Shamil Idriss

About

Shamil Idriss is CEO of Search for Common Ground (Search), an international non-profit organization whose mission is to transform the way the world deals with conflict, away from adversarial approaches toward cooperative solutions.

With 850+ staff working in 35 countries, Search is the largest dedicated peacebuilding organization and was nominated by the Quakers for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. Speaking of Search’s impact in 2016, then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said “your work in Burundi helped to prevent genocide…and during the Iran [nuclear] talks, the fresh ideas you provided helped us to achieve a breakthrough.”

During his tenure at Search for Common Ground, Idriss has presided over the organization’s growth in reach, impact, and influence, including leading merger processes with Soliya and Preemptive Love Coalition and strategic partnerships with diverse global public and private sector entities, including the Office of the UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Meta.

In 2005, he was appointed by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Deputy Director of the UN Alliance of Civilizations. He served on the Steering Committee of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders and recipient of the 2015 Open Society Foundation New Executive Award. He serves on the Boards of Giving Tuesday, One Earth Future Foundation, and Soliya. He has delivered numerous lectures and keynote addresses on international conflict resolution, social impact media, and social entrepreneurship.

Agenda

Apr

Closing Panel: A Global Arc Toward Belonging

Belonging without othering is a radical new proposition to create a shared future for all including our earth. Where might belonging without othering, as a new political, social, and spiritual frame, take us next on the bending of the arc and beyond? In March 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr famously proclaimed that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” What is our global trajectory of equality, peacebuilding, and human rights, and how does belonging add to that? How might we integrate and build new norms that advance belonging? As we face a warming planet and...