CAESAREA, Israel (Press Release)–Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has begun her first visit to Israel and participated Wednesday morning, Feb. 19, in the ID² – Israeli Designed International Development, the young entrepreneurs’ conference held in Caesarea, organized by the Schusterman Family Foundation and sponsored by MASHAV and Tel Aviv University. The UNDP Administrator is considered to be the third most senior official within the UN System.
The visit represents an additional step in the strengthening of the relationship between Israel and the United Nations, and positions Israel as an important United Nations partner vis a vis the UN agenda aimed at the eradication of poverty, economic development and job creation.
During her visit to the conference this morning, Clark, a former prime minister of New Zealand, showed great interest in many of the new innovations that were presented. She was particularly excited by the innovation of glow in the dark plants to replace the electric lightbulb, presented by Anat Reichman from Israel; and the MobileOCT app, which is a medical device company seeking to eradicate cervical cancer by making screening as ubiquitous as mobile phones, represented by Ariel Beery from Israel.
Clark remarked that she was “was blown away by the idea that you could have plants that glow in the dark and replace the electric light bulb, I thought that was just so, so cutting edge. The issue of cervical cancer detection that is a cancer that is a silent killer of so many women around the world because the services aren’t there to collect the smears and get them processed and get people who do have a precancerous condition dealt with. So that was a very, very interesting innovation to me. ”
After viewing the presentations at the conference, Clark said, “I was really inspired by what the young innovators had to say. There were some brilliant ideas there across technology applications and also ways of getting people properly organized for development solution so plenty of ideas there that could be up and running and really benefit a lot of people.” Following is a video of the full interview she gave to ID2 organizers at the conference:
ID² – Israeli Designed International Development, is an exclusive three-day gathering of 70 young Jewish innovators, entrepreneurs and international development professionals from Israel and around the world, is taking place this week in Caesarea. Coming together across sectors – private, government and NGOs – they are looking at how to harness Israeli innovations, technologies and the spirit of entrepreneurship to provide solutions to some of the Developing World’s most pressing challenges.
Under the theme “Entrepreneurship for Development”, the gathering is being organized and co-chaired by Danielle Abraham, policy advisor to MASHAV, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Daniel Ben Yehuda, Deputy Director of the Pears Program on Innovation and International Development, Tel Aviv University. It was created as part of Schusterman Connection Points, an initiative launched by the Schusterman Family Foundation, a global enterprise that supports and creates innovative initiatives for the purpose of igniting the passion and unleashing the power in young people to create positive change in Jewish communities and beyond.
“We are looking to explore how entrepreneurship can be used to tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges,” said Abraham and Ben Yehuda in a joint statement. “Our goal is to transform Israel from the Startup Nation to the Development Startup Nation by encouraging and empowering young international development players and entrepreneurs from around the world to get on board. We expect amazing ideas to come out of ID2 and to move the entrepreneurship for development agenda forward into real action.”
The contributing partners for the ID² 2014 Connection Point include MASHAV, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation which is a part of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Pears Program on Innovation and International Development at the Hartog School of Government and Policy at Tel Aviv University.
“We are excited to help young Jewish innovators create spaces to explore how they can harness the spirit of Israeli entrepreneurship in furthering ideas for international development. I believe young people hold the key to building a vibrant global Jewish future, and we must invest in their passion and potential to do so,” said Lynn Schusterman, chair of the Schusterman Family Foundation.
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Preceding provided by the Schusterman Family Foundation