by Lizzie Strickland

How can world poverty be eradicated? How can the standard of living of millions of people be improved without other people falling into poverty? One might find these questions to be seemingly impossible to answer, but participants in the Global Solutions Lab (GSL) at Chestnut Hill College have been working to find the solution.

From June 19-27, participants in this program worked to design and develop solutions to end world poverty. They resided and collaborated at Chestnut Hill College, working with United Nations representatives to create step-by-step solutions to respond to the theme of “Human Rights and Human Development: Eliminating Extreme Poverty by 2030.” The program is sponsored by many organizations, especially Global Education Motivators (GEM), whose office is on the campus of Chestnut Hill College.

Guided by UN representatives from UNICEF, WHO, and other UN programs, the participants were briefed on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including ending poverty and preserving natural resources. Through inspiring presentations by activist Betsy Teutsch and communications expert Jim Walker, participants learned about influential solutions already being applied around the word.

They were taught strategic design and design science methodology to create a pragmatic, step-by-step solution that, if applied aggressively throughout the world, would provide a path to fulfilling the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The three groups of participants worked 10-12 hours a day, focusing on different aspects of the solution: hunger, education and human rights.

Design science methodology is a large-scale problem-solving strategy developed by Buckminster Fuller, a 20^th-century philosopher and inventor. GSL director Medard Gabel worked with Fuller for many years, and applies his theories in running the lab. GEM president Wayne Jacoby describes the methodology as “looking at getting participants to believe that the world will be better tomorrow, to envision the world they want, related to the issues they’re tackling.”

Though most participants are college students, the group is by no means homogeneous. College students have often mixed with teachers, business people, and high school students in this program, with an average age range of 18 to 65. This year’s group includes participants from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Cameroon, Liberia, and other countries around the world.

“The good thing is it’s different perspectives from all over the world on different things,” said Jawaria Ali Khan, a student from Pakistan who is studying at Effat University in Saudi Arabia, “and that input is how it’s truly a Global Solutions Lab where you’re trying to incorporate everyone’s conditions, and how whatever we’re trying to do is beneficial for all.”

Denver high school student Rachel Sheraden agrees.

“We can come up with something that might work for a certain group but not everybody,” she said. “Then there’s always going to be someone who says, ‘Well, hold on a sec, in my country, that wouldn’t work.’ […] It really makes sure that you’re not going to be leaving anybody out of your solution because the whole point is solving for 100 percent of humanity.”

The solution the participants have created deals not only with finding ways to develop education, promote human rights, and prevent hunger, but also with providing access to information about solutions currently available. Through extensive research, participants discovered that while inventions and innovations built to eliminate poverty are abundant, information about these resources is not readily available to the people who need them.

“So we thought about making something similar to an information hub, in which these solutions are available to,” said Hanan Altukhaifi, of Saudi Arabia.

“We want to bridge the gap between the solution and the access,” said James Nelson, of California, describing their solution. “We want to be that person who has tools that they need.”

The participants were motivated to create a practical solution before it was presented to the United Nations in New York City at the end of the week. After this presentation, the United Nations, as well as people from the corporate world, foundations and organizations, critiqued the team’s solutions. The step-by-step procedure produced by the group will also be printed in the next edition of the book "Designing a World that Works for All."

The participants agreed that people should participate in future Global Solutions Labs to help generate international cooperation and communication, even on a small scale. They also stressed that the lab breaks participants out of their comfort zones.

“There is something they say back home,” said Faustian Sebishimbo, of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “They say, ‘If you stay in your village, if you don’t go out, you’re not going to know what’s going on outside.’ For people who can afford to come here, it’s very important. All these classes, they look new for me, and they give me that passion to focus on one thing and learn about international, global problems.”

Jacoby believes that the program is not only an opportunity for new ideas to be created to support the world internationally, but also an intense educational project meant to stimulate participants’ leadership and cooperative abilities. He emphasized that participants, already interested in becoming world leaders, will find themselves more eager to become involved with world affairs and more aware of the importance of communicating between nations.

“They’re all moved into working across cultures and broadening perspectives, which is a huge thing for this generation,” he said. “It’ll change their outlook on the world completely.”