Politics is experiencing a generational shift. People born after 1980 face starkly different economic, social, and technological prospects than previous generations. In almost every country, generational cleavages on core challenges of government are increasingly salient.

Our Challenges of Government Conference 2019 looked at how those under 40 are changing the world, and at the most important issues for millennials and Gen Z – from technology to climate change to generational equality.

Watch highlights from Challenges of Government Conference 2019 below, or alternatively watch all the sessions and interviews on Youtube.

Shining a spotlight on young changemakers and generational issues, we cover topics that will shape the challenges of government for decades to come:

The new economics: Sharp disparities across generations in income, wealth, job prospects, and housing, in a context of rising inequality, have changed the landscape of economic debates. How important are generational differences? Is capitalism broken, and if so how do we fix it? What new models look most promising?

The future of the planet: Younger generations have inherited a planet in great peril. How do we preserve it, and what are the right approaches when national governments and multilateral bodies aren’t moving fast enough?

Technological change and the public interest: The lives of the digital natives will be profoundly shaped by changing technology and by the data explosion. How can governments both harness and regulate technology for the widest benefit?

Cities: The majority of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and cities are dominated by the young and mobile. How does municipal government ensure its own legitimacy in the face of an ever-changing population?

Identity: Rapid changes in social norms, particularly around questions of identity – race, gender, sexuality – are disrupting political conventions and power relations. Meanwhile, nationalism as a source of identity is resurgent. How can these trends be forces for progress rather than conflict?

Trust and integrity: Among the younger generations and beyond, there is growing dissatisfaction with ‘the establishment’. Trust in the elite is at an all-time low. What can young people do, both within and outside government, to ensure more accountability and greater integrity?

Throughout, we ask the question ‘inside or outside?’ – should the young and the dissatisfied seek to change things from within by entering established institutions, or to drive change through external activism and building new institutions and networks? How do these approaches relate to each other, and to the career trajectories of the next generation of public leaders?

View the full list of speakers and their biographies

Our speakers include activists, thinkers, politicians, researchers and practitioners from every continent - from bestselling authors to current and former young government ministers. The vast majority of our external speakers are under 40, including one of the youngest ministers in Asia (Syed Saddiq); a minister in the Scottish government (Kate Forbes); former ministers from Paraguay and Yemen; mayors from Liberia, Afghanistan and Germany; and elected politicians from Canada and Ukraine.

Speakers include:

• Janar Akaev, Member of Parliament, Kyrgyzstan
• Nick Allardice, Chief Product Officer, Change.org
• Batool Asadi, Assistant Commissioner in Quetta, Pakistan
• Josh Babarinde, founder and CEO, Cracked It
• Yemi Babington-Ashaye, President, United People Global
• Eric Beinhocker, Professor of Practice (Public Policy), Blavatnik School of Government, and Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford Martin School
• HRH Prince Khalid bin Bandar, Ambassador, Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia
• Jennie Bristow, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Canterbury Christ Church University, and author of Stop Mugging Grandma
• Maeve Cohen, ex-director of Rethinking Economics
• Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government
• Pepper Culpepper, Blavatnik Chair in Government and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government
• Stefan Dercon, Academic Co-director, Pathways for Prosperity Commission, and Professor of Economic Policy, Blavatnik School of Government
• Jiayang Fan, staff writer at The New Yorker, reporting on China and US politics
• Temilola Fayokun, representative from the UK Students Climate Network
• Kate Forbes, Minister for Public Finance and Digital Economy for the Scottish Government
• Peter Frankopan, professor of global history at Oxford University and author of the bestselling The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
• Blair Glencorse, director of Accountability Lab
• Thomas Hale, Associate Professor in Global Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government
• Oliver Harman, Cities Economist, Cities that Work, Blavatnik School of Government
• John Harris, Board Member, New York City Manhattan Community Board Five
• Tom Hayes, Oxford City Council climate lead
• Peter Kemp, Associate Dean and Professor of Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government
• Jefferson Koijee, Mayor of Monrovia, capital of Liberia
• Nina Möger Bengtsson, transportation policy advisor in the European Parliament and member of the Danish Youth Climate Council
• Aida Ndiaye, Facebook’s Public Policy Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, and Blavatnik School of Government alumna
• Soledad Nuñez Mendez, former Minister of Housing in Paraguay, and Blavatnik School of Government alumna
• Nikhil Pahwa, Indian journalist and digital rights activist 
• Mark Paul, Assistant Professor of Economics, New College of Florida
• Anna Petherick, Departmental Lecturer in Public Policy, Blavatnik School
• Snigdha Poonam, journalist and author of Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World
• Shoaib Rahim, former Acting Mayor of Kabul
• Jeremy Roberts, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, Canada, and Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament, and Blavatnik School of Government alumnus
• Syed Saddiq, Malaysian Minister for Youth and Sports
• Marian Schreier, Mayor of Tengen, Germany, and Blavatnik School of Government alumnus
• Jane Shaw, Principal of Harris Manchester College, Professor of the History of Religion
• Andres Diaz Silva, Head of Science, Innovation and Sustainable Development, Colombian Embassy
• Joseph Sternberg, columnist for the Wall Street Journal and author of The Theft of a Decade
• Lizelle Strydom, Director at Careerbox
• Maya Tudor, Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government
• Shahrukh Wani, Cities Economist, Cities that Work, Blavatnik School of Government
• Marc Venhaus, Volkswagen AG
• Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, and Professor of Global Economic Governance, University of Oxford
• Enrique Zapata, CAF (the development bank of Latin America), and Blavatnik School of Government alumnus

The Challenges of Government Conference is the Blavatnik School's annual flagship event, which brings together the brightest minds in government, the private sector and academia to discuss policies, strategies and solutions to the world’s public policy challenges. View previous conferences.