Global Issues

The Global Issues Network (GIN) empowers young people to collaborate locally, regionally and globally to create solutions for global issues.

GIN began in 2003 when teachers from the International School of Luxembourg were discussing the issues facing the world and how adults were not doing enough to solve these issues.  The teachers resolved to get students more actively involved in learning about and taking action on global issues.  They based the core issues of GIN after the issues identified by Jean-Francois Rischard in his book High Noon: Twenty Global Problems, Twenty Years to Solve Them (2002).

GIN exists to:

  • INFORM students about global issues,

  • INSPIRE students by hosting conferences to get them motivated to take action on global issues,

  • EQUIP students with the skills they need to tackle the issues, and

  • TAKE ACTION to help solve these global issues.


The global issues identified by GIN as pressing challenges are listed below grouped by topic.

SHARING OUR PLANET: Issues involving the global commons

  • Global Warming

  • Biodiversity and ecosystem losses

  • Fisheries depletion

  • Deforestation

  • Water deficits

  • Maritime safety and pollution

SHARING OUR HUMANITY: Issues requiring a global commitment

  • Massive step-up in the fight against poverty

  • Peacekeeping, conflict prevention, combating terrorism

  • Education for all

  • Global infectious diseases

  • Digital divide

  • Natural disaster prevention and mitigation

  • Caring for aging populations

SHARING OUR RULE BOOK: Issues requiring global regulation

  • Reinventing taxation for the twenty-first century

  • Biotechnology rules

  • Global financial architecture

  • Illegal drugs

  • Trade, investment, and competition rules

  • Intellectual property rights

  • E-commerce rules

  • International labor and migration rules

  • Designing global governing bodies that transcend nation-states

To learn more about GIN, go to their website. The list above was adapted from the 2013 GIN Conference hosted by the American School of Quito, Ecuador.

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