sustainable Development is an international platform where global authorities and scholars convene to foster inter-country cooperation in response to global challenges humanity faces, such as the climate crisis, wars, public health, human rights, and education. Over the past five years, this pivotal conference on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has seen participation from over 10,000 individuals from up to 124 countries worldwide.

This year, under the theme "Reboot the SDGs: Reset Our Future," Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations, Heinz Fischer, the 11th Federal President of Austria, Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, among 91 speakers from 18 countries, and participants from 36 countries totaling over 2,000 attendees, will revisit the challenges of implementing SDGs. Especially, Juan Manuel Santos (The 32nd President of Colombia and the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in 2016), Dennis Francis (President of the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly), and Tae-yul Cho (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea) are going to participate as keynote speakers. The forum aims to critically assess the progress made over the past eight years towards achieving the '2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development' adopted by the UN in 2015, explore practical actions for reaching the 2030 global goals through data-driven decision-making, and propose directions for future development. The forum will address realistic and significant topics, including AI, the care economy, climate change, human rights, and development cooperation, facilitating a massive global communication platform.

Key sessions include "Global Peace Building," chaired by Ban Ki-moon; "SDGs Stocktaking - The Global Landscape, Local Applications, and Future Directions," led by Kang Kyung-hwa, Distinguished Professor at the Institute for Global Engagement and Empowerment, Yonsei University and the 38th Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea; and "Mental Health and Population Crisis in Korean Society" by Jim Yong Kim, 12th President of the World Bank, and Peter Jongho Na, Professor at Yale University. Additionally, sustainable societal construction through care and domestic labor, policy solutions for climate crisis, the positive impacts and social side effects of AI, and evidence-based policy decisions, as well as presentations on sustainable development research by scholars, are among the 21 sessions planned. These discussions aim to critically review our past approach to SDGs and forge substantial policies for the future. This forum is expected to be an international platform where various parts of the world including Asia, Africa, and South American regions could share discourses on sustainability.

Ban Ki-moon emphasized the forum's significance, stating, "GEEF will provide the opportunity for an inclusive and sustainable future by rebooting the SDGs. Every small action will lead to big changes." Dong-Sup Yoon, President of Yonsei University, expressed his hopes for the forum to serve as a platform of global cooperation towards the new journey of achieving the SDGs. "It is the time to unite and take decisive actions," he said.

Yonsei University, which ranked 14th in the world and first among Asian private universities in last year's THE (Times Higher Education) Impact Rankings, has been contributing to solving social issues by utilizing the university's intellectual and human resources. Since 2017, with Ban Ki-moon as the honorary chairman, the university launched the Institute for Global Engagement and Empowerment and has been annually hosting the Global Engagement and Empowerment Forum on Sustainable Development (GEEF), playing a leading role in achieving sustainable development goals.

GEEF 2024 will be held both online and offline at Yonsei University's Sinchon Campus and the official YouTube channel of the Institute for Global Engagement and Empowerment. Participants can register in advance through the official website (http://www.geef-sd.org) until March 8 or register on-site on the day of the event.

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