Wednesday, April 2 | 9:00 am – 10:30 am | Fighting Gender-Based Violence: Technology, Policy, and Community Action 

The Sidebar Community Hub in the Mint Room

Katya Vogt, IREX’s Online Safety Lead, joins a community discussion on fighting on how civic tech, data-driven advocacy, and cross-sector collaboration can help fight gender-based violence online.  

Wednesday, April 2 | 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm | Beyond Competition: Collective Action and Collaboration for Greater Impact

The Sidebar Community Hub in the Mint Room

Development Gateway: An IREX Venture CEO Josh Powell joins a discussion on how partnerships can unlock new funding opportunities, what coordination strategies ensure resources are directed where they are most needed, and how lasting human relationships can serve as the foundation for a stronger impact ecosystem.

Thursday, April 3 | 8:00 - 9:30am | Philanthropy at the Crossroads: Navigating Governance, Equity, and Democracy in Uncertain Times

University of Oxford Blavatnik School of Government – Café

IREX and peer organizations in the democracy and governance space, including Accountability Lab, Development Gateway, Geneva Global, and Open Government Partnership, host a networking breakfast.

Thursday, April 3 | 11:00am - 12:00pm | Merging for Impact: Navigating Consolidation to Sustain the Social Sector

The Sidebar Community Hub in the Mint Room

Development Gateway: An IREX Venture CEO Josh Powell joins other civil society leaders to explore the realities of mergers in the social impact space—how CSOs can consolidate to remain sustainable, what best practices exist for merging while maintaining impact, and how partnerships and consortia can shift power to local actors.

Dig deeper after IREX’s conversations at Skoll via research and resources below. You’ll find landscape reviews, implementation and evaluation toolkits, primary-source surveys, program links, and more. And if you have questions or want to learn more, e-mail Sean Jones, Strategic Partnerships Director at sjones@irex.org. 

Building online safety and resilience for women, frontline media, and advocates requires more than digital literacy, it demands systems-level change. IREX has seen that information manipulation and online harms like gendered disinformation, hate speech, and harassment disproportionately affect those already underrepresented in public life. These harms don’t just silence individuals, they destabilize civic institutions, weaken democracies, and exacerbate societal divides. Efforts to strengthen safety online must therefore integrate systems and regulatory approaches, in addition to survivor-centered protections for actors who are often on the front lines of these attacks.

IREX has learned that fellowships are not just investments in individuals, they are levers for systemic change. Programs like the Mandela Washington Fellowship and the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI), help build dynamic leaders who positively impact their communities, local and national institutions, and beyond. Informal and formal networks formed through fellowships—among fellows, alumni, and program implementers—have fueled sustained positive impact around he world and across sectors. IREX’s Impact Fellowships Network (IFN) brings together impact fellowship practitioners around the world to collaboratively learn, research, and strengthen the broader fellowship field.

Through its long-standing presence and deep partnerships in Ukraine, IREX has learned that investing in human capital and strengthening institutions are essential to building resilience. Our work has shown that youth empowerment, media literacy, and civic engagement are not only tools for development but also powerful defenses against disinformation, polarization, and authoritarian influence. We’ve also seen that sustainable recovery requires holistic community-level support: restoring education in war-affected areas, supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses, and working together with national and local governments to institutionalize reforms. Most importantly, we recognize that Ukraine’s path forward is being shaped by its own people. IREX’s role has been to support their leadership, amplify their innovations, and help create systems that will endure long after the war ends. 

Climate change is the most critical issue facing humanity today. To ensure a habitable planet, we must urgently and strategically invest in climate change strategies, including moving the global power sector away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Governments, private sector companies, and civil society organizations around the world are determined to address climate challenges, but many are running across a similar bottleneck: climate talent. In one of our newest initiatives, IREX is supporting organizations and individuals across sectors—finance, law, communications, food systems, and more—to build their skills, their networks, and their careers to help them meet the world’s rapidly escalating needs for climate expertise. We are also exploring systemic change to institutionalize and scale national and regional responses to climate talent gaps.