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Highlights from the 2022 Skoll World Forum

May 2, 2022

By Jess Fleuti - Skoll Foundation

This year’s virtual Skoll World Forum welcomed more than 3,000 attendees from 121 countries to Face/Forward with courage, determination, and hope. Over three days, we shared ideas for innovation, sparked unexpected connections, witnessed memorable performances, and celebrated the 2022 Skoll Awardees, each driving solutions ranging from stronger health systems, racial justice, and climate action to civic engagement and inclusive economic growth.

We opened the gathering with a stirring visual poem, What’s in a Face, by Darius Simpson, which encouraged us to “face the facts” of an unjust world beset by challenges that seem to be hardening before our eyes. But it also called on us to examine our collective capacity for transformational social change when we work together. Simpson’s poem set the tone for the 2022 Forum, inviting us to breathe deeply, learn from the lessons of the past, and face the future with bravery, resilience, and trust in the power of the collective.

Through poignant plenaries, 16 sessions, 25 roundtable discussions, and 5,000 chat messages, Forum attendees explored the complexities of global challenges across the Skoll Foundation’s strategic priority areas: strengthening health systems and pandemic prevention, promoting effective governance, mobilizing climate action, creating inclusive economies, and advancing racial justice. On the third day of the Forum, our network used Ecosystem Day to foster an additional 140 conversations and opportunities to connect.

Across the virtual Skoll World Forum program, several resonant themes continued to bubble up, offering opportunities for improving practices, deepening impact, and building transformative partnerships.

Shifting power and resources 

Solome Lemma, Executive Director of Thousand Currents, urged funders aiming for impact on the climate crisis to make big bets on community-led movements.

Watch the full session: Ensuring Climate Commitments Reach Frontline Communities

Nasir Qadree, Founder of Zeal Capital Partners, outlined its approach to removing barriers to access, and resourcing entrepreneurs at the community level.

Watch the full session: Funding the Future: Innovative Pathways to Impact

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organization, brought a gender lens to her interview with Skoll Board member James Mwangi, insisting that men need to make room for women in leadership positions.

In the rousing closing plenary, Githinji Gitahi, Group Chief Executive Officer of Amref Health Africa, reminded us that the most powerful antidote to poverty is justice.

Watch the full session

Watch the full closing plenary

Reevaluating the role of philanthropy

Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, urged funders to support proximate leaders and pushed for greater transparency in funding practices.

Watch the full panel: Funding Surge? Implications for the Future of Racial Justice  

William Foster from The Bridgespan Group argued that to act in service of transformation, philanthropy must increase its appetite for risk.

Watch the full panel: Beyond the Storm: Innovations for the Future of Philanthropy

Rakesh Rajani, VP of Co-Impact, spoke of the need for funders to act in solidarity with the most impacted communities around the globe. 

Deepening trust and understanding

Jen Ford Reedy, President of the Bush Foundation, argued that we must think differently and extend deeper trust in funding.

Watch the full panel: Beyond the Storm: Innovations for the Future of Philanthropy

Jonathan Dotan, co-Founder of Starling Lab, cautioned that innovation that outpaces wisdom fuels misinformation and mistrust.

Watch Dotan’s full talk

Facing challenges together

Alessandra Orofino, 2022 Skoll Awardee and founder of Nossas, called on mobilizing people power and mass movements to face down authoritarianism.

Watch the full panel: The Dangerous Decline in Democracy

Sonali Kahn, Managing Director of Sesame Workshop India, reminded us that our divided landscapes demand that we welcome all voices and insist on radical collaboration.

Watch the full panel: Bridging Divides for a Collective Future

Samantha Power, Administrator of USAID, reminded us that as the battle lines for the fate of democracy are being drawn, we are stronger together.

Watch her full opening plenary interview with NPR’s Scott Simon

No Skoll World Forum would be complete without the inclusion of memorable performances and this year was no different. Five time Grammy Award-winner Angelique Kidjo graced our opening plenary to lift our spirits. Amadou and Mariam, the musical duo from Mali, offered their joyful songs in closing plenary to send us on our way and Face/Forward into the future.

As we take inspiration from the 2022 Skoll World Forum and forge ahead with our work, please feel free to explore our content archive.

Banner image: Some of the 2022 Skoll Awardees (L-R) Tasso Azevedo (MapBiomas), Shahed Alam (Noora Health), Rodney Foxworth (Common Future), Angela Gichaga (Financing Alliance for Health), and Edith Elliott (Noora Health)

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