On March 8th, International Women’s Day, we invite you into a shared global moment of connection and remembrance.

Across history and across cultures, women have carried a profound and often unrecognised capacity: to build relationships across divides, to humanise the “other,” and to interrupt cycles of violence before they harden into war. This relational power—quiet, courageous, and deeply human—has shaped peace processes, sustained communities, and kept dialogue alive in the most polarised and painful contexts.

In this public pre–World Women Summit call, Scilla Elworthy and Kosha Joubert will come together to honour and illuminate this feminine capacity for peace. Together, we will explore what enables women to stand in fractured spaces with clarity and compassion; to listen beyond positions; to meet fear, grief, and anger without turning away; and to hold open the possibility of peace when it seems least imaginable.

Together, we will explore:

• Relational courage in times of conflict – how women hold presence, dignity, and connection in polarised and violent contexts
• The inner foundations of peacebuilding – listening beyond positions, meeting fear and grief, and staying human under pressure
• From lived practice to collective impact – how women’s everyday peace work connects into a global movement for lasting change

This call is an invitation to women everywhere—leaders, activists, peacebuilders, mothers, elders, daughters, and allies—to gather, be nourished, and strengthen the field of peace we are already holding.

Join us on International Women’s Day as we honour what women carry—and rise together toward the World Women Summit 2026: Women Rising for Peace.

Dr Scilla Elworthy is a three times Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her work with Oxford Research Group to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. She founded Peace Direct in 2002 to fund‚ promote and learn from local peace-builders in conflict areas‚ was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003‚ the Luxembourg Peace Prize in 2020, the Goi Peace Award in 2023, and advised Peter Gabriel‚ Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Richard Branson in setting up ‘The Elders’. Her TED talk on nonviolence has been viewed by over 1‚500‚000 people on TED Global and YouTube. She founded The Business Plan for Peace to help prevent violent conflict and build sustainable peace, based on her latest books The Business Plan for Peace: Building a World Without War (2017) and The Mighty Heart in Action (2021), now an on-line course.

Kosha Joubert is the CEO of the Pocket Project, where she works closely with Thomas Huebl and a global team to grow a culture of trauma-informed care. Kosha is an expert facilitator, coach and organisational development facilitator who has worked on systems regeneration, trauma-informed leadership and post-traumatic growth in more than 48 countries. Kosha has authored several books and received the Dadi Janki Award (2017) for engaging spirituality in life and work and the One World Award (2020) for building the Global Ecovillage Network to a worldwide movement reaching out to over 6000 communities on all continents.