Transformation Literacy Conference

The Transformation Literacy Conference week 2026 took place on 22 April 2026. It brought together generations to explore collaborative approaches to building cultures of peace. Using the Collective Leadership Compass, we examined how intergenerational partnerships can create thriving futures for people and planet.

Speakers:

Session 01
Session 02

The Transformation Literacy Conference week 2025 took place on 7 April 2025 (and a special session on Collective Feminist Practice Principles on 10 April 2025). The in-person kick-off event with the Transformative Partnership Award ceremony needed to be postponed to 2027 due to the USAID budget cuts.

Metrics that foster resource extraction instead of regeneration and narratives that highlight dominance and glorify past achievements instead of partnerships and future possibilities are still commonplace in many areas. As a result of the obvious gap between what is needed for people and planet, and what is actually done, polarization is spreading all over the place.

Therefore and with the urgency of only five years to go to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, efforts to drive sustainability transformations need empowering metrics for goal setting and measuring progress, as well as enlivening narratives that offer future perspectives and create shared responsibility. The #TLC2025 edition identifyed ways how sustainable development can be measured through metrics that ensure transparency, offer feedback systems and responsive criteria, and how sustainable development goals can be embedded into narratives that are empowering, depolarize societies, and serve humanity and the planet.

Conference days – main sessions:

Empowering Metrics for Sustainable Development Goal Achievement
Monday, 7 April 2025 – 12:00 – 1:30pm CET
How can metrics and feedback systems support clarity and enhance progress towards sustainable development?

Speakers of this session were:
Alicia Jimenez — Director of Programmes at Earth Charter Secretariat / Learn more about here.
Elisabeth Kuehn — Executive Director Collective Leadership Institute /Learn more about here here.

The Transformation Literacy Conference week 2024 took place on 22, 24, 26 April 2024. The in-person kick-off event with the Transformative Partnership Award ceremony was in Potsdam, Germany, on 19 April 2024.

Efforts to drive sustainability transformations need to connect local, national, and regional efforts. Identifying ways for the Global Goals to truly go ‘glocal’ is pivotal for their achievement. Indeed, a diverse multitude of networks, communities of practice, initiatives, partnerships, and global transformation projects aim to do just that. Their approaches to localizing SDG contributions are as varied as their diverse forms. CLI’s Transformation Literacy Conference 2024 focused on how different forms of transformation efforts, such as networks, partnerships, and global meta-collaborations – all contribute to localizing the SDGs.

Four Conference days – main sessions:

Kick-off: Conference in-person Start with Transformative Partnership Award Ceremony
Friday, 19 April 2024 – evening in Potsdam, Germany

Watch here.

Session 1 — Localizing SDGs through Collaborative Initiatives and Partnerships:
How do multi-stakeholder initiatives and partnerships at multiple levels contribute to localizing SDG impacts?
Monday, 22 April 2024 – 2:00-4:00pm CET

Watch session 1 here.

Session 2 — Localizing SDGs in Networks and Communities of Practice:
How can networks of peer learning and exchange, SDG communities, and Communities of Practice contribute to localizing SDG impacts?
Wednesday, 24 April 2024 – 2:00-4:00pm CET

Watch session 2 here.

Session 3 — Localizing SDGs through Transformation Networks and Meta-Collaboration:
How do large, collaborative networks and projects across different countries or regions in the world contribute to localizing SDG impacts?
Friday, 26 April 2024 – 2:00-4:00pm CET

Watch session 3 here.

The Transformation Literacy Conference week 2023: Governance and Democracy took place on 24, 26, 28 April 2023. We also had an in-person kick-off event Potsdam (Berlin/area), Germany, on 21 April 2023 afternoon and evening, where we celebrated into Earth Day with friends and partners of CLI and launched Dr. Petra Kuenkel’s new book and the Transformative Partnership Award.

Conference days – main sessions:

In-person kick-off and Welcome:
celebrated into Earth Day with friends and partners of CLI and launched Dr. Petra Kuenkel’s new book and the Transformative Partnership Award
21 April 2023 afternoon and evening, Potsdam (Berlin/area), Germany

Watch Kick-off video here.

Session 1 — Narratives and Metrics:
How can we tell stories and integrate metrics in our sustainability initiatives that contribute to good governance and democracy?
Monday, 24 April 2023 – 2:00-4:00pm CET

Watch session 1 here.

Session 2 — Innovation and Regulations:
How can we ensure that our innovative initiatives integrate the social foundations ensuring trust, wellbeing and equity in decision-making processes?
Wednesday, 26 April 2023 – 2:00-4:00pm CET

Watch session 2 here.

Session 3 — Governance and Structures:
How can we steward collective processes and build representative dialogue structures in diverse and challenging governance realities?
Friday, 28 April 2023 – 2:00-4:00pm CET

Watch session 3 here.

Conference 1 – Narratives

Conference 2 – Structures

Conference 3 – Innovations

Conference 4 – Metrics

Conference 5 – Governance

Conference 6 – Regulations