Ravi Kumar's blog

Scoring for Peace

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A documentary shows the importance of sports in uniting conflict-affected communities

Ismael Bikomati in Scoring for Peace.

“When I joined the rebels, I was 12 years old. I went there because we didn’t have enough food at home,” says Ismael Bikomati in Scoring for Peace, a documentary seeking to spread the message of peace globally.

Bikomati, an athlete with a contagious smile, is a high school student in Bubanza, a city in northwestern Burundi. He is a midfielder for his team and the captain as well. He is one of a group of 500 players from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda who competed in the Great Lakes Peace Cup. It was organized by the World Bank during the spring and summer of 2012 to help former combatants rebuild relationships with their communities.

My Country Is Not a Lost Cause

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President Kim at Fragile Forum
World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim at Fragility Forum 2013 in Washington D.C. with Lara Logan, CBS News and "60 Minutes" Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent.

In the late 1990s, my parents and neighbors used to talk about how our fellow Nepalis were killing each other, or how our government was unstable, or how the country was paralyzed. As a teenager who didn’t have much access to mass media, I didn’t fully understand what it all meant. All I knew was that I often used to stay home from school due to strikes imposed by political parties. I would later learn from my dad that the country was going through a civil war.

In 2006, as I was preparing to apply to universities in the United States for an undergraduate degree, Nepal's decade-long civil war was coming to an end. Later, in an undergraduate political science class, I would learn that Nepal is considered a fragile and conflict-affected country. Reflecting on it, I knew that there were numerous other countries like Nepal around the world.

Why Empowering Girls Is Key to Ending Poverty

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Sokha, a skinny orphan girl in Cambodia used to pick through garbage to survive. But thanks to series of events, she was able to enroll in school and excel. Her tale is one of the nine inspiring stories in Girl Rising, a documentary that aims to raise awareness about the plight of girls in the developing world.

On April 18, Girl Rising was screened at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. in an event to give a greater momentum to girls’ education and empowerment. President Jim Yong Kim, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Justine Greening, Secretary of State, International Development, UK, Holly Gordon, Executive Producer of Girl Rising, Frieda Pinto, an actress and Shabana Basij-Rasikh, Founder of SOLA, an organization hoping to expand education and leadership opportunities for Afghan women shared their thoughts on need of girls’ empowerment.

Watch the recap of the event:

For African Youth, Informal Sectors Jobs Are Normal

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Youth Forum Breakfast, Abuja, Nigeria. Photo: Bamidele Emmanuel Oladokun / World Bank

In 2011 African heads of state met in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, for the African Union Summit. It was held under the theme: "Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development." The main aim of the gathering was to deliberate on Africa's youth which is growing faster than any other continent. More than 200 million people in Africa are between ages 15 through 24.

“Africa is the youngest continent. The current youth of Africa are not only important for Africa but also for the world,” said Shantayanan Devarajan, Chief Economist for the World Bank’s Africa region. Young people are usually the ones who lead innovation and are a source of labor force of any economy, Devarajan added.

President Kim Discusses Role of Youth in India’s Bold Future

Local boys look on during the visit of World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim to the low income suburb of Gwaltoli on his tour of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh state, India.

"India must take advantage of having a young population. Never doubt the possibilities for this country,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim to youth in India. During an hour-long NDTV program, President Kim answered questions that ranged from reducing poverty to tackling water crises in the country.

How Are African Youth Doing? Interactive Map Helps Visualize Progress and Challenges

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What can be done to help African youth improve their prospects for a brighter future?

The first step might be to understand the challenges they face.

Recently, Microsoft Chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates wrote a terrific piece in the Wall Street Journal on why we need to measure the world’s problems to solve them. “You can achieve incredible progress if you set a clear goal and find a measure that will drive progress toward that goal…,” said Gates.

That’s true.

Nepal Youth Pictures Inequality, Wins Photo Contest

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Nepal Youth Pictures Inequality, Wins Photo Contest

Among the evocative winning photos in the World Bank’s recent “Picture Inequality” contest was one that hit home for me.

It shows a skinny teenager crushing stones so they could be used to construct gravel roads in Nepal. The picture captured the sense of helplessness many youth feel in Nepal, a landlocked country in South Asia that is struggling to recover from a decade-long civil war. And it brought to mind the saying a photograph is worth a thousand words.

The photographer, Niraj Prasad Koirala, 24, of Nepal, was one of 10 winners whose photographs and statements best captured inequality and described how they would make a better world. Koirala’s photo was one of 11 chosen by a panel of experts from 756 photos received between October 25 and December 16, 2012.

"I was very happy when I got to read the winning message from the World Bank. It was my one of the greatest moments in life," says Koirala.

From Afghanistan to World Bank, Youth Orchestra Brings a Beautiful Harmony

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Afghanistan National Institute of Music Concert

Students from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) play in the Wolfensohn Atrium.

There are days when your faith in humanity is not only restored but strengthened. Today was one of those days.

On a sunny afternoon in Washington, D.C., young students from Afghanistan showed off their musical talent in an orchestral performance at the World Bank.

I was inspired and excited to see the group of musicians, aged 9 to 21, who had travelled so far from a war-torn country to perform. As someone who grew up during a decade-long civil war in Nepal, I can in some ways relate to their hard work, persistence, and determination to excel despite all odds.

An Inspiring Story of a Young South Asian Artist

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Can art change your vision for the future?

During the third week of January on a chilly Tuesday evening in Washington, D.C., young artists from the South Asia region gathered in the Wolfensohn Atrium of the World Bank for an exhibition of Imagining Our Future Together, a group exhibition organized by the World Bank to feature works from 25 young South Asian artists. Their art reflects their hope to make South Asia a more united region.

Social Media and Social Change: How Young People are Tapping into Technology

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Today, 43% of the world’s population is 25 years old or younger. This young group is impatient and ready to change the world. Change for this generation “has everything to do with people and very little to do with political ideology,” according to a new global survey, Millennials: The Challenger Generation, by Havas Worldwide, a future-focused global ideas agency. Some 70% of young people believe that social media is a force for change, says the survey.

These five examples from around the world show how youth used technology, social media and the Internet to make a difference recently.

Ravi Kumar's blog

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