EDUCATION & LEADERSHIP FOR A REGENERATIVE FUTURE: by Dr. Youssef Mahmoud (Tunisia), former UN USG

Home for Humanity’s Living Curriculum: Focusing on the Humanity Charter theme: SYSTEMS - Pioneering a Regenerative Future 

Dr. Youssef Mahmoud, a highly respected, former United Nations Under Secretary-General official eloquently lays out how the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic has forced humanity to imagine a new relationship with a wounded planed and revisit our understanding of security and the notion of home. He advocates tapping into the potential of education and leadership - particularly women’s leadership - to channel this emerging awareness towards positive change as we step away from individualism and into the “power of we”. Having witnessed for years the devastating consequences of governance failures in many parts of the world, Youssef Mahmoud calls for citizen movements across all sectors of society to forge a new form of state-citizen leadership, committed to co-creating a regenerative way of living buttressed by sustainable systems. The key for this to happen for Dr. Mahmoud, is Integral Education.

BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Youssef Mahmoud is a Senior Adviser at the International Peace Institute (IPI) supporting the sustainable development and peace operations programs and serving as focal point on mediation and prevention policies and practices. Originally from Tunisia, he is a former UN Under-Secretary-General and has headed peace operations in Burundi, the Central African Republic and Chad. He held other senior UN positions, including UN Resident Coordinator and Director in the UN Department of Political Affairs. He periodically writes on the topic of sustaining peace with a focus on the African continent. As a visiting Professor at the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London, he is putting the last touches on his book on leadership for peace in Africa, entitled “Whose Peace Are We Building?”. 

ABOUT THE LIVING CURRICULUM: The conversation with Dr. Youssef Mahmoud was conducted by Romain Losey and Stefanie Kriech, Members of the Home for Humanity Team 2020. The team worked on the creation of a Home for Humanity Living Curriculum – a task that was embedded in the 2020 “Reshaping International Development” Course at the University of St. Gallen, directed by the co-founders of Home for Humanity. This Living Curriculum is part of the HumanivEARTHsity Programme in Transformative Education of Home for Humanity.