SGI Joins the Second World Summit for Social Development

From November 4 to 6, the Second World Summit for Social Development was held in Doha, Qatar. The summit brought together world leaders to reaffirm commitments to the Copenhagen Declaration made at First World Summit for Social Development in 1995, with the aim of building societies that are more resilient, inclusive and sustainable. On November 5, at the summit’s Civil Society Forum, Ivy Koek, program coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment of the SGI Office for UN Affairs, facilitated a session on designing cohesive societies. On November 6, Ms. Koek joined the forum’s closing panel, where she spoke about the role of faith-based organizations in bridging divides, building the culture of peace and fostering community resilience. On the same day, Kiyoshi Akasu, program coordinator for Sustainable Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the SGI (Soka Gakkai International), spoke at another side event on empowering communities with a focus on poverty eradication.

Prior to the Summit, on November 3, the SGI co-organized a virtual side event on human rights education as a solution to support social integration and advance gender equality. Elisa Gazzotti, program coordinator for Human Rights Education of the SGI Office for UN Affairs, introduced the documentary “Changemakers: Stories of Young Human Rights Educators,” jointly developed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Amnesty International and the SGI.