The World Communities Forum is a first-of-its-kind global development event that will flip the dynamics of traditional high-level events that focus on the global elite, instead amplifying the voices of local leaders on the front lines of vulnerable communities around the world.
The World Communities Forum is reflective of a growing ‘localisation revolution’ within the global development community. To achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, huge transformational progress must occur to promote peer-driven change over traditional ‘top-down’ approaches that treat marginalized communities as beneficiaries, rather than change agents.
Taking place virtually across 23-24 March 2021, the first annual World Communities Forum will highlight the outsized potential of community-based solutions to drive COVID-19 recovery and progress towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The Forum will also be used as a platform to launch The Global Alliance for Communities, an agenda-driven coalition of over 150 proximate leaders to accelerate grassroots impact.
The Alliance, which stretches across the globe, will work to bring a community-based perspective to the global development agenda. Together, the coalition will drive targeted outcomes to shift development and social entrepreneurship towards a more equitable paradigm that values locally-rooted leadership.
What’s Next?
The Alliance will take forward the following policy asks:
Increase available funding (private and public philanthropy) to leaders of color, push for greater accountability on racial equity among funders.
Invest in and develop proximate leaders, valuing local knowledge and approaches.
Rethink how we measure effective solutions and contribute research to the knowledge base and evidence base around the power of proximate leadership.
Code of Conduct
The World Communities Forum is dedicated to a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the World Communities Forum at the discretion of the World Communities Forum. You may read our full Code of Conduct here.