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ASEFYLS2024 Knowledge Building Phase

Project Updates

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Published:
24 Jul 2024

WHAT IS #ASEFYLS?

The ASEF Young Leaders Summit (ASEFYLS) is a Youth platform that connects young people across Asia & Europe, applying a 360 degree approach on leadership development and community engagement: 1) self-leadership (you), 2) team leadership (we) and 3) societal leadership (all).

The ASEFYLS Capacity Buildings 2024 is a youth leadership programme focusing on ‘Leadership in Society 5.0’, with collaborative programme elements taking place both virtually and physically.

The Society 5.0 concept describes a human-centered society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space. ASEFYLS will explore what kind of leadership is needed for Society 5.0 and how young people can prepare with ethical, inclusive and sustainable values. 

The Programme will consist of three phases, with the aim to give participants the opportunity to learn, to collaborate and to turn theory into action:

  1. Knowledge Building Phase: July 2024, Virtual
  2. In-person Trainings: August/October 2024, China/Hungary
  3. Action Phase: August-December 2024, In local communities

Learn more about the #ASEFYLS2024 by looking at the Programme Snapshot.

The participants are all Youth Leaders of student and youth organisations from Asia and Europe. With varied academic and professional backgrounds, they bring interesting perspectives for discussions on how to lead in the new phase of society. Read more about them in the Participants Booklet.

WHAT WAS THE KNOWLEDGE BUILDING PHASE?

Through e-learning and virtual collaboration platforms, the Knowledge Building phase brought together 80 participants over 5 weeks, fusing theory, training and policy.

We invited youth to an in-depth knowledge journey and peer-to-peer exploration into Leadership and Society 5.0. This phase is a month-long online programme during the month of July with weekly sessions – 5 in total.

The sessions explored the topic of Leadership in Society 5.0 through the lens of how young people and their organisations can work towards a more ethical, inclusive, and sustainable Society 5.0.

WELCOME SESSION

On Tuesday, 2 July, the first session of the Knowledge Building Phase introduced participants to the online programme, to the topic of ‘Leadership and Society 5.0’, and started building a shared vocabulary of terms to be used throughout the programme. For this session we welcomed two speakers:

Mr Carsten BECK

Futurist and Director at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

Dr Kazuo YANO

Fellow at Hitachi & CEO of Happiness Planet

About the Presentations

In an increasingly globalised and constantly changing world, Mr Beck shared his insights on how young people can take on leadership roles and make their voices heard in societal debates about the future of our countries.

Dr Yano inspired participants with his keynote on ‘Wellbeing Leadership in the Age of AI’ – exploring the way in which technology and AI can impact happiness, and how we can use happiness, and our awareness of its impact, to enhance our lives in different ways, be it personally or professionally.​

ETHICAL SOCIETY 5.0

The second session of the Knowledge Building Phase on Tuesday, 9 July, introduced participants to the concept of ‘Ethical Society 5.0’ – exploring different dimensions of using technology in an ethical way to still keep in mind human-centric values such as responsible innovation, transparency, accountability, trust, and responsibility.

For this session, participants had the honour of listening to:

Dr Paula BODDINGTON

Associate Professor of Philosophy and Healthcare at the Geller Institute of Aging and Memory, School of Biomedical Sciences, at the University of West London

Prof Lampros STERGIOULAS

Professor of Data Science & AI, at the Hague University of Applied Sciences as well as the UNESCO Chair in AI and Data Science for Society

About the Presentations

With an extensive background in ethics and philosophy, Dr Boddington discussed the impact technology has on our everyday lives and how our understanding of technology may impact our view of their ethical implications. She encouraged participants to build a better understanding of themselves and the world we live in, including the role we play as a member of society, and to continue to exercise critical thinking in our ever-changing and increasingly complex world.

Prof Stergioulas gave an insightful presentation on the future of human-centered technology, and the double-edged sword of new transformative technologies – highlighting both their benefits if developed responsibly, as well as potential ethical and security risks. He ended his presentation by calling participants to action and invited them to join the collective in the effort to shape the ethical landscape of future technologies together.

INCLUSIVE SOCIETY 5.0

For the this third session, on Tuesday, 16 July, we explored the topic of ‘Inclusive Society 5.0’ through different perspectives – seeing how technology may contribute to further societal development, but may also create polarisation and increase the digital divide if we are keeping a human-centric approach to creating solutions to societal challenges and taking accountability for using technology in an inclusive way.

For this session, we had the following speakers:

Mr Marco VAN HOUT

Creative Director at the Digital Society School of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

Mr Matin MOHDARI

Head, Public Policy, Government and Corporate Affair (Southeast Asia and South Asia), Expedia Group

About the Presentations

Mr van Hout gave a Keynote entitled ‘Transform in order to Transform’ highlighting the differences between ‘change’ and ‘transformation’. Utilising the 4 E’s of transformation – Explore, Embrace, Experiment, and Evolve – he inspired participants to ask themselves “What if?” to get out of their comfort zone to find ways of being inclusive in their goal to transform society for the better. 

Mr Mohdari gave a Keynote on ‘Inclusive Digital Society 5.0’. In his presentation, he talked of the digital transformation society has made just over the past few years and how we need to be conscious of the potential backside of digital transformation. Mr Mohdari mentioned how it may risk causing a bigger divide between certain groups if we are not aware of how to be inclusive in our process for growth to not leave anyone behind.

SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY 5.0

The fourth session on Tuesday, 23 July, focused in on ‘Sustainable Society 5.0’, and delved into topics such as governance models for sustainability as well as different pathways (personal and professional) to being more socially sustainable. 

For this session, we welcomed the following speakers:

Mr Jonathan WONG

Chief of Innovation for Enterprise and Investment at United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Ms Carolin JONCZYK

Content Lead on Sustainability Topics for the Sustainability Impact Forum, and Assistant Manager for ESG Strategy at KPMG Germany

About the Presentations

With his Keynote entitled “Leadership for a Sustainable Society 5.0: Catalyzing the private sector to put people and planet alongside profit. Policy Approaches from the Asia-Pacific region’, Mr Wong looked at the role of governments to promote sustainability, and how important it is for the private sector and civil society to be part of the conversation when it comes to the development of policy measures. Furthermore, he stressed to the participants the importance of regional cooperation and knowledge sharing to continue to develop sustainable practices and work towards a sustainable future for all.

Focusing in on realms of impact – from individual to political impact – Ms Jonczyk provided the participants with a framework in which to think of what impact they wish to have on society, and to what scale. Ms Jonczyk challenged them to think of sustainability on multiple levels – self, professional, and societal sustainability – to see where they want and can have the greatest impact through their activism.

PERSONAL AND TEAM LEADERSHIP FOR SOCIETY 5.0

The fifth and final session on Tuesday, 30 July, focused in on ‘Personal and Team Leadership for Society 5.0’, and covered topics such as self-identity; values; informed decision-making; diversity and inclusion; growth-mindset; and resilience. This session was run by Ms Freya CHOW-PAUL, Youth Project Lead, and Ms Linnea REGNELL, Project Executive, at ASEF.

NEXT STEP: IN-PERSON TRAININGS

Following the online Knowledge Building Phase, the participants will continue their ASEFYLS journey and go for their In-Person Trainings. The participants will go to either:

  • Beijing and Hangzhou, China | 10-18 August 202

Or

  • Budapest, Hungary | 6-12 October 2024

The In-Person Trainings will physically bring together over 40 participants in each location to engage in people-to-people dialogue exchanges, networking, and learning in a local context. 


If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at asefyls@asef.org

See the highlights of previous editions of #ASEFYLS

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