Fostering Leadership through Global Debates.
The Global Debates is an international debate education initiative to equip young people with the knowledge, values, attitudes, and competencies they need to shape a better world for all.
Global Debates Experience
Your experiences have the power to help you lead the change and transform our world!
The Global Debates was founded in 2016 to provide young people of all backgrounds the opportunity to develop debating, speaking, listening, and literacy skills through debate training and competitions that will ultimately improve self-esteem, collaboration, teamwork, academic achievement, and graduation success rates, and access to higher education. Global Debates aims to foster a sound and sustainable culture of debate and dialogue.
We believe that debate education is the key to the strengthening of democratic institutions, the realization of human rights, and the achievement of all international development goals; the development of human potential, poverty alleviation, and the fostering of greater understanding among peoples. Through debates, we aim to create an open and free society.
The Global Debates lays special focus on fostering awareness and discourse around the United Nations's Sustainable Development Goals with the sole aim of shaping aware, active and engaged global citizens and leaders of tomorrow equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills, and tools to communicate effectively and to address the local and global challenges and issues of the 21st Century.
The Global Debates' Experience is unique, time-tested, and one of the leading sets of programs in debate education, public speaking, and democratic-leadership development. The Global Debates' Four-Team Format is unique and acclaimed for developing sound thinking and decision-making skills. Our programs are designed to leverage the power of natural, social, and peer-to-peer learning through a heterogeneous group of learners in two age categories— ages 08 -17 and 18 - 27. Our fun and unforgettable debating and leadership-building experiences promote the development of self-esteem, independence, and responsibility for all debaters.
Global Debates is an independent, non-partisan, progressive initiative seeking to develop confident communicators, critical thinkers, and empowered global citizens and leaders —of today and tomorrow— equipped to shape a more just, inclusive, peaceful, secure, and sustainable future for all.
Our Pedagogical Approach
Promoting 360° Perspective and Understanding!
Our programs are interactive, engaging and experiential. We challenge our participants to apply the material they have learned in their sessions. Rather than just hearing and forgetting huge amounts of information, they put into practice the theories, tips, and techniques presented in the sessions.
Global Debates' approach fosters natural and social learning that ensures learning without the effort of learning. This helps many participants who have learner's fatigue to disconnect the activity from the stress of learning. Most participants would not even know that they are learning until they are asked to do self-evaluation. We believe the absence of the undertone of learning and the compulsion to deliver can help more participants to engage themselves positively in all our activities. For example, all our workshops include real-time show debates or solo presentations. Participants will prepare, organize, and present in front of their peers and/or parents. Our experience has shown that such exercises best develop, stretch, and solidify a child's understanding and grow their abilities in the core skills development that we are facilitating.
The emphasis on communication skills, logical thinking, social skills, positive attitude, sustainable development goals, learning and retention skills, and leadership skills can result in the overall positive development in the child, carving global citizens and leaders who can address the 21st-century challenges and issues. The programs are designed to foster 21st-century skill development aiming at a 360 degree socio-emotional, intellectual and functional development of the participants.
Our debate training programs are designed to teach participants the fundamentals of public speaking, leadership and argumentation skills that will enable them to unlock and unleash their confidence, self-esteem, critical thinking skills, creativity, and leadership. Our programs are usually format-agnostic and participants are prepared for both life and for competitive debate teams. Participants are provided with a safe and secure environment to improve their communication skills and develop democratic values.
Each of our programs has four levels of engagement — Foundational, Intermediate, Advanced and Professional. The activities and sessions are customized according to the duration of the engagement, size, and needs of the cohort.
Our workshops and programs can be tailored to focus on your students’ specific needs, such as a particular skill set, subject area or competition format.
The Power of Debate Education
We believe debate education is a cornerstone for strong democracies, human rights, and achieving international development goals.
Emphasis on UN SDGs
The Global Debates serves as a professional platform fostering awareness and informed discourse surrounding the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Enabling Global Citizens
Through our programs, we enable individuals to become critical thinkers, effective communicators, and engaged global citizens - leaders of today and tomorrow.
The Global Debates Difference
Our unique approach sets us apart. Our acclaimed Four-Team Format ignites critical thinking, while our diverse learning groups (ages 8-17, 18-27) foster powerful natural, social and peer-to-peer learning. Get ready for a fun, unforgettable experience that builds confidence, independence, and responsibility in every debater.
Why Have the Global Debates' Experience?
Here are some of the many reasons why you should experience Global Debates:
Capacity-Building
Policy Research and Analysis
Consultation and Support
Development of Pedagogy and Practice
Advocacy and Engagement
Youth Empowerment
Our Key Areas
The Global Debates is committed to achieving its mandate and manifesto by developing global programs and initiatives in 70+ countries to build capacity of education leaders, educators, and youth in the six key areas of focus.
Global Citizenship Education
We are one of the pioneering specialist organizations constituted with a mandate to advance Global Citizenship Education. Our work impacts educators and learners across the world.
Education for Sustainable Development
We empower educators to advance sustainable development goals within the school communities and beyond.
Social-Emotional Learning
We design and co-create programs for educators and learners to advance social and emotional skills for human flourishing.
Education for Anti-Racism and Inter-cultural Understanding
We foster programs for educators and learners that are designed to celebrate diversity and practice inclusion within and beyond the classrooms.
Reimagine Education for Human Flourishing
The maxim "Think Global, Act Local" perhaps best suits the last century. This century demands that we develop two-systems thinking. That is to "Think and Act Both Local and Global."
— Aaryan Salman,
Chief Listener, Global Debates
Get Involved 👋
Since early 2016, we have been supporting school leaders, educators, and young people in a variety of ways. We measure our success through qualitative scale and effectiveness. We believe global citizenship education is essential for preparing young people for our shared democratic life. The Global Debates calls on all stakeholders to support high-quality global citizenship education in schools, colleges, universities, and higher education institutions. With your active support, we can help educators, school leaders, and young people transform education for human flourishing!
Just imagine what we can achieve together!
The Global Debates is a a not-for-profit initiative to foster a culture of international understanding and active global citizenship through debate education.