The regional community Europe and Middle East & North Africa of the Global Leadership Academy (GLAC Europe and MENA) consists of GLAC Network members currently residing in Europe and MENA. Its members are characterized by their strong local knowledge, technical grounding and experience in different sectoral fields. They are committed to collaboration across boarders to reach the goals of the Agenda 2030. 

Under the leadership of our first ambassador Katharina Miller a strong foundation was laid to form GLAC Europe and MENA as a regional community within the global GLAC Network. During the first year, the main aim was to mobilize participation.

The GLAC ambassador role started out as a solo one that did not have the option of a technical advisory support structure. One key lesson we took forward is that such an ambassadorial role requires collective support and must be set up with a support structure such as a working/advisory/technical group.

To implement the new model, we proposed to establish an executive team, including coordination and thematic roles as follows (scope of roles open for further discussion):

The Regional Lead GLAC Europe and MENA coordinates and represents interests and ideas of the regional community to others, shares relevant information, connects with other regional communities regularly.

Up to five Thematic Coordinator(s) support on relevant thematic questions, topics, events, initiatives, identifying and leading on new thematic opportunities and projects, link to thematic colleagues in the other regions, coordinate regional and/or global thematic communities of practice (in alignment with activities of the other GLAC regions), organize at least one virtual thematic session per year to exchange and learn.

Within the timespan of 2021 to 2023 we aim to:

• connect, support and communicate the activities of individuals and organizations in the GLAC Europe and MENA community with and to a broader audience to help initiate, facilitate and organize systemic change.
• develop a knowledge and innovation platform to share and exchange ideas and boost collaboration by linking to the other regional GLAC communities, to passionately create innovative solutions to the challenges our world is facing nowadays.
• collaborate in a non-hierarchical manner, using a network approach and transformative, conscious leadership principles.

In order to avoid additional work and to increase impact, we will try to align the activities along the existing projects and strategies of our community and to engage with already running platforms from partner organizations (e.g. Bosch Alumni Network, BMW-Foundation etc.).

We believe that change will come through work, commitment and will power to collectively tackle the issues facing the continent, and every action, every voice is of precious value.

That is why after the initial year of working with meeting virtually on a bi-weekly basis up to 2020, we had scheduled a regional face-to-face meeting that was supposed to take place from in April 2020 in Madrid but had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis.

We started to facilitate thematic discussions of which the Community of Practice on Anti-Corruption and Transparency established itself in 2020, reaching out beyond GLAC members and connecting experts globally.

As GLAC Europe and MENA members we are connected via exclusive groups in social media and provided with an online platform that offers safe spaces for learning, exchange and collaboration built on trust and equality among us.  By connecting and tapping into each other’s strengths and expertise, exchanging experiences and facilitating joint learning, we aim to build bridges, design new strategies and co-create initiatives with impact. 

Furthermore as GLAC Europe and MENA members we frequently participate actively in formats organized by the wider GLAC Network like the GLAC Dialogue Forum.

If you should be interested in taking an active role, please approach our Regional Lead GLAC Europe and MENA Ms Reham Elgebaly at elgebaly_reham@remove.this.yahoo.com.