Ballymena delegate to attend One Young World summit in Belfast

The One Young World Summit, which will take place from 2-5 October will bring together delegates from over 190 countries and more than 250 organisations to confront the biggest challenges facing humanity and accelerate social impact.

Philip Black is the director of CSRN – a non-profit which matches teams of student consultants with charities in regions of crisis to deliver pro-bono consulting projects in times of need.

He is also an Advisory Board Member and Training Lead for Action for Refugee Life (AREL) which aims to educate, employ and empower refugees in Kenya with digital skills and an analyst for Elixirr Consulting with a keen focus on ESG and Sustainability innovation and solutions for global organisations across a range of sectors and experiences.

Philip is one of over 2,000 delegates who will head to Belfast for the summit which will feature a star-studded line up of counsellors including footballing icon Dider Drogba, Rugby World Cup winning captain Francois Pienaar and British-Iranian journalist and author Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Aware of the opportunities for both professional and person growth on offer at the One Young World Summit, Philip jumped at the chance to become an Education Authority delegate and is keen to take as much from the conference as he can.

He says: “I have already engaged with a members of the global One Young World network and I cannot wait to meet a new range of delegates, hear their stories and learn from their experiences.

“A key outcome of this summit, for me, will be expanding my network in the social impact and diplomacy space.

“Both CSRN and AREL have been founded on collaboration and partnerships, so this outcome is key to me expanding upon the impact.”

This year’s One Young World Summit has been recognised by both the City of Belfast and the UK Government as being part of the official functions to mark the 25 th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Joining the extensive list of counsellors will be a number of local political figures with extensive experience of peace building. These include Lord Alderdice and Monica McWilliams, both signatories of the Good Friday Agreement and Brid Rodgers, a former Agriculture Minister in the first Stormont Executive.

Also in attendance will be Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Bertie Ahern, former Irish Taoiseach and an architect of the Good Friday Agreement.

With a host of star-studded names set to attend the summit in Belfast, Philip is clear about who he is looking forward to hearing from most.

“I am looking forward to hearing from the numerous amazing counsellors that will be at the summit, especially Bob Geldof,” he says.

“His activism has been really inspiring and I am keen to hear more about it, especially his charity work in Africa.

“I am keen to take as much as I can from the summit and I really can’t wait for it to start now.”