In a world yearning for positive change, a bold initiative dares to dream big: training one million young leaders by 2030. This isn't just an ambitious number—it's a rallying cry that has sparked a movement spanning continents, with the Middle East and North Africa emerging as one of its most dynamic frontiers.
The One Million Leaders (OML) initiative represents more than statistics and targets. Each number in that vision stands for a life changed and a community uplifted. What began as a seed of an idea in Tokyo has grown into a worldwide movement, with Peter David Pedersen—a Denmark-born, Japan-based sustainability pioneer—co-founding NELIS (Next Leaders' Initiative for Sustainability) in 2015 as the foundation for this transformative journey.
2020
OML Global Launched
2022
MENA Chapter Born
4
Regional Chapters
1M
Leaders by 2030
2022
Planting the Seeds
OML MENA began modestly with a pilot cohort of 10-15 pioneering youths. These trailblazers from across the region became the first seeds planted in MENA soil, each fellow eager to learn, collaborate, and launch community projects. Despite limited resources, their passion was enormous.
2023
Building Momentum
The year of momentum as the program scaled recruitment and outreach. The 2023 cohort expanded in size and scope, with fellows fanning out into their communities with newly gained skills in sustainability leadership and social entrepreneurship, each starting to plant additional seeds of change.
2024
The Breakthrough Year
175 applications poured in from across the MENA region. From this motivated pool, 25 Fellows were selected, who collectively trained an additional 300 community champions. The program's reach extended to Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, Somalia, Libya, Mauritania, and Yemen.
2025
Reaching New Heights
Over 500 applications received—a fivefold increase in interest. 150 Fellows were accepted into Phase One, the largest cohort to date. With a focus on inclusion, many fellows come from underserved communities, embodying the belief that talent and leadership potential exist everywhere.
Phase Two Impact: Each of the 150 fellows will step into their communities to train local champions, creating a cascading model that aims to engage over 1,000 community champions in 2025. These champions will run grassroots initiatives from green start-ups to neighborhood sustainability workshops.
While OML MENA is deeply rooted in local realities, it operates as part of a global ecosystem working toward the same vision. The worldwide fellowship program launched four regional chapters in 2022, each adapted to its context but all sharing the goal of empowering young leaders for sustainable development.
🌍 OML Africa (OMLA)
Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa's vibrant youth, turning passion into community projects across dozens of African nations.
🌏 OML Asia-Pacific (OMLAS)
Uniting young innovators from South, Southeast, and East Asia and the Pacific, driving sustainable change in diverse societies.
🌎 OML Latin America (OMLATAM)
Empowering fellows from Latin America and the Caribbean, leveraging the region's rich culture of social innovation and resilience.
🏛️ OML MENA
Serving the Arabic-speaking world, including North African countries, the Levant, the Gulf, and beyond, all collaborating under one vision.
This global solidarity means a fellow in Morocco can swap ideas with a fellow in Mexico, or a mentor from Japan can guide a project in Nigeria. Chief among the shared values is "One World in Harmony"—the principle that by empowering local leaders across regions, we inch closer to a more harmonious world.
Imagine a future where youth can live without fear of tomorrow, where leadership is a service to others rather than an entitlement, and where diversity is a source of joy and innovation, not strife and animosity.
Talk of one million leaders could sound like mere statistics, but to everyone involved in OML, these numbers carry profound human meaning. Each "1" in that million is a real person's story—a young woman finding her voice as a social entrepreneur, a young man rallying his village to replant a forest, or a team of students launching a recycling drive at their university.
Consider a fellow from Tunisia who starts a community garden project: through OML she gains leadership tools and a network of peers; she then recruits local youths to help; together they transform vacant land into a green space that feeds families and unites neighbors. That single project might touch dozens of lives directly and plant a seed of inspiration in hundreds more.
The OML movement counts connections made, confidence built, and hope revived. Success is measured in communities that feel empowered to shape their own future. Every new fellow or champion means another circle of people is being reached, another thread of hope woven into the social fabric.
From the outset, OML made a conscious decision to rise above the divisions that too often separate people. Nowhere is this more powerful—and necessary—than in the MENA region, which has long been characterized by conflicts and political rifts. OML MENA offers a different narrative, one where shared humanity and common aspirations eclipse regional or political divides.
The fellowship brings together youth from urban capitals and rural villages, from countries separated by geography or history, uniting them in common cause. An OML fellow from Syria can collaborate with one from Libya; a champion in Palestine can learn from a project in Morocco. Labels and stereotypes fall away—what remains are young people who recognize one another as partners in possibility.
Universal Values: OML focuses on issues that transcend borders—the desire for peace, ecological balance, job creation, women's empowerment, and innovation. These shared challenges create bridges of understanding and respect that are as important as the projects themselves.
Join the Movement
The path to one million leaders by 2030 is steep but full of promise. Youth leaders, aspiring fellows, supporters, and stakeholders across MENA and the world—this is your invitation to join the OML movement.
About the Initiative
The One Million Leaders initiative was founded by Peter David Pedersen through NELIS in 2015, growing from a Tokyo-based sustainability platform into a global movement. With regional chapters across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and MENA, OML continues to prove that empowered youth can transform communities and build bridges across divides.
