Inclusive growth – unifying different worlds

The business world may have taken a back seat during the march of more than a hundred flags of member countries of the Rotary International (RI) at its recent convention in Hamburg, Germany.  The parade of flags was inspirational and it manifested extraordinary solidarity in vision and mission.

To the almost 20,000 Rotarians who attended the Hamburg RI convention (with the top three countries, the US at 5,241, Germany at 4875 and Japan at 2462), the convention was about “capturing the moment” by celebrating Rotary’s core values.  The Philippines’ many districts had 707 delegates with District 3830 participants headed by Gov. Al Montecillo. 

While each year brings about a new theme, the unifying principle of Rotary International is its service – above self – to humanity.  With this bedrock mission, RI is veritably a socio-economic and cultural force to reckon with that builds up inclusive growth for the world’s population in many ways.

RI’s six areas of focus namely Peace, Economic Development, Education, Maternal and Child Healthcare, Disease Prevention and Water and Sanitation are platforms for inclusion achievable with much empathy by governments, institutions, businesses, chambers of commerce and industry, philanthropies and others in consideration of and concern for the needs of their constituencies.

The impact of RI’s transformational action on communities around the globe, makes Rotarians – all 1.2M from the 35,981 clubs (excluding the Rotaract) – a part of the communities they serve and vice-versa, the communities a part of the world of RI.  Translated into global unions of nations, inclusion is evidently, a pathway to unity.