Tag Archives: ASEAN

Five Innovations to Shape Southeast Asia’s Future

The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Seeds for the Future small grants competition provides funding to Southeast Asia’s most promising young leaders, enabling them to carry out projects that uplift communities across the ASEAN region through civic engagement, education, economic growth, and sustainable development. Being involved with the competition has helped me realize that building the leadership capabilities of young social innovators, leaders, and agents of change is one of the most effective ways to overcome the world’s biggest challenges.

Why These Young ASEAN Leaders Will Change the World

Sixty-five percent of Southeast Asia’s population is under the age of 35. This makes it crucial to empower the region’s youth to invest in and make changes in their communities. Enter: The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Seeds For the Future Grants Competition. The 2017 grantees, each receiving grants ranging from $8,300 to $15,000, were selected from a competitive pool of nearly 400 applications. Their projects are as diverse as the Southeast Asian region itself, covering all 10 ASEAN members states and topics ranging from food insecurity to training special education teachers. But they share a common goal: to positively…

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How YSEALI Can Help Forge a Unified ASEAN Identity

The region of Southeast Asia is one of the most diverse regions in the world. It is comprised of rich multiculturalism, varying economies, differing societal values, and contrasting political structures. In 1967, five leaders–the Foreign Ministers from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand–met with the intention of uniting the countries of Southeast Asia. They signed a document to form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN challenged its citizens to embrace a regional identity and organize around a collective vision that aimed to promote economic development and social progress in the region. The question today is: do the citizens…

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YSEALI Creates Solutions for ASEAN’s Oceans

Exchanges educate. Exchanges bring people together. Exchanges inspire. But few exchanges do all these things as much as those under President Obama’s Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI). During one of these exchanges, the regional workshop YSEALI Generation: Oceans, 64 ASEAN participants and 16 mentors developed realistic, scalable solutions to the region’s marine and coastal threats. These ideas will not end with the workshop: the participants will continue to make their projects a reality for the rest of the year. If you want to see the future, read on to learn about the solutions to ocean problems in Southeast Asia you can…

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