Press-releases
Participants in the 3rd Davos Philanthropic Roundtable discussed the role of philanthropy and hi-tech in the 21st century’s “knowledge revolution”
On Thursday, January 28th 2010, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation hosted the 3rd, Philanthropic Round Table in Davos (Switzerland), entitled ‘Hi-Teach=High-Tech+Philanthropy+Education’. The Davos Philanthropic Roundtable organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, has since 2008 and continues to be one of the largest specialized events on philanthropy conducted during the World Economic Forum. This year’s topics for discussion included the ways of development of education in the 21st century, new opportunities emerging in the field of education with the arrival of high technologies, and role of the global philanthropy in improving access to education worldwide.
The list of participants of the 3rd Round Table discussions included Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel; Melinda French Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Jimmy D. Wales, founder of Wikipedia; Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) non-profit association; Shelly Esque, President of Intel Foundation; Victor Pinchuk, Ukrainian businessman and public figure, and also John Edward Sexton, President of New York University, who moderated the debates.
“The hi-tech revolution ultimately has changed our vision for the opportunities of having access to education and significantly influenced the global economy”, said Victor Pinchuk opening the Roundtable. “By bringing together breakthroughs in information and communication technology and education, philanthropists can now achieve tangible results and help resolve the issue of access and quality of education in developing countries. The outcome will be astonishing.”
According to Mr. Pinchuk, all the preconditions for such a “HI-TEACH revolution”, which expects philanthropists to help introduce new technology in education, do exist today. “The technological solutions are already there. Demand is already there, and it’s obvious. What we need is our vision, creative thinking and determination to realize concrete projects”, he emphasized.
President of Israel Shimon Peres expressed his view that the 21st century education process must be developed in such a way that learners discussed future in the first place. In his opinion young people should not be overloaded with masses of useless facts. One of the main task of the education is to teach youth be charismatic, tolerant and be team players. According to President Peres, educational institutions require reform in this respect. “Schools today are overly organised and overly bureaucratised”, he stressed.
Shelly Esque, President of Intel Foundation, suggested that introduction of hi-tech in education would help overcome the ‘digital gap’ existing today between developed and developing countries and continents.
For his part Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) non-profit association, highlighted that providing as many children from developing countries as possible with laptops was a task of a paramount importance. “We can develop infrastructure – information sites and digital libraries, but there is no guarantee that this infrastructure will have its users”, he emphasised. At the same time the availability of the personal computers is having serious effect on the developing countries today. “Kids not only use computers while studying, they use them to educate their parents”, noted Nicholas Negroponte.
Melinda French Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, drew attention to the fact that society should not focus on the educational problems of the developing countries only. According to her there were serious issues in the developed countries too, even in the USA. “Access to education is a problem in the United States. This is the problem we focus on. Only one third of schoolchildren have a real chance to go to colleges and universities after school graduation. Talking about quality education, it is the prerogative of just a small number of individuals. And this is the reason why we examine possibilities to deliver on-line lectures, when the best scholars could lecture to anyone whom wishes via the Internet.”
Davos Philanthropic Roundtable organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation is one of the largest specialized events on philanthropy held during the World Economic Forum since 2008. This year’ s topics for discussion include the ways of development of education in the 21st century, new opportunities emerging in the field of education with arrival of high technologies, and role of the global philanthropy in improving access to education worldwide.
The list of participants of the 3rd Round Table included Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel; Melinda French Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Jimmy D. Wales, founder of Wikipedia; Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) non-profit association; Shelly Esque, President of Intel Foundation; Victor Pinchuk, public figure and philanthropist, organizer of the event, and also John Edward Sexton, President of New York University, who moderated the debates.
Representatives of Ukraine also were among the participants of the round table, including Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, musician and founder of the People of the Future philanthropic foundation; Vitaliy Klitchko, public figure and sportsman; Igor Litovchenko, President of Kyivstar; Dmytro Shimkiv, Director General of Microsoft Ukraine; Natalie Jaresko, Сo-managing Рartner of Horizon Capital, WNISEF President and CEO and others.
The general partner of the 3rd Philanthropic Round Table:
Western NIS Enterprise Fund
Partners of the 3rd Philanthropic Round Table:
Kyivstar
Microsoft
Additional information
The 1st Philanthropic Roundtable organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation was held in Davos during the World Economic Forum 2008. The main speakers at the time were the founder of the Open Society Foundation George Soros, Chief Editor of The Economist Mathew Bishop, President of the Global Health Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Dr. Tadataka Yamada, Chairwoman of the Supervisory Council of the Ukraine -3000 Foundation Kateryna Yuschenko and Chief Executive Officer of the Clinton Global Initiative Robert Harrison. The role of the discussions moderator was undertaken by President of Aspen Institute Walter Isaacson, former Chairman and CEO of CNN.
The 2nd Davos Philanthropic Roundtable entitled “From Philanthrocapitalism to Philanthrocrisis” in 2009 gathered together people who have significantly contributed to the development of a new model of philanthropy: Bill Clinton (William “Bill” Jefferson Clinton), 42nd President of the United States; Tony Blair (Anthony Charles Lynton Blair), former Prime-Minister Of Great Britain; Sir Richard Branson (Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson), businessman and philanthropist; Muhammad Yunus, Laureate of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize; Jet Li, famous actor and founder of a charity fund and also Victor Pinchuk, the Roundtable organiser, public leader and businessman. Matthew Bishop, Chief Business Editor of The Economist and co-author of the book “Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World” acted as a moderator of the discussion.
The Victor Pinchuk Foundation (pinchukfund.org) is an independent private international charity based in Ukraine. The Foundation was established in 2006 by businessman and public figure Victor Pinchuk. Its goal is to empower future generations to become the change makers of tomorrow. To achieve this, projects are developed and partnerships are built in Ukraine and worldwide. The Foundation invests in three main directions:
- Investing in people, to boost human capital;
- Investing in the society, to promote social responsibility;
- Investing in the world, to foster a more integrated world.
The largest projects of the Foundation include the programme for creation of “Cradles of Hope” neonatal centres, the nation-wide programme for support to young talented people Zavtra.UA, the PinchukArtCentre centre for contemporary art, the international network YES (Yalta European Strategy) to support Ukraine’s aspirations for European integration.
The Victor Pinchuk Foundation is a member of the European Fund Centre and Ukrainian Grant makers Forum and a partner of the Yalta European Strategy (YES). The Foundation cooperates with Clinton's Global Initiative and other non-governmental organisations.
