GCRD Joins Global Network to Strengthen Democratic Leadership

PLEN

The Global Centre for Rehumanising Democracy (GCRD) has joined the Political Leadership Entrepreneur Network (PLEN), a global community of 155 non-partisan organisations working to build and strengthen new approaches to political leadership. The PLEN is convened by the Better Politics Foundation and spans six continents.

GCRD joins the network in the conviction that renewing democracy requires renewing the people within it. GCRD works to build the moral infrastructure that democratic governance depends on — in leaders and in public life. Joining the PLEN extends that work into a global ecosystem of like-minded organisations committed to the same goal. Through Contemplative Leadership Formation, GCRD works with political leaders to recover the inner capacity for authentic, morally grounded leadership — drawing on contemplative wisdom to cultivate the presence, discernment, and genuine care that democratic governance demands. Through the Democracy Discourse Index, developed in partnership with Sensika Technologies and a consortium of universities, GCRD is building the world's first real-time measure of democratic health through the quality of public discourse — because how we speak to and about each other in civic life is not peripheral to democracy. It is democracy.

Dr. Margee Ensign, GCRD Board Chair, said: "GCRD's membership in PLEN reflects our shared commitment to strengthening the human capacities that sustain democratic life. Across contexts, institutions are only as resilient as the leaders within them. This partnership enables us to contribute to, and learn from, a global community working to renew leadership with integrity, depth, and purpose."

GCRD is among 34 organisations newly welcomed to the network.

Learn more about the PLEN at betterpolitics.foundation/plen and about GCRD's work at gcrd.org.uk.