Julia Roig: President of Partners Global

Yesterday at my college we were lucky to have Partners Global President, Julia Roig. Partners Global is a nongovernmental organization that works with countries dealing with conflicts by helping patrons become leaders as well as peace builders. The organization strives to identify and support emerging democratic leaders in various locations across the globe. Partners Global has branches in over 20 different countries. Their overarching goal is to reach democratic change by means of conflict transformation, as well as instilling democratic governance. 

In her talk with students, she emphasized how important it is to have nongovernmental nonprofits because they allow citizens to have voices when it comes to conflicts that they experience. Having these organizations allows voices of citizens to be heard at policy making levels, so that changes can occur. 

Julia Roig highlighted 4 trends that she has seen in the past 5 years when it comes to the nature of social conflict. Those 4 trends include: 

1. Closing Political Space

2. Rise of Extremism 

3. Illicit Criminal Networks

4. Struggles Over Natural Resources 

To combat some of these changes, Ms. Roig suggests the following: 

• Create ties with the local people, and ensure that citizens continuously flex their democratic muscle
• Pinpoint the creation of violence and prevent it from occuring
• Narrative creation and reform, in relation to media and advertising 
• Budgeting plans for weaker municipal governments so they can handle revenue from natural resource adequately 

The main Challenge towards democratic change through social conflict transformation according to Ms. Roig, is how silo-ed we all are and how hard it is to collaborate. 

To be someone of the stature that Julia Roig is, one must posses leadership. At the conclusion of her talk she listed her lessons in leadership. I think they are lessons that everyone can try to implement into their every day lives at work and at school. 

Here are her lessons: 

1. Theory is important, practice is necessary, but management skills are essential 

2. "Essential intelligence" such as cultivate empathy 

3. Connect the dots. Don't stay silo-ed. Reach out to different tribes 

4. It's hard to work collaboratively. One must have patience, perseverance, and commitment 

5. Diversity is always a value added; in culture, working styles, experience and expertise 

My goal is to implement these lessons into every project in every field of my life to the best of my ability to better hone my leadership skills. I think it would be prudent for everyone to not only become acquainted with these lessons, but also with the work Partners Global does. 

More information on the organization can be found here: http://www.partnersglobal.org/

- AF