Open Forum: Transforming Leadership – Women, Men, Power and Potential

The GIZ Global Leadership Academy together with the Asian Development Bank co-convenes an Open Forum at the GIZ Representation in Berlin on 31 March 2017 with welcome remarks by Dr. Christoph Beier, Vice-Chair of GIZ Management Board, and Debra Kertzmann, Head of ADB Frankfurt Office.

It is widely recognized that diversity in leadership, in particular gender diversity, is an imperative for sustainable development that leads to better performance. In order for real change to take place, to alter traditional structures of power and leadership, we need to transform mindsets and cultures. Therefore the key question to discuss is: How can we as leaders increase our impact on existing power relations, to achieve greater institutional and social change and reduce inequalities?

The forum is part of the Leadership and Innovation Lab on Transforming Leadership: Women, Men, Power and Potential, a global multi-stakeholder dialogue process. The lab is designed for a diverse group of high-ranking participants from the worlds of policymaking, business, development practice, academia and civil society. The lab group includes about 40 experienced leaders and change agents from around the world. They met first in Cambodia (Phnom Penh, November 2016) and will continue their dialogue process through 2017 with meetings in Germany (Berlin, March 2017) and Japan (Tokyo, August 2017). The second lab meeting will take place right before the forum from 28th to 30th March 2017. Hence, the forum is designed to exchange ideas and experiences from the lab with a wider audience and get further inputs and inspirations from selected European experts and political leaders.