Table for Two Tonight?

A group of energetic young men and women, the Young Global Leaders, have launched the "Table for Two" initiative, simultaneously targeting hunger in the developing world and obesity in developed countries. "Every time someone eats a healthy meal at participating company cafeterias, restaurants and events, 20 cents is donated to fund a healthy school meal in developing countries," said James Kondo, President and Vice-Chairman, Health Policy Institute in Japan, and a Young Global Leader. The aim is to spread the initiative worldwide. "The World Economic Forum is supporting this Young Global Leaders’ initiative and encouraging businesses to consider the enormous impact that even a small company or organization can make in providing school meals and improving the health of its employees by implementing "Table for Two" in its cafeteria," said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. "With this initiative the Young Global Leaders show that they want to engage in innovative approaches to respond to major global challenges."

To date, pilot programs have been conducted in Japan at Family Mart; IBM Japan; Itochu; Japan Airlines; NEC; the Yokohama City Government; and at Godrej India. Donations so far from these pilots support around 40,600 school meals, equivalent to meals for around 200 students throughout the school year. Find out more at Tablefor2.

The Millennium Development Goals: It's Time for a "People's Plan of Action"

Recognizing that "individuals, companies and non-governmental organizations need to stand alongside their governments to advance the best solutions to extreme poverty, to sustain public engagement and to hold their governments accountable," through a "people's plan of action" a group of Young Global Leaders have made action-oriented pledges to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015.

One such individual, Ayla Goksel, through the Husnu M. Ozyegin Foundation, has pledged by 2014 to provide access to sustainable income-generating activities for 1,600 people in rural Turkey and to ensure 27,000 children have access to education in primary and secondary schools and programs built by the Foundation. This pledge supports MDG1 on poverty and productive employment, and MDG2 on education.

In addition, Ms Goksel has pledged by 2011, through the Mother Child Education Foundation (ACEV), to impact approximately 1 million families in Turkey through increased awareness of early childhood development and education; to raise US$ 20 million for these activities; to provide preschool, parenting and literacy education to 400,000 young children, parents and illiterate women; and to train 2,500 new volunteer instructors for this program, thereby contributing to MDG2 on primary education, MDG3 on gender equality, MDG4 on child health and MDG8 on building a global partnership for development.