Every movement has a first room. For the New Generation Leaders Summit, it was a conference hall in Dubai in January 2025. Young leaders from across Africa, Asia and beyond walked in as strangers, many meeting someone from another continent for the very first time. They walked out as a network, held together by one question: what does leadership look like for a generation that has to deliver the 2030 Agenda?
Three Days, Seventeen Goals
From 23 to 25 January 2025, delegates worked through all seventeen Sustainable Development Goals in keynote sessions, a leaders’ panel and small-group workshops. Nobody watched from the sidelines. Each delegate took ownership of one Goal, presented it to the room, and left with a certificate and a commitment to act on it at home.
Beyond the conference room
The most memorable moments often happened away from the lectern. Delegates shared dinner by the water beneath the Dubai skyline, sailed Dubai Creek on a traditional dhow, and watched a Tanoura dancer spin into one of the most photographed moments of the week. Friendships that began over dinner carried straight back into the next morning’s workshops.
What Dubai proved
The flags on stage told the story: delegations from Cameroon, Kenya, Pakistan and many other countries stood side by side. Dubai showed that young leaders from very different places find common ground quickly when they are given the room to do it.
From Dubai to Bangkok
The 2027 summit builds on that foundation. It takes place in Bangkok, Thailand, from 23 to 25 February, with more delegates, more countries and funded places, so that talent, not money, decides who is in the room.
Relive the week in photos on the Dubai 2025 page. Then write the next chapter yourself. Applications close on 30 November 2026, and take about 20 minutes. Apply for Bangkok 2027.