The visit by UNSG was a landmark occasion, to celebrate the appointment of the first Secretary General, 70 years ago at the Central Hall Westminster. 6 JCI London delegates attended together with over 2,000 people according to UNA-UK statistics on 5th Feb 2016.

In his opening remarks, HE Ban Ki-moon expressed his appreciation for the solidarity shown by heads of state the previous day, in pledging monetary contributions to help Syria. He commended the championing efforts of the United Kingdom in that regards. In Preventing extremism and promoting human rights, he said 'the UN was responsible for raising over 10 billion dollars for Syria in one day’! This is the triumph of multilateralism. In JCI language, this is real 'service to humanity' where we can join forces with them in helping to create a safer world with projects that include assisting refugees to integrate into society.

He also highlighted that the Sustainable Development Goals will take us further in the Agenda for interdependency, and encouraged that 'All goals must be interconnected & implemented comprehensively'. 
I believe JCI as an organisation, can certainly adopt these strategies towards global positive contribution by continuously aligning our various community projects with the SDG's to make greater global impact. 

Amongst other topics discussed, the issue of 'Women empowerment' was at the forefront, with the UNSG proposing that we should be more 'proactive than reactive' when it comes to the rights of women and girls in order to promote social progress & gender equality. Again, a good challenge for us to consider and do our part. In addition to this, an interactive session moderated by UNA-UK's Chairman, Sir Jeremy Greenstock addressed questions raised about what young people can do.

 As young people being the hope of a better world, we were advised to raise our voice because we have unlimited capacity without any political restraints and we need to expand our global citizenship. I was pleased to see that JCI is certainly ticking the boxes in making our impact felt and our voices heard. We will continue!

Overall an enriching experience that we were honoured to have been part of & had the opportunity to network with potential JCI partner organisations.