Omnia Marzouk, President of Initiatives of Change International (Photo: Paul Briggs)

Initiatives of Change International (IofC International) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) working for peace, reconciliation and human security worldwide. It has Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and Participatory Status at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. It stresses the importance of personal responsibility, ethical leadership and building trust across the world’s divides.

Based in Caux Switzerland, Initiatives of Change International was founded in 2002 as an association bringing together the autonomous national bodies of the Initiatives of Change movement most of whom had already been active for several decades. Initiatives of Change International represents the universality and multi-faith character of the movement and facilitates its relationships with the United Nations and other international institutions and organizations through its Geneva office.  Its Office of International Training Services in Geneva connects the training capacities of the worldwide movement with needs identified by the UN and other international agencies.  

For more information about Initiatives of Change’s recent programmes, click here.

Initiatives of Change International is an active participant in Conference of International NGOs of the Council of Europe, and helped draft the Conference’s contribution to the Council of Europe’s White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue.

In July 2008 Initiatives of Change International launched the annual Caux Forum for Human Security at the movement’s sixty-year-old international centre for reconciliation in Caux. The Forum was hosted by Mohamed Sahnoun and is a global resource for those working for peace and human security at all levels. See www.cauxforum.net