The world is home to the largest generation in the history of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years, adding up to 1.8 billion. Close to 90 percent of the youth live in developing countries, where they constitute a large proportion of the population (UN Youth Strategy).

Connected to each other like never before and facing incredible challenges, young people want to and already contribute to the resilience of their communities, proposing innovative solutions, driving social progress and inspiring political change, in urban as well as rural contexts. Young people constitute a tremendous and essential asset worth investing in, opening the door to an unparalleled multiplier effect.

How can the youth help to solve chronic, complex problems or achieve meaningful goals in Hong Kong?

In this session we’ll explore the SDGs that are important in Hong Kong, and suggest ways to use Systems Thinking to solve some of the critical sustainability issues.

Systems Thinking helps to reveal the big picture and emphasizes that in order to optimize the performance of the entire system, people need to move from trying to optimize a single part of the system to improve the relationships between its constituent parts. When it comes to Hong Kong’s SDG challenges, Systems Thinking can help  to find the leverage points which can help to address large issues by small but meaningful actions,

This workshop will cover some of the foundations (what systems thinking is, why and when it is needed) and will introduce a simple systems maps exercise about Hong Kong’s sustainability issues in groups. By the end of the workshop, participants will feel empowered with a new and important tool to address the SDGs in Hong Kong.

Facilitator: Benita Chick, Founder and CEO of Encompass Hong Kong