From Limpopo to Ladakh: Youth-led Development in Action – Meet the 2025 MDP Global Challenge Competition Winners

Ahead of Earth Day, there is no better moment to celebrate what young development practitioners can do when given real responsibility, real partnerships, and a real mandate to act. The Global MDP Secretariat is proud to announce the winners of the 2025 MDP Global Challenge Competition (GCC). The solutions shared today — rooted in the grounds of South Africa, the schools of Brazil, and the glaciers of the Indian Himalayas — are a testament to what the next generation of sustainable development leaders looks like when they are trusted to build the future they have inherited.

The Global Master’s in Development Practice (MDP) Challenge is a flagship initiative of the Global MDP Secretariat, housed at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the SDG Academy. It is made possible through the generous support of the Leopold Bachmann Foundation, in partnership with Afflican.

The program is a 12-month incubator pilot, comprising three months of cross-cultural proposal development and expert judging, followed by three months of preparation, and a six-month pilot implementation period. Participants across the globe join multinational teams to design field-ready, innovative solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Building on last year’s inaugural success, this year’s Challenge brought together 137 participants from 17 countries and 25 universities across five continents, forming 10 multinational teams. Each team included students from at least seven countries and eight institutions; the most globally diverse team spanned ten countries, and the most institutionally diverse drew from twelve universities. Working across time zones, disciplines, languages, and borders, they delivered.

The Leopold Bachmann Foundation's commitment to this Challenge goes beyond a single competition. Through sustained investment in MDP students across Colombia and South Africa — two countries whose development futures depend on exactly the kind of locally grounded, globally informed leadership the MDP cultivates — the Foundation has helped expand a network of sustainable development practitioners. By supporting a Challenge that brings together participants from multiple campuses and across international borders, it fosters an inclusive ecosystem of growth and opportunities for all involved.

From scholarship funding that provides access to higher education at the University of Pretoria, South Africa and the University of Los Andes, Colombia, the Foundation's vision is clear: Students from the Global South must be empowered with opportunities to expand their knowledge, skills, and experiences, not only to confront the complex challenges of sustainable development but to actively shape and lead its future. The 2025 Challenge, with every team initially including at least one student from Colombia or South Africa, was built directly on that vision.

Read more about some of these Leopold Bachmann Foundation recipients.

The MDP Global Challenge brings together graduate students from diverse backgrounds to collaboratively address real-world issues such as hunger, poverty, gender inequality, climate change, and water access. By applying classroom theory to urgent global problems, participants discover that effective solutions demand cross-disciplinary insight and teamwork. This approach exemplifies what education should achieve—empowering generations to build a sustainable and equitable future for all.

Dr. Lucia Rodriguez, Director, MDP Program Secretariat, SDG Academy, SDSN

A distinguished panel of judges evaluated the proposals, bringing together a highly diverse group of leading global institutions spanning international organizations, academia, the private sector, and multilateral development actors. Judges were drawn from the World Bank, the World Food Programme, World Wildlife Fund-International, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), including UNESCO-ISTIC, and the UNESCO Office for the Caribbean.

The panel also featured representation from Trinity College Dublin, the University of Ibadan, and the University for Peace, alongside key development leaders at the Temasek Foundation, Google, the African Forest Forum, and the Swiss Mission to the United Nations in Italy, as well as members from the Global MDP Association's consortium of partner programs and the MDP Faculty Steering Committee. Together, this panel reflected remarkable geographic and sectoral breadth, ensuring that every proposal was held to a standard that was not only rigorous but genuinely globally informed.

"Participating in this process was an invigorating look at the future of the SDGs. The level of professionalism across the submissions, ranging from high-altitude climate resilience to circular economy models, was exceptional. [...] As these initiatives transition from blueprints to pilot programs, I am most looking forward to seeing the "digitization" of impact. At Google, we believe that the most effective solutions to global crises are born when data-driven strategy meets a deep commitment to inclusive innovation. For Team Bridge, the formalization of waste cooperatives and the potential for tracking recycled materials through transparent supply chains represent the future of sustainable development. We are excited to see how this seed funding will act as a multiplier, turning "waste" into a sustainable wage and a cleaner future for the Makhado Municipality. ”

Spencer Low, Head of Regional Sustainability, Asia-Pacific, Google; Chair of the Innovation task force of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Sustainable Business Network.

"One of the most remarkable strengths of Team Bridge was their deeply community-driven approach to creating green jobs, aiming to truly reflect local priorities. They understood that innovation without localization cannot endure...and they got it right!"

Ana Paula Bedoya Cazorla, Programme Policy Office and Head of Livelihoods, World Food Programme (WFP)

First Place: Team BRIDGE — From Waste to Wages: A Catalytic Model for Rural Employment Limpopo Province, South Africa | SDG 8.5

In the rural villages of Makhado Municipality, Limpopo, where youth unemployment reaches 62.4%, and communities lack basic waste collection, Team BRIDGE saw not just a problem, but a pathway. Their winning proposal establishes a community-based waste management cooperative for 20 unemployed youth, at least 60% of them women, providing accredited skills training, cooperative registration, and market linkages that transform illegal dumping into decent, green employment.

The project will be implemented in partnership with PWK Waste Management & Recycling, a Limpopo-based women-led organization that focuses on collecting, preparing, and reselling various waste streams, to recycle, repurpose, and reuse, separating at source, and encouraging responsible recycling, reducing overall waste in landfills. With deep community roots, the project is a model of what happens when development education meets local knowledge and institutional trust. As one community partner reflected:

“Our collaboration with Team Bridge has been a deeply meaningful experience, grounded in shared learning, humility, and a genuine commitment to community‑driven solutions. This new project, launched in a rural area in Limpopo Province in South Africa, where waste management remains a serious challenge, and municipalities face limited resources, with high unemployment. The partnership with Team Bridge enhances the powerful step toward transforming how communities engage with waste. Together, we are introducing a ‘waste‑to‑wages’ model that creates real opportunities for women, youth, and people living with disabilities. By capacitating community members to separate waste at source and participate in waste valorization, we are building a system that restores dignity, promotes inclusion, and strengthens local livelihoods.

Our partnership with Team Bridge brings innovation to the forefront — from automated weighing systems to digital payments that reward every kilogram diverted from the landfill. We believe this collaboration will drive behavioral change, enhance community participation, and demonstrate how technology can support circular‑economy solutions in rural settings. As part of a global initiative, we are confident that this project will showcase how locally rooted partnerships can deliver scalable, sustainable solutions.”

Susan Kone, Executive Director, PWK Waste Management and Recycling (Limpopo, South Africa)

Team BRIDGE will receive over $2,000 USD in seed funding from the Leopold Bachmann Foundation to begin pilot implementation, in partnership with PWK Waste Management & Recycling, in Summer 2026.

Participating in this pilot has been a rewarding experience for me. I have gotten to meet fellow MDP students from around the world and am helping bring a meaningful project to fruition. Witnessing the different skills and mindsets that this degree program brings together has shown me the depth and breadth of experiences present in those starting off in the development practice field. It is this variety that allowed Team BRIDGE to flourish, creating a catalytic, detail-oriented, and thorough solution, which we see creating lasting impact in our SDG focus area. As our project moves into its next phase, I am most excited to navigate the changes that come with bringing ideas to life. Drafting a proposal is one thing, but implementing it is a completely different learning opportunity. I am grateful to navigate this challenge as a part of Team BRIDGE, and to have a chance to see how our idea can stand the test of time.

Kelyce Allen, Team Lead - Team BRIDGE, MDP Programme at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, USA

Second and Third Place Finalists: Caring for the Collective, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Hybrid Resilience in Ladakh, India

The second-place finalists, Team Global Pillars, posed a question that rarely makes it into development proposals: What about the well-being of the people living inside the problem? Their proposal pilots a meditation and mindfulness program in a public school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, working with community partners Fechando o Ciclo and Instituto Kasa de Maat to bring culturally grounded techniques — including Kemetic meditation, breathing practices, and nonviolent communication — to students, teachers, and administrators in an underserved favela community.

Judges praised the proposal's anti-racist framework, its cascade training model built for institutional longevity, and its grounding in World Health Organization (WHO) well-being standards and Brazil’s SDG 18 framework for ethnic-racial equality.

Few places on Earth make the climate crisis more visible than Ladakh, India, a high-altitude cold desert where glaciers are retreating, floods are intensifying, and the traditional livelihoods that sustained communities for generations are eroding alongside the ice. The third-place finalists, Team Green Rangers, designed a youth climate fellowship that reconnects Ladakhi young people with local organizations, including Acres of Ice, Local Futures, Earth Building, and Navikru Eco Foundation. Their approach unfolds across three phases: immediate disaster preparedness, adaptive water management, and long-term ecosystem restoration. Their proposal integrates indigenous knowledge and modern climate science into a model designed not on external dependency, but on community ownership.

A Global Cohort of Builders

The three finalist teams represent only part of this year's story. Across the full cohort, teams tackled an extraordinary breadth of challenges: advancing food sovereignty and agroecological resilience for smallholder farmers in post-conflict Cauca, Colombia; developing solar-powered cold chain infrastructure for artisanal fishing communities in Chile; formalizing the often invisible green labor of India's informal waste pickers and smallholder farmers into bankable climate finance; creating a financing framework for Building-Integrated Photovoltaics to accelerate urban decarbonization; and designing a fisheries transparency and governance system designed to protect small-scale coastal communities from market exclusion. Every team that committed to this Challenge helped move a global conversation that urgently needs more voices like theirs.

The next Global MDP Challenge cohort will launch in Fall 2026. The Impact Report for the 2025–2026 edition will be published in February 2027. To learn more or get involved, visit mdpglobal.org or check in with your MDP faculty.

The Global MDP Challenge is an initiative of the Global MDP Secretariat, hosted at SDSN and the SDG Academy, made possible through the generous support of the Leopold Bachmann Foundation and in partnership with Afflican. This initiative would not have been possible without the leadership of Giovanna Antoniassi Aires Garcia (SDSN Intern and Challenge Lead) and Max Genin (Challenge Founder, Executive Director of Afflican and North American Lead), in collaboration with the Global MDP SAAC Regional Leads: Gontse Gqamana and Pheladi Pezulu (Africa), Shoubhonic Dutta (Asia and Oceania), Steffany Gestor and Santiago Quiñones Cano (Caribbean and Latin America), and Elayne Smith (Europe).