Hugh Evans Discusses Building a Movement to End Extreme Poverty
February 8, 2023
Hugh Evans, CEO and Co-Founder of Global Citizen, joined CEO Nir Bar Dea on campus as our latest guest in Bridgewater’s Distinguished Speaker Series.
Hugh is an internationally renowned humanitarian and one of the most recognized leaders in international development as part of his work leading Global Citizen, the world’s largest movement of citizens taking action to end extreme poverty now. Nir is also a proud board member of the organization. Over the course of a decade, Global Citizen has grown to be a movement of tens of millions of people around the world working to defend the planet, defeat poverty and tackle inequality.
The Global Citizen model rewards people for taking action — through acts of service, citizens earn their way in experiences, like the Global Citizen Festival. The festival takes place on the Great Lawn in Central Park, where it annually coincides with the UN General Assembly. Since 2012, the festival has gone on to take place in London, Accra, Paris, Lagos, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Hamburg, Toronto, Berlin, and Johannesburg. In 2021, Global Citizen hosted ‘Global Citizen Live’, a 24-hour global broadcast filmed across 6 continents. This once in a generation campaign secured over 60M COVID-19 vaccines, 157M trees planted, and over $1.1B USD committed to climate, famine, and COVID response efforts. Global Citizen also holds two Guinness Book of World Records for its campaign, One World: Together at Home. Over the last 10 years, Global Citizens have taken over 30.7 million actions. Today, these actions, in combination with high-level advocacy work, have secured over $41.4 billion being distributed to partners around the world, impacting 1.15 billion lives in the fight to defeat poverty and defend the planet.
In his visit to Westport, Hugh and Nir discussed the current focus and future vision for Global Citizen, as well as what it takes to start something from nothing and the advice Hugh has for anyone looking to drive impact and create change.
Hugh is an internationally renowned humanitarian and one of the most recognized leaders in international development as part of his work leading Global Citizen, the world’s largest movement of citizens taking action to end extreme poverty now. Nir is also a proud board member of the organization. Over the course of a decade, Global Citizen has grown to be a movement of tens of millions of people around the world working to defend the planet, defeat poverty and tackle inequality.
The Global Citizen model rewards people for taking action — through acts of service, citizens earn their way in experiences, like the Global Citizen Festival. The festival takes place on the Great Lawn in Central Park, where it annually coincides with the UN General Assembly. Since 2012, the festival has gone on to take place in London, Accra, Paris, Lagos, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Hamburg, Toronto, Berlin, and Johannesburg. In 2021, Global Citizen hosted ‘Global Citizen Live’, a 24-hour global broadcast filmed across 6 continents. This once in a generation campaign secured over 60M COVID-19 vaccines, 157M trees planted, and over $1.1B USD committed to climate, famine, and COVID response efforts. Global Citizen also holds two Guinness Book of World Records for its campaign, One World: Together at Home. Over the last 10 years, Global Citizens have taken over 30.7 million actions. Today, these actions, in combination with high-level advocacy work, have secured over $41.4 billion being distributed to partners around the world, impacting 1.15 billion lives in the fight to defeat poverty and defend the planet.
In his visit to Westport, Hugh and Nir discussed the current focus and future vision for Global Citizen, as well as what it takes to start something from nothing and the advice Hugh has for anyone looking to drive impact and create change.