Iceland, 16 March 2022 – Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister, Birgir Ármannsson, Speaker of Parliament, and Silvana Koch-Mehrin, Founder and President of Women Political Leaders (WPL) signed an agreement in the Prime Minister’s Office today.
The agreement entails the continuation of the cooperation between the Government of Iceland, Parliament, and Women Political Leaders which will see them co-host the Reykjavík Global Forum in Iceland for the years 2023 to 2025.
In February 2018 the same parties agreed to create and host a forum in Iceland on a yearly basis from 2018 to 2021. That agreement detailed the financial contributions of the Government to the Forum which is divided equally between the Prime Minister’s Office and Parliament. The decision was made in 2021 to extend the cooperation through the year 2022 with no changes to financial contributions and now again through the year 2025.
The Forum has been held in Reykjavík for the last four years in partnership with Icelandic and international partners in addition to Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland (1980-1996), being a special aegis of the Forum.
Invitations to the Reykjavík Global Forum are extended to international women leaders from politics, business, culture, science, and technology. The next Reykjavík Global Forum in Harpa will be held on November 8th and 9th.
In addition to the Icelandic Government and WPL, Icelandic partners of the Forum are Icelandair, Íslandsbanki, Landsvirkjun, Hvíta Húsið, Empower, Eimskip, Brim, Krónan, 66°North, Deloitte og Alvotech. Special partnerships include; The University of Iceland, UN Women in Iceland, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute of Foreign Languages, Höfði Reykjavík Peace Centre and Icelandic Women’s Rights Association.
Silvana Koch-Mehrin, Founder and President of WPL: “The mission of the Reykjavík Global Forum is collaborating and joining forces under the motto: power, together. This is now more needed than ever. Iceland, as the world leader in gender equality and peace, is the perfect place for making this happen.”
Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir, Chair, Reykjavík Global Forum Board and Senior Advisor on Women’s Leadership, UN Women: “It is really important that the Reykjavík Global Forum, which has enjoyed great success as an event and community for the past four years, will continue to convene women leaders in Reykjavík, Iceland.”
