STEaPP MPA students attend World Government Summit in Dubai

The Summit was attended by prominent leaders from the public and private sectors, as well as international thought leaders and pioneers. They engaged in inspirational, thought-provoking, and future-focused dialogues that aim to shape the future of governments and help improve the lives of citizens worldwide.

Natalia Moncada Luzio, a STEaPP MPA student, said: "I am so grateful we had the opportunity to participate in the WGS. In Dubai we lived a unique experience. From the cultural context to the participants, the first level speakers and the contents of the seminar around the future of government regarding science, technology, innovation and education, everything was amazing.

"On the first day the participants from STEaPP were allocated one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) panels. My panel was on Education, SDG #4. I had the chance to interact and connect with different stakeholders from UNESCO, universities and government. Each of us contributed from our own context and experience, in my case from my work in Chile around entrepreneurship as a tool to diminish educational gaps. The outcome was a collective road map with the next steps to reach a worldly high quality of education.

"For me as an MPA student the whole WGS gave me the chance to open my mind and see how different governments and stakeholders perceive the future challenges and what are the conversations that are really taken place between them. It was a Summit absolutely connected with our learnings in STEaPP!"

Commenting on the trip, MPA student Marco Hernandez said:"The summit was also a remarkable opportunity to develop our network, enriching it with other students, top government officials, private sector leaders, non-profit representatives, academics and public figures, all with the same goal: creating a community that works together towards a global wellbeing.

"This experience allowed us to expand our horizons and get new ideas of from many parts of the world, from the speakers and from other assistants. Space travel, Climate chance, Education, Public Institutions, Artificial Intelligence, Happiness, Economic and Social development were only a few of the many topics that were discussed during this event.

"Finally, we got the chance to participate in the SDGs challenge, which I consider the most interesting experience that we had. During this day-long session, we got the chance to be part of 1 or 2 of the different 17 councils that were created, which were composed by 15 stakeholders from different countries and expertise. The goal was to create a roadmap that will allow to achieve the SDG. In my case I worked with the SDG 1 (No poverty) and SDG 7 (Clean and Affordable Energy) and got the chance to be teamed with the Director General of IRENA and the Senior VP of the World Bank."