Asia 21 Young Leaders

CEBU, Philippines - The Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit is the pre-eminent gathering of Asia's most dynamic young leaders from every country in the Asia-Pacific Region and from every sector.

According to asiasociety.org, the summit brings together a core group of over 150 Asia 21 Young Leaders fellows and delegates from Asia and the United States. These youth represent a wide range of fields, all under the age of 40 years old.

Interestingly, among the fellows are Ms. Joy Anya Lim, general manager/consultant of Anthill Fabric Gallery, and lawyer Lesley Jeanne Cordero, assistant secretary for legislative affairs of the Presidential Communications Operations Office-Malacañang.

These young leaders from Cebu shared that the three-day recent summit in New Delhi, India, allowed them to converge with other leaders wherein they got the opportunity to "discuss best practices in leadership, dichotomies in the world we live in, and what new generations may do to create new opportunities for partnerships, sustainability, and cooperation."

Applicants to the global summit reached over 500. The two Fellows shared that after the screening and series of interviews, they were trimmed down to 30; then to 17; and on to the Final Nine.

Lim, despite being a Bicolana, has championed women empowerment here through social enterprise. Anthill Fabric Gallery, which she started, is the first creative social enterprise and a lifestyle store in the metro bringing into one "colony" ingenuity, fashion, culture, advocacy and art. The store showcases tunnels of distinct and special textiles from Asia and also highlights the beauty of intricate women indigenous fabrics from the Philippine hill tribes. In this shop, fabrics are more than just rolls of cloth, she described. It houses the utilization of fabrics for artistic endeavors and innovative executions transforming fabric into art. Anthill also gives back to the community as it supports income generation among young entrepreneurs and rural communities, especially indigenous tribes all over the country.

Meanwhile, Cordero used to be the Commissioner-at-Large of the National Youth Commission under the Office of the President of the Philippines from March to July 2010. She graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Bachelor of Philosophy from the University of San Carlos in 2001 and later earned her Juris Doctor of Laws degree from the Ateneo de Manila University in 2005. An outstanding youth and student leader, Cordero was cited in 2008 as the youngest Most Outstanding USC Alumni awardee and was a former president of the USC-Supreme Student Council. She likewise was awarded one of the Outstanding Students of the Philippines (Region VII) and Outstanding Cebuano Youth Leader. Her stint as an assistant legal specialist and project management consultant of USAID nergy and Clean Air Project in the Philippines in 2009 is only one of her exposures to various regional and global efforts to address issues such as climate change, poverty alleviation, education and health. After the summit, she looks forward to "helping develop an equitable and just Philippine society" through her current post.

Another fellow from Cebu was Alvin Cloyd Dakis, a registered nurse, and founder/chairman of the Alliance of Young Leaders and Advocates International Inc.

Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative

The world has been transformed in ways unimaginable since the Asia Society first opened its doors more than five decades ago, according to asiasociety.org.

"Consequently," it added, "the new global realities confronting Asia and Asian leaders have also changed over time. The dominant issues today tend to be less country-specific and increasingly trans-national in nature."

This is what Atty. Cordero pointed out particularly during the interview: That in the past, colonialism, independence, and self-determination were among the main topics of concern for leaders in Asia. Currently, the overriding concerns pertain to poverty, political and social conflicts, HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, and human rights issues that have far-reaching consequences across regions."

In fact, asiasociety.org stressed: "We live at a time of incredible opportunity. Advances in science and technology are helping cure once incurable diseases; information and communication technologies are enabling us to communicate and connect with one another as never before, the frontiers of knowledge are pushing forward at a historically unprecedented rate. But in spite of this progress, we are all failing as leaders."

This is because "nearly one and a half billion people around the world, two thirds of them in Asia, still suffer from abject poverty."

Says a summit report, penned by Jamie Metzl, "over a billion adults remain illiterate, the large majority of them women. Greenhouse gas emissions are slowly destroying our planet, but we can't come together and solve this human-created problem. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of intolerance persist. Massive human rights abuses go unanswered."

Thus, the need for leaders who can bring fresh ideas and offer imaginative solutions to solve the challenges of the new century. (FREEMAN)