Speaking with TIME’s Chief Marketing Officer Sadé Muhammad, Bogolo Kenewendo, the regionalisation director and special advisor to the U.N.; Kennedy Odede, the founder and CEO of Shining Hope for Communities; and Hanan Morsy, the chief economist at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa reflected on their experiences in government and non-profit sectors during the session, which followed a moving poetry performance by the Sudanese poet and activist Emi Mahmoud, who is also a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.