GCF Announces New Partnerships on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island

World Identity Network and ACTAI become affiliate partners for Yerevan 2019.

Sir Richard Branson’s Necker island has witnessed and supported the launch of many dynamic organizations around the world. Most recently, it hosted the Global Citizen Forum (GCF), the World Identity Network (WIN), and ACTAI Global who announced their partnership for the upcoming Forum in Yerevan. 

The 5th Edition of the GCF, A Future in Motion, will place its primary focus on the transformative powers of technology. With the vast influence of technology on human mobility and identity, the organization’s partnership with WIN and ACTAI will further challenge the concept of identity as a birth right and the growing significance it will have in the future. 

Today, nearly half of the world’s children under the age of 5 – and over 600 million children under 14 years old – do not have a birth certificate or official proof of their identity. These children are “invisible” to social programs designed to protect them and instead, have become innocent victims to a 150-billion-dollar industry built on their exploitation.  

As it stands, a total of over one-billion people around the world now lack officially recognized identity documents, and as a consequence have become marginalized and abused. 

Amplifying the importance of secure, self-sovereign identity, WIN’s team of global advocates, human rights activists, technologists and innovators fight for the rights of everyone that is trying to acquire access for proof of their personal identity and believe that this can be harnessed through the power of technology.  

Through the Forum’s Identity Loop, GCF and WIN aim to explore the evolution of identity and find innovative approaches and solutions to help solve this growing humanitarian crisis. Together, the organizations will help strengthen the global agenda on this topic, raise awareness and push policies in a proper and sustainable direction. 

To empower their mission, WIN’s Founder and CEO Dr. Mariana Dahan, has brought together a dedicated team, including the successful entrepreneurs and philanthropists Jack Brockway and Alexandra Chong, the sustainability advocate Gigi Brisson, the impact multiplier Paula Taylor, and the technology pioneer Bill Tai.

Tai is also the CEO of ACTAI Global, a community of extraordinary athletes, conservationists, technologists and artists, whose collective passion brings them together to positively change the world.