Stephanie Post, a first-year Engineering student at UC, will compete with 85 universities worldwide in the UN Global Case Competition.
Stephanie will join fellow New Zealand University Students in Team Universities of New Zealand (TUNZ) in the competition, designed to help the UN solve world hunger.
“It is an honour to represent New Zealand, and it is exciting to work in an area that is so important to the world”,, Stephanie said.
“Covid-19 has had dramatic effects on how we live and learn. The Global Case Competition 2021 will allow us to fine-tune our recently acquired online skills alongside our business expertise.”
In March 2021, Stephanie and her team will have 24 hours to prepare a proposal presented to an online panel of judges in Norway.
Chef de Mission Dr John Guthrie shared the excitement of the members of TUNZ, saying it is an exciting opportunity for New Zealand students to compete against the best universities from around the world.
“This is a truly unique chance for the teams of students to provide input for and influence the efforts of the United Nations to address the food distribution and consumption problems,” he said.
With world hunger a permanent fixture in the UN’s long list of global priorities, the competition is designed to transform the way the world produces and consumes food. As it stands, 690 million people worldwide suffer from chronic hunger, and a third of the food the world has is thrown away.
Malnutrition is also a focus for the competition, with unhealthy diets being the primary culprit for poor health worldwide. Obesity and diet-related diseases like diabetes are on an alarming upward trajectory, and the divide between the rich and poor also continues to grow.
Perhaps overlooked but also of concern is how our diets are affecting the environment — the processes and production methods of our food systems are not sustainable, and that needs to change.
The NZ Student Development Society funds TUNZ. The online competition is hosted by BI Norwegian Business School, in association with Kearney Consulting, the global platform for food system transformation EAT, and the United Nations Food Systems Summit.
