Auke Idzenga, the CEO of Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (AIDFI) gave a ‘lightning talk’ at the annual Solutions Summit at the United Nations Headquarters in New York held in September this year.
Started in 2015, the Solutions Summit is an annual gathering at the United Nations Headquarters in New York during UN General Assembly. This initiative highlights and advances the work of exceptional teams already developing innovative solutions that address one or more of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year’s Solutions Summit took place from 19-21 September each day in the UN SDG Media Zone – a live broadcast event space at the UN focused on the SDGs.
The solution of AIDFI was its award-winning Hydraulic Ram Pump Technology which actually hits several crosscutting SDG’s, spread throughout the Philippines and has already been replicated in Afghanistan, Nepal, Colombia and now Mexico.
Some 11 Solution Makers for the Solutions Summit 2017 were selected from around 800 entries from all over the world. The solutions had to relate to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). Solutions selected were:
- Afghan Institute for Learning Mobile Literacy Education for Women & Girls
- Sonbola Group for Education & Development – STEM For Refugees Program
- Fundación Paraguya – Poverty Stoplight
- YCAB’s Premise for Change
- SunCulture – solar powered irrigation
- Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation (AIDFI) – ram pumps
- Chipsafer
- GiftedMom
- PharmaChk
- Global Vision 2020 – USee Vision Kit
- MUrgency Inc. – Global Emergency Response Network (911 for the World)
During the Solutions Summit, the group of selected global innovators gave a ‘lightning talk’ of 4 minutes and 5 minutes feedback outlining their breakthrough efforts to an audience of senior policymakers who have the means to pave solid regulatory foundations, investors who care deeply about long-term change and impact, industry leaders who are able to deploy quickly and at scale, fellow entrepreneurs who can share wisdom on starting up, and members of the general public, including youth, who will bring additional creative insight. The gathering served as a catalyst to convene resources and talent around solution-makers.