"If all that sports have to offer is fame, and pleasure in it, then this is giving up too much for something that doesn’t attract you that much in the first place."
KrešoSportom za snažnije ja!
sport, radionice, izložbe, nagrade, koncert, turističke ture, gastro & DJ, besplatan sadržaj za sve posjetitelje
Vidimo se u Zadru na poluotoku,
6. - 8. lipnja 2025.!
June 10, 2026, Washington DC, World Bank building - Ana Ćosić Pajurin, President of the Krešimir Ćosić Association, participated as a panelist at the World Bank Youth Summit, one of the most prominent global forums dedicated to youth development, economic empowerment, and the challenges facing the next generation.
The panel, titled "Building Bridges: Youth, Mental Health & the Future of Work," was a side event of the 2026 World Bank Youth Summit, themed "Future Works: Designing Jobs for the Digital Age." Co-organized by the World Bank's Development Finance Vice Presidency (IDA) and the Youth Summit team, the event brought together World Bank Group staff and global Youth Summit delegates in the World Bank Atrium at 1818 H Street NW, Washington, D.C.
The panel was moderated by Noreyana Fernando, External Affairs Officer at the World Bank's Development Finance Vice Presidency, and featured three panelists: Ana Ćosić, Akihiko (Aki) Nishio, Vice President for Development Finance at the World Bank, who has overseen three historic IDA replenishments totaling over $270 billion for the world's low-income countries, and Jennifer Posa, former Chief Wellbeing Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency, previously Head of Employee Wellbeing at Johnson & Johnson, and a seventeen-year veteran of the Mayo Clinic. The conversation was anchored by an opening video, "Building Bridges: Croatia's Extraordinary IDA Journey," which set the context for Croatia's role in global development solidarity.
Ana's contribution to the discussion was rooted in the lived experience of the Krešimir Ćosić Association and its long-standing commitment to youth sport as a vehicle for character development, mental wellbeing, and community belonging. Drawing on the legacy of Krešimir Ćosić, basketball legend, academic, and Croatian diplomat, Ana spoke to the unique power of sport to teach young people lessons that no classroom alone can offer: how to lose with dignity, how to lead under pressure, how to find identity within a team. She also drew on her own experience as a basketball player at Brigham Young University in Utah, following in her father's footsteps, and reflected on the parallels between athletes striving for excellence and young people navigating a rapidly changing world of work.
The conversation on the panel reflected a growing global consensus: that mental health and professional readiness are not separate concerns, but deeply intertwined. Young people who struggle with purpose, belonging, or self-worth do not arrive at the workplace ready to contribute and no amount of technical training compensates for that absence. Structured sport, mentorship, and community engagement offer something different: they build the inner architecture that makes everything else possible.
For the Krešimir Ćosić Association, the invitation to the World Bank Youth Summit represented both a recognition of the work being done in Croatia and an opportunity to place that work in a broader international conversation. The Association's programs, including the annual Krešin Kamp, which this year welcomed nearly 90 children in Pazin, community outreach initiatives, and youth basketball development work are built on the conviction that sport is not a luxury add-on to youth development. It is foundational.
Ana's presence at the Summit also underscored the Association's growing role as a voice for the Croatian experience on the world stage. In a panel that brought together perspectives from development finance, intelligence and security, and grassroots sport. The message from Croatia was clear: the values that Krešimir Ćosić embodied throughout his life, discipline, intellectual curiosity, humility, and an unshakeable belief in human potential, are not merely personal virtues. They are a model for how we might approach the challenges of youth development everywhere.
The World Bank Youth Summit 2026 was a reminder that the most important investments a society can make are in its young people and that the tools for that investment are often simpler, and older, than we think.