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As the 80th United Nations Day wraps up, UAE born global contest sees high-schooler’s solution for sustainable roadways gain real-world momentum
Motivated teens aim to utilize environmentally friendly materials for road pavement
Dubai, UAE, Oct. 28, 2025 – While last month’s annual gathering of 193 UN member states, public and private sector leaders met in New York City to undertake critical dialogues and deliberations on challenges facing all of humanity, teams of young citizens from around the world were hard at work perfecting their ideas for tangible solutions to a cross section of the 17 U.N. stated Sustainable Development Goals.
Driven by the deteriorating road conditions in their hometown Northridge, team FuturePaves, joined the United Nations Association UAE’s fifth cohort of its ‘world first’ Percolator supporting grass-roots impact projects and programs.
The Southern California based team of high-schoolers, envisioned a Solution and put a plan around repairing pot-holes and building sustainable roads using durable and eco-friendly materials such as geopolymer concrete. To date they’ve secured advisors from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Geopolymer International and are in discussions for a potential pilot project.
The dynamic and purpose-driven teenagers founded the team FuturePaves during the ‘Global Citizens Open Innovation SDGs Challenge’, an annual 100-day rolling global competition founded in UAE in 2019, at that time focused on SDG2 with support from the Prime Minister’s Office and partnered with the UAE Ministry of State for Food Security.
Part ideation exercise, part solutions hackathon, since Covid, the competition went global and online to engage citizens worldwide, of any nationality, ethnicity, age, or gender. Currently over 130 nations are engaged, commitment to “resolve to solve” any one of the 17 SDGs through the planning of tangible action and outcomes. Winners go on to enter the SDG Percolator, a grass-roots level incubator where they are provided professional mentorship to move Solutions toward implementation and outcomes.
In a joint statement, FuturePaves team members Elijah Park and Salik Mian said, “Our proposed solution supports sustainable cities and communities by mitigating effects of climate change as infrastructure deficiencies continue to impact underserved communities, hindering access and economic growth.”
Lisa La Bonte, The Impact Expat and CEO of the Uplifting Ventures, founder of the SDGs Challenge, added, “Grassroots action, fixes from the ground-up are what will move the needle. Engaged citizens who embark on ideating innovative solutions are spearheading the very impact most crucial for progress. And, it turns out heroes making the world a better place, literally, are everywhere.”
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For more information please contact:
Georgia Marshall for Eric Robson or Lisa La Bonte via EMAIL: secgen@unauae.org
French/English SDGs Challenge Inquiries via Whatsapp: +1 240 281-0307
About Global Citizens Open Innovation SDGs Challenge “SDGs Challenge”
Equal parts ideation exercise, solutions hackathon, and start-up competition the Challenge seeks to engage citizens of any nationality, ethnicity, age, or gender and encourages diverse teams to commit, or “resolve to solve” any one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) representing the world’s most vexing issues.
The SDG Challenge creates more engaged and connected ‘citizens of the world’ by educating minds about SDGs and aids to economic development on a local level. Teams of up to six (families, students, friends, co-workers, neighbors, even strangers) are encouraged to brainstorm, devise and present their innovative solutions by video -all virtually- during a time frame of their choosing within a 100 day rolling period that starts on Earth Day and ends in July, annually until 2030.
Winners are invited to join the SDG Percolator, a pre-incubator program that assists with polishing the winning plans toward implementation and community and commercial successes.
About the United Nations Association UAE
United Nations Associations (UNAs) represent the ‘citizens’ movement of the U.N. UNAs exist in over 100 nations. The overarching body, the World Federation of UNAs launched 80 years ago in 1945 alongside the U.N. and maintains offices in New York City, Geneva, and Seoul.
UNAUAE launched in Abu Dhabi in 2010 and is the first (and only) UNA in the GCC. UNAUAE is solely focused on educational programming such as building extra-curricular Model U.N. (MUN) clubs in schools to give students hands-on experience and simulations of the work and procedures of the U.N. in the practice of international diplomacy. In its inaugural year UNA-UAE doubled the number of Model U.N. clubs across the nation and continues to support and train MUNers for local and global MUN conferences and congresses.
UNA-UAE creates and conducts special SDGs briefings, delivers engaging community programs such as Paint for Peace and Build a Better World, Africa. UNA-UAE Spring and Summer sessions in “Diplomacy, Think-Tank, and Government” Colloquiums for Secondary and University levels and in 2019 launched the annual Global Citizens Open Innovation SDGs Challenge.
About the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership.
SDG #1: No poverty; SDG #2: Zero hunger; SDG #3: Health and well-being; SDG #4: Quality Education; SDG #5: Gender equality; SDG #6: Clean water and sanitation; SDG #7: Affordable and clean energy; SDG #8: Decent work and economic growth; SDG #9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure; SDG #10: Reduced inequalities; SDG #11: Sustainable cities and communities; SDG #12: Responsible production and consumption; SDG #13: Climate action; SDG #14: Life below water; SDG #15: Life on land; SDG #16: Peace, justice and strong institutions; SDG #17: Partnership for the Goals www.sustainabledevelopment.un.org
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