Accelerating Systems Change: Making Possibility Real
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Session Description
Social issues are more global, complex, and interdependent than ever. While social innovators continue to drive progress in specific areas, systems change requires an approach that unearths the root cause of critical societal challenges and gathers a spectrum of actors. What collaborative models and pathways achieve systems change? Join a lively, evidence-based discussion with social entrepreneurs and other leaders demonstrating what systems change impact demands of us all.
Time & Location
Time:
10:00 AM - 11:15 AM, Wednesday, April 10, 2019
BST
Location:
Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre
Speakers
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Speaker
Marc Freedman is Founder and Co-CEO of CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org). He is the author of five books, including most recently, How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations. He co-founded Experience Corps to mobilize people over 50 to improve the prospects of low-income elementary school, and the Purpose Prize, an annual award for social innovators in the second half of life (Both Experience Corps and the Purpose Prize are now programs of AARP). Freedman is an Ashoka Senior Fellow; was named a Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the World Economic Forum; and is a Skoll Awardee. A former visiting fellow at Stanford University, King’s College, London, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, he holds an MBA from Yale University. He lives with his wife and three children in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Moderator
As the first President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, Sally Osberg partnered with Jeff Skoll to build it into the leading philanthropy in the field of social entrepreneurship. During her tenure, the Foundation supported more than 100 entrepreneurial organizations driving equilibrium change on many of the world’s most pressing problems and developed innovative platforms for connecting civil society, government and private sector leaders with societal problem solvers. Among these platforms are the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, the Skoll Centre at Oxford University’s Said Business School, and the Sundance Institute’s “Stories of Change” initiative.
In 2015, Sally and Roger Martin published Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works, which articulates a theoretical framework for social entrepreneurship and distills lessons for practitioners, academics and impact investors. Her thought pieces have appeared in leading social impact and business journals and books; in 2015, she and Roger Martin were honored by Thinkers 50 for their intellectual leadership in the field of social enterprise.
Prior to joining Jeff Skoll and the Skoll Foundation, Sally served as the founding Executive Director for Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, a pioneering institution in the field.
Sally currently serves as the Chair of the Camfed (the Campaign for Female Education in Africa) USA Foundation, on the Philanthropy Advisory Council of the Royal Bank of Canada, on the Advisory Council of the Elders, as Vice Chair of the Social Progress Imperative and as a board director for New America and the Palestine-based Partners for Sustainable Development. She is also an Associate Fellow of the Said Business School of Oxford University.
She received her M.A. in English and American Literature from the Claremont Graduate School and her B.A. in English from Scripps College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
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Speaker
Founder and CEO, Co-Impact
Olivia Leland is the Founder and CEO of Co-Impact, a global philanthropic collaborative that advances just and inclusive systems change, gender equality, and women’s leadership through grant-making and influencing philanthropy.
Launched in 2017, Co-Impact brings together philanthropists, foundations, and private sector partners to pool resources and invest in locally-rooted initiatives that are tackling the root causes of inequities to create deep and lasting change for millions.
Olivia has more than 25 years of international experience in government, philanthropy, and the non-profit sector. Prior to Co-Impact, Olivia served as the founding director of the Giving Pledge, an effort to encourage giving globally. Previously, she worked in the areas of microfinance and financial inclusion, and consulted in the areas of strategy development, multi-sector collaboration, and advancing gender equality
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Speaker
Ma Jun began his career in 1993 working for the South China Morning Post, where his research on China’s environmental problems spurred him to publish the 1999 book China’s Water Crisis. In 2004 he was selected as a Yale World Fellow. Upon returning to China, Ma Jun founded the non-profit organization the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE) in Beijing in 2006.
As Director of IPE, Ma Jun led the development and launch of China’s first environmental public database, the Blue Map, with website and mobile app platforms. The Blue Map collects air, water and soil quality data from across the country, as well as pollution source information that provides a foundation for green credit and green finance systems. The Green Choice supply chain program he and colleagues initiated has motivated more than 3000 suppliers of major global and local brands to openly address their violation problems.
In 2006, he was awarded as China’s “Green Person of the Year” and was named as one of TIME Magazine’s World’s 100 Most Influential People. Ma was also honored with the Magsaysay Award in 2009 and Goldman Prize in 2012 for his environmental protection work in China, as well as the 2015 Skoll Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship for his innovative approach to “lifting the veil” on China’s pollution problems.
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Speaker
Safeena is the Founder and Board Member of Educate Girls (EG), an Indian non-profit that mobilises communities toward girls’ education in some of the hardest-to-reach villages. Under her leadership, EG has enrolled 1.1 million+ girls in schools till date, improved learning outcomes for 1.6 million+ children, expanded operations to 20,000 villages through a 20,000+ strong team of community volunteers.
An LSE graduate, Safeena has worked extensively with underserved communities in South America, Africa and Asia. She is known for her efforts to bridge the gender and literacy gaps through tech-driven interventions, pioneering the world’s first Development Impact Bond in education and EG becoming the first Audacious project in Asia, which aims to bring 40% of India’s out of school girls back to education.
