WASHINGTON D.C., NOV. 2, 2018 , The U.S. State Department hosted a three-day workshop in the Washington D.C. area in October dedicated to accelerating the cause of religious liberty. The event, called “Boldline Accelerator,” was created to support and scale innovative public-private partnerships (referred to as “PPP” initiatives). It is part of an ongoing effort to create new energy and capacity to support religious freedom worldwide.
Six innovative PPP initiatives were chosen from a highly competitive pool of more than 100 applicants. Each of the selected interfaith NGOs promotes and defends religious freedom around the world, building on lessons learned from more than a decade of working in this sector. Additional workshops included a broad group of PPP stakeholders, including civil society organizations, public institutions, corporations, innovation companies, entrepreneurship support organizations, and financial institutions. Each was tasked with helping to galvanize interest for the participating organizations.
The Boldine Accelerator experience was led by Thomas Debass, acting special representative for global partnerships at the State Department. Mr. Debass noted that The State Department is “treating PPPs as ventures not driven by money, but as a collaboration to solve problems.” Debase noted the past 15 years have seen “a great deal of evolution in what partnerships are.”
Ed Martin, Chief OmniWin Officer at 5th Element Group PBC, helped facilitate invitations and event planning. He encouraged these groups to know their value, especially as it relates to key performance indicators for the brands they seek to partner with. Roundtable, panel, and material sessions were facilitated by cross-discipline “mentors”, ranging from tech leader Jeff Sparrow, CEO of GeoCommerce to Ambassador Mark Siljander, Mohandas K. Gandhi International Peace Award recipient.
5th Element Group PBC was engaged by the State Department’s Boldline Accelerator because of its track record in orchestrating “OmniWin partnerships” at the intersection of business, the NGO community, and SDG-aligned impact investing. The company’s mandate is to help achieve the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 through innovative partnerships, accelerated by frontier technology. Religious Freedom is a sub-goal of SDG #16, which relates to the quest for International Peace and Justice.
ABOUT BOLDLINE ACCELERATOR
The U.S. Department of State, in close collaboration with industry leaders, hosted a three-day partnership building accelerator program in October 2018 that brought together selected stakeholders of public-private partnerships, including civil society organizations, public institutions, corporations, innovation companies, entrepreneurship support organizations, and financial institutions to galvanize interest for the participating partnerships and to help build the framework for these partnerships in their respective countries.
ABOUT 5TH ELEMENT GROUP
5th Element Group PBC is a global marketer with a mission is to deploy frontier technology to create capital that did not exist before, deploy that capital where it has yet to be deployed, and scale new forms of corresponding collaboration. Our vision is to help create a new socio-economic era that closes historic gaps in last mile inclusion and engages the “bottom billion” to take true quantum leaps for humanity, prosperity and planet. Our mandate is to achieve this by repurposing and integrating the most innovative blockchain and smart contract technologies into new impact capital vehicles and products that facilitate digital value exchange.