UMD’s Macedonia Director Veronika Tomova was recognized as one of the Young Global Changers – the next generation of global problem solvers – at the Global Solutions Summit held in Berlin, Germany on May 28-29, 2018.
Tomova was the only representative from the Republic of Macedonia to attend and her policy recommendation entitled “Infrastructure for Development” was published in the Global Solutions Summit Journal.
Over 1,100 participants, official delegates from T20 Argentina 2018 and T20 Japan 2019, Nobel Laureates and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (keynote speaker) attended the world policy forum. The Global Solutions Summit brought together policy thinkers and policy leaders from around the world. In over 40 sessions, insights and ideas on the most pressing issues of our times were discussed, focused primarily around the Task Forces of the Argentinian T20 and the priorities of the Argentinian G20 Presidency. This sets the corner stone for key policy recommendations that will recouple the world and inspire vision.
“It is of great need for UMD and Macedonians to be present in such forums – ensuring our people have a voice to influence strategic change and impact not only for Macedonia but for the world,” said Tomova.
During the Summit sessions, Tomova raised the importance of national identity and the right to self-determination, as well as call upon policymakers and leaders to strengthen advocacy efforts for greater representation of women and gender balance in decision making processes on a local, national, regional, and global level.
In a meeting with Nobel Laureate in Economics and Director of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University, Dr. Edmund Phelps, Tomova, applying the case of Macedonia’s economy, discussed the national economic rational between present consumption, future savings and investments. With United Nations Special Advisor and Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Tomova discussed sustainable development and the role of Southeast European nations in approximating the world at large to more sustainable development parameters.
Tomova also met with Governing Mayor of Berlin Michael Muller and exchanged views on best practices on the matter of the smart city trends and tendencies in which Berlin managed to position it as one of the smartest cities in the world. Tomova encouraged the Mayor to visit Skopje to share his experiences and give advice to local authorities there, particularly on environmental issues.
UMD was honored to be part of the Global Solutions Initiative framework of the Council for Global Problem-Solving, which provides a new, permanent, supportive advisory structure to the G20 and G7. The initiative serves as a network of world class think tanks, decision and policy makers from the political, economic, civil and social spheres; acting as a bridge between the policy proposals and their implementation. The next Global Solutions Summit will take place on March 18-19, 2019 in Berlin, and will again serve as a stepping-stone to the Japanese T20 Summit in May 2019 and the Japanese G20 Summit in June 2019.