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By Siham Mamand
Next Generation Global Leader at the McCain Institute & Concordia Fellow
Global Partnerships Week (GPW), a week-long collaboration between the U.S. Department of State Secretary’s Office for Global Partnerships, Concordia, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), was a great way to bring together new faces and some familiar ones to help expand networks within the P3 space. GPW events helped to facilitate new connections between organizations and individuals interested in cross-sector collaboration.
On March 9th, Concordia brought together partnership practitioners and leaders from around the globe for a dinner reception as part of GPW. With over one hundred participants in attendance, the dinner was held at the White House Historical Association’s beautiful Decatur House in Washington, D.C. During the dinner, an engaging interview between former Vice President of Colombia Francisco Santos and Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky offered examples of effective leadership in managing partnerships.
Originally from Kurdistan, I found GPW to be an important introduction into the partnership world. Providing opportunities to share experiences and different perspectives, the week’s events helped to extend my understanding of the P3 field and of the role private sector companies can play in partnerships working to solve global challenges.
Coincidentally, at the dinner I even had the pleasure of sitting next to an individual who had worked with a friend of mine in Iraq. While working together, they built such a strong relationship that their shared knowledge and perspectives were absorbed by their son and daughter who learned about second-generation Kurdish culture. The dinner showed me how events such as these can allow you to make strong personal connections and learn new points of view. At the same time, I saw how my own experiences, skills, and understanding could be valuable to others.