Global events over the past year have exposed an increasingly divided society in countries across the world. Even in more mature democracies their citizens have become more partisans on key issues faced by their country. However the nature of the challenges is complexly multi-sectoral, and requires actors across multiple sections of society to come together to solve. In such a situation, collaborative leadership can play a major role in bringing together relevant actors and help generate inclusive solutions.

The theme of the 2017 Global Leadership Forum is “Building Leadership for Reform in Divided Societies.” This event will bring about 200 partners, leaders and practitioners from government, academia, civil society, other international development organizations working in areas of collaborative leadership. Through interactions and sharing of experiences, the Forum seeks to surface leadership approaches to bring together diverse stakeholders to achieve results in divided societies. It will also award the recipients of the 2016 Jose Edgardo Campos Collaborative Leadership Awards.

This Forum is the second in a series of events by the Global Partnership on Collaborative Leadership for Development (GPCL4D) that puts Leadership and Coalitions at the center of international development practices. The GPCL4D aims to move the Leadership agenda forward by creating a sustainable partnership among like-minded practitioners who are committed to making Leadership and Coalitions central to development practices.

It increases the impact of Leadership and Coalitions in development by becoming a destination for meaningful collaboration, knowledge exchange and cutting-edge research on tools and methods, and by supporting leadership in countries that need to overcome the “wicked problems” facing many societies today.