Young development professionals and students could pitch solutions to global landscape challenges to a panel of experts in a Dragon’s Den Style Event. © Andrew Wheeler for Wild Dog Limited / WLE_CGIAR 2015 all rights reserved worldwide.
My adventure into the world of Youth in Landscapes Initiative was a strange one. It started off with my professor asking me if I was interested in working with a group of people organizing a youth initiative as part of a larger conference. I was also allowed to use the data I collected as part of my thesis. Preparations began and writing had started.
The day I arrived I was asked if I wanted to be a youth participant. I took on the challenge as part of active research when it came to writing my paper. What an amazing surprise it was. The challenge that my group and I were given, was landscape restoration through collection of data in the Ethiopian Highlands and down the Blue Nile. We were then given 4 days to come up with something innovative and to pitch it within 3 minutes to 5 high profile people a la Dragon’s Den style.
As a group of ten people from different educational backgrounds who were interested in Landscape Restoration, there were many directions we wanted our solution to go in. There were ups and downs, hours of debating the little details of this toolkit. Who is it designed for, how are they going to access it, what is it going to cover, what purpose is it going to serve.
Many times, we needed to take a step back and refocus on what the overall purpose of this toolkit was. It was hard for me because there were many times where I felt conflicted because I wasn’t sure if what I was doing and saying would affect my research but I also wanted to whole-heartedly take part in the experience and all the emotions and feelings that come with it.
After 4 days of discussion, we were ready to pitch our idea. The hours before the Dragon’s Den, I tried to distract myself with the exhibition hall in the GLF but to no avail. My mind kept going back to the thought of standing in front of all those people. We did a trial run before in front of our Mentor Alan. His feedback and support during that time was invaluable.
As our team name was announced to come up and pitch our idea, I felt the rush of adrenaline surging through my body. My teammates’ words of support were the dose of positivity that I needed right before standing up on that stage. As my time came to pitch, I realized that it was not just the toolkit I was pitching on that stage but it was all of our struggles in the past 4 days, every detail we had discussed, every disagreement and compromise we had made, every laugh we shared and the bits of our lives that we shared with each other.
I can honestly say that this experience was unlike any other. The atmosphere of having such a diverse group of positive young people who are so passionate about land-use issues is truly awe-inspiring and unlike any other. I thank them for the inspiration they have given me and look forward to seeing the amazing things that come out of them in the future.
Noor Nasir is one of the 10 young champions who worked on the “ Landscape restoration ” challenge with Youth program’s partner: WLE (CGIAR).
Learn more about the Global Landscapes Forum Youth program, meet our 50 youth champions, discover the 5 Landscapes challenges they took up and the solutions they developed and pitched at the Dragon’s Den on 6th December 2015, in Paris.
