Kate Middleton Makes Key Speech for Her Work with Children: 'It Isn't Enough to Simply Wish for a Better World'

The Princess of Wales delivered the keynote speech at a symposium where findings from her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood were presented

Kate Middleton is taking the next step in her campaign for kids and their families.

The Princess of Wales, 41, brought together experts from across the world to a conference held by her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood at the Design Museum in central London on Wednesday morning.

"It is time we understood that building a healthier world means nurturing the foundations that support our children — everything from the systems that govern early care through to our attitudes to those raising the next generation, and the support they receive," Princess Kate said at the Shaping Us National Symposium.

"Because if we can create a society which sees the child within every adult — and the adult within every child — we will finally start to change it for the better," she added.

She reiterated her belief that "early childhood fundamentally shapes the adults we become." She also remarked how "trauma, stress and adverse experiences in their childhood have caused fundamental harm that [children] have carried for years."

The Princess of Wales — who wore an eye-catching purple Emilia Wickstead pantsuit paired with sapphire and diamond earrings that belonged to her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana — gathered key specialists in the field of child development, psychologists, mental health leaders and academics as part of her Shaping Us campaign, which was launched in January. The campaign built on a decade of work around improving the mental and physical outcomes of children in the first five years of their lives, known to be one of Kate's passion projects.

The royal — who had celebrated the 75th birthday of her father-in-law King Charles on Tuesday evening — continued, "I care deeply about making a positive difference, in helping the most vulnerable and supporting those who are most in need. This is not just about the youngest children in our society, who are, by their very nature, vulnerable. It is also about the many young people and adults who are suffering."

Princess Kate addressed the disconnect between someone's needs for safety, belonging and love and and society.

"It isn’t enough therefore to simply wish for a better world," she said. "We must acknowledge and address the root cause of some of today’s toughest social challenges and work together to find better answers. Because ultimately, we are all part of a delicate, interconnected ecosystem and just as we need to restore, protect and invest in our planet, so we must restore, protect and invest in our societies, communities, relationships and ourselves."

She added, "Despite the fact that each and every one of us, has had our own childhoods, few people understand the true impact our formative years have had on shaping who we are today. That is why I decided to launch the Shaping Us campaign — to raise awareness of, and action on the importance of this critical time."

Princess Kate’s foundation instituted new research involving 21 countries around the world. The director of the Centre of Early Childhood called the report “a manifesto for social-emotional skills.”

It also marked her first time working with global leaders in this area and is her “signaling” that she wants this to be worldwide, those close to her say.

Others giving talks at the symposium include Prof. Jack Shonkoff, director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. He met Kate last December when she and her husband Prince William visited the Boston area.

Related: Kate Middleton Brings a Special Accessory to Early Years Meeting — Which She Debuted at Harvard!

Shonkoff outlined the science behind the importance of the developing years and told the crowd that even "people with all the resources have a really hard job raising their kids. It is not completely easy."

"Reducing adversity as opposed to helping bolster the ability to cope with them" was important, he said. Turning to Princess Kate in the front row, he added, “Thank you very much for the honor of being part of this symposium and this wonderful campaign."

Among the audience were representatives from Kate's mental health and well-being charities like Place2Be, which was one of her first patronages and helped instill in her the need for early intervention.

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Lord Hague, the chairman of the Royal Foundation, held a conversation with former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair about the skills that they picked up in early childhood and how they have translated into the skills they use in political life.

Blair, who led the U.K. from 1997 to 2007, said that politics often got in the way of long-term planning that enabled young people to be prioritized.

"If you put in the best early years program today, it may be 15 to 20 years later that you can demonstrate its worth,” he said as he warned that politicians often shy away from committing to projects that will not necessarily bear fruit immediately.

"Without a long-term plan in place that provides structure and framework, you’re not really going to make a difference," he added. "If you can get it established as a consensus so that people do it and you develop roots for the long term, then you will get around that problem."

He said making it "a national priority will make it really, really important – that’s the way you will get it accepted. It may be adjusted or reformed but it won’t be abandoned. Make that a national priority – that’s got to be the ambition."

Blair added, "It’s got not thing to do with where you are on the idealogical spectrum."

As the Shaping Us campaign kicked off in January, a spokesman told PEOPLE that her childhood work "will be a golden thread throughout [Kate's] working life."

And her experience and passion for the field are appreciated around the world. When they met, Dr. Shonkoff told PEOPLE that Kate "has obviously thought about this a lot."

"I see her as very motivated in having an impact on the world. She is personally an understated person, there was no sense of an ego in the room. You really get a sense that she understands the power of her platform and has a desire to do good and make a difference," he added.

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