The Geneva Tsinghua Initiative and International Geneva

Home to 37 international institutions, approximately 400 NGOs and 176 permanent representations of member states to the United Nations (UN), Geneva is the most active centre of global governance in the world. It is also the European headquarters of the United Nations. The presence of these international organizations made Geneva a recognized centre of expertise in the areas of peace, security and disarmament, humanitarian affairs, migration and labour, economics and trade, science and telecommunications, health, environment and sustainable development.

Located in the quartier international of the city, the Geneva Tsinghua Initiative (GTI) is minutes away from major international organizations (IOs) like the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), among many others.

The GTI capitalizes on its close proximity to the global policy centers and partners with various IOs through research, education and events:

•  PhD Program: each GTI PhD researcher is embedded part-time or full-time in one  International Organisation or NGOs to strengthen science-policy collaboration.
• GTI SDG Dual Degree Master Program: this program emphasizes hands-on learning by directly working with IOs and NGOs on concrete projects. GTI students come up with innovative solutions to real-world challenges faced by practitioners and policy makers of the SDGs. In addition to that and as part of their curriculum, students conduct internships at neighbouring IOs and NGOs.
• GTI SDG Internship Program: a pioneering Program, dedicated to innovation challenges for the SDGs. Primarily focused on securing academically sound internships for its Dual Degree Master’s students, the program is also open to students from Tsinghua University and UNIGE.
• The GTI also provides an open space, the SDG Solution Space, for events and workshops organised by international institutions. The GTI is an active member of the Geneva 2030 Ecosystem, whose objective is to mobilize the capacity, skills, experience, ideas and motivation of Geneva-based actors towards realizing the 2030 Agenda. The GTI regularly participates and contributes to the Ecosystem’s meet-ups and events.

Highlights from GTI IO/UN Partnerships:

An example of successful collaboration with ILO, UNDP and UN Environment and Global Health Network Uganda: the Workshop on Sustainable Human Development

During the spring semester 2019, Master students specializing in Sustainable Human Development (SHD) had to identify and analyze a human development challenge. This year’s research topics focused on the automation of work and its impact on future job prospects; the Central African Forest Initiative promoting the sustainable use of natural resources; the potential of green infrastructure on poverty alleviation and social inclusion; the humanitarian-development nexus and its relationship to sustainable recovery processes; and the health challenges in villages in Oyam, Uganda.

In 2018, students worked on two projects. One was dedicated to developing a mobile app to help farmers in rural Kenya to better cope with extreme climate events. The other studied the Indonesian platform workers of Go-Jek and came out with a set of policy recommendations and a short movie to raise awareness on issues faced by those workers.