An idea that started with conversations in communities has earned Palawena Rosalie “Sally” Lebante a place among six winners of the Beyonds Challenge 2026 of the Beyond Lab at the United Nations Office at Geneva.
Lebante’s entry, “The Kwentuhan Model for Regenerative Design,” was chosen from more than 600 submissions from over 90 countries.
She will travel to Geneva, Switzerland, next month to present the project at the Beyonds Festival, which will be held from Oct. 5 to 7 at the Palais des Nations.
“I honestly didn’t know what would happen,” Lebante said in a Facebook post on submitting her entry earlier this year.
The Beyonds Challenge asked participants from different fields to think about what development could look like after 2030. Among the questions it raised were how communities could move beyond simply sustaining resources toward regenerating them, how the interests of future generations could be considered in decisions made today, and how people could hold on to hope amid overlapping global crises.
Lebante’s entry was selected under the Regeneration theme.
Her model takes its name from kwentuhan, the familiar Filipino practice of coming together to talk and exchange stories. But Lebante takes the idea further, using conversation as a way for communities to take part in identifying problems and shaping solutions.
For her, development should not be something simply designed for communities and handed down to them.
“An idea that began with conversations, communities, and questions about how we can create with people, not simply for them, is now entering a global conversation about the future of development,” she said.
Design Kwentuhan grew out of questions Lebante had been asking about whose knowledge counts when decisions are made.
“What knowledge already exists within our communities?” she asked. “What happens when people become active participants in imagining their own futures? And what might the world learn when we start listening differently?”
Lebante is the lone Philippine winner in a group representing several countries and a wide range of disciplines.
The other winners are Priscillia Afolabi Adesina of Nigeria, whose “Dear Members of The Human Race” was selected under The Great Unknowns theme; Tomás Quintino Gouveia of Portugal and Lucas Duncan of Ireland/United Kingdom, for “Scrolling Away from Democracy” under Constructive Hope; and Quanyi Zhao of China and Xiangming Mu of the United States, for “The Living Heritage Ledger” under Debt to the Future.
Also selected were Maitha Mathias of Uganda, for “The Debt to the Future — A Framework for the Post-2030 World,” under Debt to the Future, and Oliver Sullenger of Switzerland/United States, whose documentary project “Ninawa: Landmarks of Hope” was chosen under Regeneration.
The six winning projects include poetry, research, design, art and documentary filmmaking.
For Lebante, however, getting to Geneva is only part of the story.
She said Design Kwentuhan was shaped by people she met along the way and by what she jokingly calls a series of “side quests” that, at the time, did not seem connected.
Now those experiences have brought a Palawan-grown idea to an international audience.
Lebante admitted she was still trying to take it all in.
“I still haven’t fully processed that last sentence,” she said after announcing that she would be presenting at the Palais des Nations.
There will be time, she said, to tell the longer story of how Design Kwentuhan came about and of the people and communities behind it.
