Global Citizen: Powering the Movement to End Poverty

The following is an excerpt from Cisco’s 2019 CSR report. To find out more or read the full report, click here.

As a technology company, we have a powerful opportunity to create an inclusive future by sharing our skills and capabilities with others. Through a new partnership with international antipoverty organization Global Citizen, we’re equipping young people with the tools to make a difference.

Global Citizen encourages people to make positive changes in the world, including working to end extreme poverty. The organization has always been fueled by technology, using an app to log petitions signed, tweets shared, and leaders contacted. Users have taken more than 24.8 million actions to date. Cisco’s technology and expertise will help this platform scale even further.

For the next three years, Cisco will provide the Wi-Fi technology, content, and storytelling platforms at Global Citizen’s festivals and other events. We’ll also provide collaboration tools to fuel their business, including connecting Global Citizen with key donors, partners, ambassadors, and festival curators. Together, we’ve launched an awards program to get even more people engaged. “Having Cisco as a technology partner truly powers our movement, transforming our capacity as an organization to change the world,” explains Hugh Evans, Global Citizen Co-Founder and CEO.

At the Global Citizen Festival in South Africa in December 2018, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins presented the Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award, which recognizes a person between the ages of 18 and 30 who is advancing one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, winners of Cisco’s first annual Bridge Awards earned entry to the festival. Here are some of their stories.

The Bridge Awards: Bridge building brought to life
With our new Bridge Awards competition, we seek to identify employees who embody our purpose— those who truly exemplify what it means to “be the bridge.” More than 300 nominees showed up and inspired us with their actions. They come from different places and teams, but they share one quality: a passion and desire to make a positive impact. These incredible Cisco employees are living and breathing the bridge to possible. Meet a few of our inaugural Bridge Award winners.
Daud Yamin’s family started a health clinic and school in rural Pakistan, which now enrolls nearly 800 children. His next goal? Establish a Cisco Networking Academy to help kids achieve a future in technology.

During the refugee crisis of 2015, more than 1 million people fled to Germany. Claus Schaale, wanted to help. He has invested hundreds of hours teaching refugees digital skills and helping them find jobs.

When one of Vanessa Russell’s students became a victim of human trafficking, she called a community meeting. And founded a nonprofit that she now runs full-time, which has housed dozens of women and children and rescued hundreds of trafficking victims.