AVSI at the Rimini Meeting 2021

Giovanna Bottani, operation senior consultant, STMicroelectronics Foundation; Erneste Nzeyimana, director of Telecom Services Provider Ltd, Rwanda, child of the distant support program by AVSI; Yasmine Sherif, director, Education Cannot Wait; and Giampaolo Silvestri, secretary general of AVSI. Moderated by Paolo Lembo, a former WGEO director-general.
The dialogue plans to investigate the role of Education in shaping leaders capable of thinking and acting for the common good, particularly in developing countries in the post-pandemic era. Various perspectives will be analyzed on the topic: from the head of an international agency, a company, an NGO, to the individual once beneficiary of the education program.

The speakers will analyze the topic from different perspectives:

- the standpoint of someone who, as head of Education Cannot Wait, an international agency of the UN, has a global vision of educational needs and of the potential to be promoted in the light of the lessons learned during the pandemic;
- the vantage point of a young manager of an important Rwandan company, who was able to "make a career" thanks to the Education he received through distance support promoted by AVSI;
- the experience of the STMicroelectronics Foundation, an enterprise foundation working worldwide against the digital divide;
- the point of view of an NGO that has been working "hands-on" for fifty years with the most vulnerable new generations; the perspective of the private sector that is committed to actively collaborating with NGOs, the local civil society and institutions to promote sustainable development.

Laura Frigenti, global head international development practice at KPMG LLP, former director of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation; Grammenos Mastrojeni, senior deputy secretary general of the Union for the Mediterranean; Giampaolo Silvestri, AVSI secretary general. Moderated by Francesco De Leo, director of Affarinternazionali.it, the IAI magazine.

"Let's not waste the pandemic!" Starting from a provocation expressed months ago by Pope Francis, a dialogue between the panelists around how to change the pace, our lifestyles opens up a wide-ranging reflection on the development model pursued up to now and which has not proven sustainable. Questions around green development translating into personal, community, and country choices, the basis for collaboration between the private sector and the non-profit sector, how to move from rhetorical auspices to a practice of development programs protecting dignity and combining the need for work, protection of health and the environment will be discussed and reflected offering new provocations.

Also, on Saturday, August 21, from 9:15 am to 10:15 am (ET), AVSI will promote an encounter between Yasmine Sherif, Education Cannot Wait director, and representatives from various NGOs, Italian cooperation, and foundations.