“The eyes of the world are on Brazil” is an expression often used to represent the popularity of the country and its appearances in the media, for reasons such as the World Cup 2014 and the Olympic Games of 2016. The country’s image in regards to violence and poverty is still really strong, and the government is trying to prepare for these big upcoming events. Rio de Janeiro is the city where are lot of the events will take place, and what is often emphasized is the contrast between nature and the city. There is another contrast, the one between the upscale neighborhoods and the favelas, or slums of the city.

Because of the favelas’ factors, which involve a highly populated area with the poorest people of the city living on top of the Rio de Janeiro Mountains, for many years it has been the perfect place for drug dealers and criminals to hide themselves. The police has had a lot of trouble trying to get inside, and the government is trying to change this reality through “pacification” actions. Many favelas have already gone through this process and nowadays provide a safer life and better infrastructure. But this is not the case with the Maré Complex, formed by 16 slums and located between the main access routes to the city. More than 130,000 people live there. This makes up to 2.3% of the total population of Rio de Janeiro.

One big problem has to do with children and the youth of the community. They don’t see opportunities outside of the favela and crime is for them a chance to get some money or status inside the community. As the government still hasn’t brought the pacification process to the Maré Complex, one good initiative offering good possibilities for its inhabitants is created by non-governmental organizationsn such as CEASM (Centro de Estudos e Ações Solidárias da Maré, in english: Centre for Studies and Solidarity Actions of Maré). This NGO is focused on contributing to the value of the slums and poor communities as an expression of the plurality of the city, changing ideas and guiding public policy. Since 1998 the NGO offers support courses helping young people get into the public universities. Entrance is based on a highly competitive test that usually favors people who can afford a good basic education.

These days, CEASM offers 14 different projects involving education and cultural emphasis. The population faces low self esteem issues, and many people think that there is no way out of the violence. CEASM wants to change this.

It already offers a library, computer rooms, journalism rooms and classrooms. Everything was built with the support of donations and community help. CEASM has about 100 volunteers, both paid and unpaid. Lourenço Cezar da Silva (pictured above) is the oldest brother of five siblings, and was one of the first students who was able to get into one of the most competitive universities of Brazil: PUC-Rio (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro).

The economic support is based on donations and funding, but in the past year help has been cut for different reasons. The NGO is facing many problems to keep offering a better chance to the community. The CEASM volunteers usually try to apply to get some help from the government but say that lately many has been direct to culture and not to education.. He started as a student of the support course for university applications and today is proud and eager to help others starting out like he did.

Of course, the eyes of the world cannot easily see everything that happens in the daily life of poor communities in the big city of Rio de Janeiro, but maybe looking inside it will make it possible to change from the outside, instead of trying to hide the problems. CEASM and the Maré Community Complex need help in order to change from inside; it needs eyes to look where it matters. The number of young people who cannot benefit from the services is increasing, and consequently, so is the number of them who engage in crime and violence.

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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – On June 19, mayors, delegations from the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and a U.S. President, assembled in Rio at Rio + C40: Megacity Mayors Taking Action on Climate Change, an event to highlight the concrete climate actions being taken by C40 Cities.

New data released June 19 indicates that C40 Cities have the potential to reduce their annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by over a billion tons by 2030, from business as usual. This is equivalent to the annual GHG emissions of Mexico and Canada combined. Just with the measures they have already undertaken or committed to, C40 Cities are on track to reduce their collective annual emissions by 248 million tons by 2020. C40 Cities have undertaken nearly 5,000 climate-related actions since the network first formed in 2005. In many cases, these actions were taken without national government support.

Additionally, and helping to build on cities’ significant accomplishments, C40 is launching a new solid waste peer-to-peer learning network on June 19. With support from the World Bank and the Climate and Clean Air Initiative of the U.S. State Department, C40 will establish a new network that will assist local governments in reducing methane emissions through solid waste management. C40′s partners will provide technical assistance to help participating cities develop viable programs and projects that reduce methane gas production, enable access to financing and facilitate sharing across this network of cities for active peer-learning and collaborative work. C40 works in partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative, a program of the William J. Clinton Foundation.

“Mayors and cities don’t have the luxury of just sitting around and talking about problems because on a whole range of critical issues, the buck stops at City Hall. Because of Mayors’ commitment to action, cities are making great progress in reducing greenhouse gases, which helps beat back climate change and makes our cities better, more liveable places,” said New York City Mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg. “The data we are releasing today is more evidence that cities have been and will continue to lead the way.”

“My Foundation has been working since 2006 with the mayors of many large cities around the world to help them reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,” said President Clinton, a founding partner of C40 who joined the event by videoconference. ”Today’s announcements prove that, through creative partnerships, we can help reduce our carbon output to protect our environment and create jobs to grow our economies.”

In a second announcement, C40 will be partnering with the Joint Initiative on Urban Sustainability (JIUS) to foster the sharing of best practices collected in all C40 Cities through a new library incorporated into the newly launched C40 website www.C40.org. This resource will be publicly available and will focus on identifying the key linkages between policy tools, financing strategies and partnerships that enable successful climate reduction strategies.

The JIUS started as a pilot program that fostered exchanges between the C40 cities of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA) and Rio de Janeiro over the last 18 months, with the support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the City of Rio. U.S. Environmental Protection Administrator Lisa Jackson joined Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Paes to make the announcement.

“While welcoming the C40 to Rio de Janeiro, I have been reflecting on the significance of cities and their impact on our environment. I am encouraged that we, as Mayors and citizens, are implementing plans to promote change and reduce carbon emissions in an effort to halt climate change,” said Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes. “When mobilized as one, cities wield sufficient collective power to influence opinion and nudge policy further up the legislative agenda. Cities have more freedom than nation states to put into place progressive strategies that are already changing people’s lives and today’s announcement is testament to the action and unity that is thriving at a municipal level around the globe.”

These announcements came in advance of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and highlight the concrete sustainability actions being taken by C40 Cities. Based on these tangible advances, mayors and local government leaders are in Rio to call on national governments and international organizations to provide more financing and other support for local climate action. Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) research shows that cities are largely financing their climate change actions without significant external support, as 64% of city initiatives are funded through general municipal funds.

Measurement of progress and accountability toward outcomes have been two of the major themes of Mayor Bloomberg’s C40 chairmanship, which began in November 2010. According to recent reports by the CDP and Arup, cities are extremely active in taking steps to reduce carbon emissions and they have potential to do even more. One hundred percent of the 45 reporting C40 Cities and 80% of all other reporting cities were implementing a range of carbon emission reduction activities. Seventy-one percent of the 45 reporting C40 Cities reported city-wide reduction targets. Mayors have direct control over 75% of urban emissions sources. C40 Cities represent the world’s megacities and account for approximately 14% of global GHG emissions as currently estimated.

Similarly, partnerships with peer organizations are a key part of C40′s growth and service delivery strategy, which convenes networks of cities with common goals and challenges to focus on taking concrete action. In May 2012, C40 announced an expanded partnership and scope of its work on developing a global protocol for community-scale GHG emissions. C40, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability and the World Resources Institute will pilot the newly-launched protocol in at least 10 global cities; develop technical assistance support for cities; and expand the community protocol into a more comprehensive GHG accounting standard for community-scale emissions, including consideration of a full range of direct and indirect GHG emissions from urban activities. This will enable local governments to account for how demand for goods and services as well as local innovative technologies can impact a GHG footprint.

Governor of Jakarta Fauzi Bowo welcomed the two initiatives launched at the Rio+C40 meeting by the mayors of the world’s largest cities and said that “Any partnership which allows sharing of knowledge and best practices aiming to fight climate change is crucial in order that greenhouse gas emissions are reduced. Different cities face different challenges in confronting climate change. The basic approach Jakarta has taken in reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been a holistic approach based on the basic policy implemented in managing Jakarta, which is pro-poor, pro-jobs, pro growth and pro-environment. These four factors cannot be separated from each other.”

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Tokyo, Japan – Daisaku Ikeda, president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Buddhist association, issued a proposal on June 6 stressing that empowerment of individuals and communities is vital to achieving a sustainable global society. The proposal puts forward ideas related to the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development opening in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 20.

Ikeda states: “It is unacceptable to consider the pursuit of sustainability as simply a matter of adjusting policies in order to find a better balance between economic and ecological imperatives. Rather, sustainability must be understood as a challenge and undertaking requiring the commitment of all individuals … constructing a society that accords highest priority to the dignity of life.”

The proposal, entitled “For a Sustainable Global Society: Learning for Empowerment and Leadership,” emphasizes that education is key.

Ikeda was a strong advocate of establishing the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) which ends in 2014, and he now calls for a successor framework, an educational program for a sustainable global society to start in 2015, focused on fostering agents of positive change. Such a program should give rise to empowerment, and beyond that, to leadership, if it is to generate real transformation.

Ikeda puts forward ideas for far-reaching institutional reform of the United Nations agencies responsible for development and environmental protection. He suggests the consolidation of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and related agencies to create one integrated “global organization for sustainable development.”

He proposes a more substantial collaborative relationship with civil society and a “committee of the future generations” as a forum through which youth representatives could advise the new organization on its annual plans and policies.

Ikeda also stresses the need for a set of sustainable development goals, with a focus on the local community as a site of both lifelong learning and action.

Examples of proactive engagement might include tree planting, disaster prevention efforts, strengthening local production and consumption, promotion of recycling and encouraging the introduction of renewable energy.

Ikeda’s view of humanity’s place on our planet is ultimately hopeful. He comments: “Although physical resources are finite, human potential is infinite, as is our capacity to create value. The real significance of sustainability is as a dynamic concept in which there is a striving or competition to generate positive value and share it with the world and with the future.”

In connection with the Rio+20 Conference, “Seeds of Hope: Visions of sustainability, steps toward change,” an exhibition co-organized by SGI, the Earth Charter International and the City of Rio de Janeiro, will be shown in English and Portuguese at the Planetarium of Rio de Janeiro from June 16 to July 15.

A 10-minute film, “Nurturing Seeds of Hope in the Amazon,” highlighting the environmental education work of the Amazon Ecological Conservation Center founded by Mr. Ikeda in 1992 will be launched at the Planetarium on June 15.

At the Rio+20 Conference, a roundtable discussion on learning for empowerment, pooling experience from education related to sustainability, peace and disarmament and human rights, will be hosted by SGI and other organizations on June 20.

Daisaku Ikeda is a Buddhist philosopher, author and peacebuilder. Since the 1970s, he has engaged in dialogues and issued proposals related to peace and environmental protection.

Image Courtesy of   Daisaku Ikeda

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A matter on many minds is whether the young generation is ready to take up positions of power and live up to society’s expectations. Francesca Martonffy, director at Global Changemakers, says “there is often a misconception, that ‘matters that affect the world’ are something discussed by people ‘in charge,’ in the halls of power of distant world capitals.”

In this exclusive interview with Toonari Post, Martonffy says what the young people do or say is as relevant to the world as the latest meeting of G8 finance ministers. She also speaks about Global Changemakers’ mission to empower young people to create social impact on the societies of the world.

Toonari Post (TP): Tell us about yourself, your studies and your work.

Francesca Martonffy (FM): I come from a family of five sisters and grew up with a sense that what mattered most was using your unique set of skills to give back to the world.

Not surprisingly, I studied political science in university and international security and political economy in graduate school because I thought learning as much about the world as I could was probably a good first step in figuring out how to give back. I’ve worked across sectors – in Washington DC where I helped run an NGO focused on international affairs education, in the policy sphere, at the World Economic Forum, where I was a Global Leadership Fellow and now as Director of Global Changemakers.

While I’ve worked across a large number of issues from foreign policy to education to social entrepreneurship, what drives me continues to be the same values I learned from my mother – learn, give, and grow as much as you can. And never take yourself too seriously!

TP: Global Changemakers was inspired by the fact that young people were not being given a voice at major world events such as the World Economic Forum. Are young people now given a chance to participate in matters that affect the world?

FM: I think there is often a misconception that ‘matters that affect the world’ are something discussed by people ‘in charge’ in the halls of power of distant world capitals. Yet, there are three billion individuals under the age of twenty-five today. Surely, what these individuals learn, experience, and create on a daily basis is as relevant to affecting the world as the latest meeting of G8 finance ministers.

We all – young and old alike – decide on a daily basis how we interact with the world and what kind of impact we make on it. In terms of whether young voices are being heard at major world gatherings, I think institutions are broadening the set of stakeholders with whom they engage and generally doing a better job across the board.

Due to a number of factors, including social media, institutions are finding themselves being held accountable to wider and more diverse sets of stakeholders than ever before.

TP: What is the scope of The Global Changemakers movement?

FM: Global Changemakers is a British Council funded global youth network of social entrepreneurs and community activists from 126 countries worldwide. Its mission is to empower youth to catalyse positive social change, something which it achieves through:learning and teaching; Global and regional summits, community and personal capacity building supported by free online curriculum.

TP: What difference has Global Changemakers made since it came into existence in 2007?

FM: There are currently nearly 800 Changemakers, more than 200,000 young people involved in Global Changemakers activities each year, and four million beneficiaries of projects developed and run by Changemakers. Since its inception in 2007, Global Changemakers has organised and run over 20 regional and global youth workshops across the world – in Amman, Beirut, Cape Town, Doha, Delhi, Gaborone, Harare, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and London, among others.

Global Changemakers have been invited to participate in World Economic Forum events in Cartagena, Dar es Salaam, Sharm el Sheikh, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro and Davos, the Clinton Global Initiative, G20, UN World Climate Conference, UNESCO Peace Summits, Women Deliver, and the launch of the World Bank’s Youth Anti-Corruption network, among others.

Individual and group projects address key global issues and facilitate joint working and create shared values: 193 projects in 78 countries supported to date. The Global Changemakers community is represented at high-level events and disseminates best practices in youth-led development

TP: What challenges have you faced in bringing together young people together from all over the world?

FM: Of course, there are the administrative challenges of tickets and passports and visas which can quickly become all-consuming and quite complex when you’re trying to physically bring together individuals from so many different countries, some of whom have never travelled before. But generally speaking, we haven’t faced too many challenges.

It doesn’t mean that the journey of becoming a Changemaker is an easy one. We’ve had many Changemakers tell us that attending a Global Changemakers summit has been quite difficult because they have been forced to confront certain issues or had their views or beliefs challenged in fundamental ways.

The challenge for us as the organizers has been to ensure that we create an environment of respect and openness where all views are fairly heard and where individuals can draw their own conclusions.

TP: What is your opinion on the current efforts of female empowerment in developing countries?

FM: I think it’s important to start by recognizing how much things have progressed for women in the last fifty years – in developed and developing world alike. Yet women still bear the brunt of many of the issues facing the developing world – lack of access to quality education, poor health, poverty, and limited economic mobility.

In terms of the present efforts, one would have to break it down country-by-country to see what is working, where, and why. Generally, however, most of the new data from development institutions like the World Bank is encouraging. Things are getting better for many women. But there is still much work to do.

TP: Tell us a bit about the forthcoming Euro-Africa Youth Summit in Brussels.

FM: The Euro-Africa Summit in Brussels will bring 60 new Changemakers from 34 countries into the Global Changemakers family. We’re planning five intense days of activities where participants will learn about the key economic, political, and social issues facing Africa and Europe, gain concrete skills like project management and fundraising to better design and deliver their grass-roots work, and connect to other young activists in order to exchange knowledge and best practices.The summit is designed to amp up the current skill set of participants so they return to their home countries able to do even more.

TP: Are there specific requirements for someone to become a member of the Global Changemakers?

FM: Yes. In order to become a Global Changemaker, an individual must be selected for one of our events. Selection criteria are:

• Age (we work with those between the ages of 16 and 25, though different ones of our events target different subgroups in that bracket)
• Track record (individuals must have a proven track record of social entrepreneurship, community activism or volunteer work)
• English (individuals must possess good spoken command of English so that they can share ideas and best practices with their fellow Changemakers)

However, to be active in the larger Global Changemakers community – as over 15,000 are already either on our website and/or Facebook – all you need is an interest in making a positive change. While we will never be able to meet the demand – we have 10-20 times more applications than places available for our events– our wider community and online curricula are a great way for all who are interested to engage and to make effective change in their local communities.

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