New Generation Leaders Summit 2025

In January 2025 the first New Generation Leaders Summit opened its doors in Dubai. Delegates arrived from across Africa, Asia and beyond, many of them meeting someone from another continent for the first time, and left as one network with one shared question: what does leadership look like for a generation that has to deliver the 2030 Agenda?

What happened in Dubai

Across the programme, delegates worked through the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals in keynote sessions, an open panel discussion and small-group workshops. Each delegate took ownership of a Goal and left with a certificate and a commitment to act on it at home.

The programme did not stop at the conference room. Delegates shared dinner by the water under the Dubai skyline, sailed Dubai Creek on a traditional dhow, and watched a Tanoura performance that turned into one of the most photographed moments of the week.

What it started

Dubai proved that young leaders from very different places can find common ground quickly when they are given the room to do it. The 2027 summit in Bangkok builds on that foundation, with more delegates, more countries and funded places so that talent, not money, decides who is in the room.