By Friendship News Desk,
3 October, 2026
Jean-Salman Marre, Strategy Manager at Friendship, recently spoke at a webinar as a panellist alongside youth advocate Sarah Kpoh to discuss youth experiences of building communities through organised, small acts without ensuring dependency. The webinar titled ‘The Human Side of Systems Change: Peacebuilding, Mutual Aid and Cultural Transformation’ was organised by The 50 Percent at the Club of Rome and moderated by Daniel Creutzfeldt from Educere Alliance. It is part of an open-access anthology initiative called We Are Not Waiting. The anthology project aims to amplify youth-led initiatives for systems change.
Jean set the context of working in
Bangladesh first. As one of the most climate-vulnerable countries with a
population of more than 180 million people and a large network of rivers, land
is an unpredictable shapeshifter. Consequently, resources are extremely
unevenly distributed, leaving marginalised communities in remote, unreachable
areas. Friendship serves those forgotten communities. The youth in these
isolated, climate-affected areas have to work very early on to support their
family income and during climate emergencies. “We really don’t have the luxury
of any token help or any token work. Everything we do has to be useful and
integral to all our communities,” he said.
He also shared how there are no specific youth empowerment programmes because empowerment is the natural result of all Friendship’s programmes. For example, flood volunteers like 18-year-old Molida, or the community paralegals who prevent child marriage, all contribute to the continuity of education, which then leads to empowerment of girls and boys, and ultimately an entire community can sustain themselves. “Youth isn’t just the future. They are also the present,” Jean noted. He advised approaching communities without preconceived ideas. Instead, listen to what they say and don’t say and understand their genuine needs.
Jean talked about how he applied systemic
thinking to Friendship’s integrated model for development that changed the
lives of over 7.5 million people in terms of healthcare, education, sustainable
economic development, climate action, inclusive citizenship, and cultural
preservation. Being half-French and half-Bangladeshi, he uses his cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural lens to understand where the Global North and
the Global South can connect and work together. His work focuses on how systems
thinking, integrating community-led approaches, works where sector-specific
responses fail.
This open-access anthology is a joint
initiative by The 50 Percent and UNESCO-MOST
BRIDGES UK Hub that features young people aged 14 to 35 as the leaders of
alternative systems. The anthology is expected to be launched at the UNESCO
MOST Forum 2027. It focuses on six major themes: Regenerative economics,
circular living, mutual aid, art for change, climate justice, and
peacebuilding. Each theme will have a collection of policy-moving records of
youth-led initiatives grounded in real-world practice.