Coming Home: Reflections on International Geneva
I returned to Geneva two months ago. After 25 years in the U.S. — and years working across sectors and continents — this move feels both familiar and new. Coming back has made me see the city, and the world it represents, with different eyes.
Acknowledging Endings
Geneva is my hometown. It is also where I first launched into the world of international affairs and global development, studying at the Graduate Institute, and engaging as a young professional with the international Geneva ecosystem in the 1990s.
This was the post-Cold War era — a time when the world was opening up, barriers were being removed, and institutions old and new were being infused with new energy and relevance. International cooperation was at its peak.
I left Geneva in 2000, built my life in the United States, and established a career engaging with different aspects of impact-driven work, both domestically and internationally.
Coming back to Geneva at this moment in time makes it very apparent that aspects of the global system of cooperation we collectively built are ending. The multilateral architecture that Geneva helped shape — grounded in consensus, rules, and diplomacy — is under strain. With public trust in institutions eroding, global cooperation paralyzed, and funding is being cut, an era is ending.
Noticing Beginnings
And yet, I’m also struck by the fact that something new is taking shape. It’s been encouraging to sense inspiring signs of renewal — hopeful experiments pointing toward a more open, collaborative, and agile approach to global problem-solving.
Initiatives like Building Bridges are advancing bold ideas in the world of sustainable finance. The Villars Institute is nurturing new systems and advancing new models of leadership for regenerative futures. Organizations like GAVI, The Global Fund, and UNHCR’s Innovation Service are experimenting with innovative forms of partnerships. Local spaces old and new — from Impact Hub Geneva to emerging networks of social entrepreneurs and researchers — are creating new forms of collaboration and learning.
These initiatives are encouraging, for Geneva and more broadly for global cooperation. It suggests that Geneva — with its legacy of dialogue — can build something new and continue playing a critical role as a place where new ways of cooperating take root.
Embracing Reinvention
Even as we see significant strains around us, traditional forms of cooperation are still powerful. We need, and need to nurture, those traditional capacities.
At the same time, there is a massive opportunity for Geneva’s institutions, and for Geneva itself as an ecosystem to build new muscles, new capacities, and know-how.
My thinking on this is informed by my own experiences living and engaging in environments with a strong social innovation aspiration and unique approaches to achieving these goals. Consider San Francisco and its innovation mindset; Seattle and global philanthropy; London and its drive to transform finance; and many hubs in the global south emerging as catalysts for social innovation and entrepreneurship.
Geneva’s traditional DNA — diplomacy, policy innovation, academic and scientific excellence, and its unique ecosystem of mission-driven actors — provides a source of strength and differentiation.
At the same time, Geneva has an opportunity to reinvent itself, to build new muscles for innovation, collaboration, leadership, and investment.
This is a developmental process — it will not happen overnight. It will take facilitation, reflection, capacity building, and resources. It will require spaces where institutions can learn safely, prototype boldly, and connect with new ecosystems.
Geneva’s Moment
Geneva itself symbolizes what is ending and what is emerging.
While recognizing the negative impacts facing the sector today, I am also encouraged and energized by what is emerging. New ideas, capacities, and resources can find fertile ground in the rich soil of the Geneva ecosystem and, I believe, will enable this “new” Geneva to emerge.
What will it take for Geneva to evolve in this direction?
What initiatives are already being seeded that can serve as models or laboratories for this shift?
What new processes, and partnerships could help us learn how to cooperate differently?
These are some of the questions running through my mind as I re-engage with this dynamic hub of collaboration, innovation, and action.
What are you seeing? What opportunities excite you the most? Please leave a comment - and reach out if you want to start a dialogue!