At a pivotal moment for global governance, leaders convene in Madrid to discuss how women’s leadership can guide multilateral reform

Three former female candidates for UN Secretary-General and co-founders of GWL Voices are convening leading women from across the world, drawing on their experience to advance women’s leadership in the multilateral system as the UN approaches its next Secretary-General selection.

GWL Voices will present the WIM26 report, which tracks women’s representation across the multilateral system and highlights both progress and persistent gaps: only 7 percent of UN ambassadors have been women, and the world is still waiting for the first woman to serve as Secretary-General.

Women Leading the UN of the 21st Century will convene key voices from across the multilateral system in Madrid on January 29 and 30, 2026, to explore the findings of the Women in Multilateralism 2026 report (WIM26), the most comprehensive analysis of women’s leadership in global governance, and to discuss how women can shape a stronger multilateral system for the twenty-first century.

At the Dialogue, GWL Voices will present WIM26, which shows progress in some areas, yet reveals that many governing bodies in the multilateral system, including the UN General Assembly, remain heavily male dominated. It also underscores how decades of exclusion are hard to undo and highlights the upcoming Secretary-General selection as a key test. This edition includes new data on all candidates for the post since 1945, serving this data as a pivotal moment in the international mobilization surrounding the Madam Secretary General campaign.

The 2026 GWL Voices Dialogue will be a key moment to examine how today’s geopolitical landscape shapes international cooperation and global decision-making, highlighting the impact of women’s participation in peace and security. It will review armed conflicts, polarization, and crises of cooperation, noting that women—despite being most affected—remain underrepresented and must be central to prevention, mediation, and resolution. It will also address the future of the UN, focusing on implementing the Pact for the Future and the UN80 Initiative, and the urgent need for structural reform grounded in gender-responsive approaches, effectiveness, and transparency.

GWL Voices is an organization dedicated to strengthening the international system through a gender-responsive lens. Building on the leadership of its founders, Susana Malcorra, Helen Clark and Irina Bokova, all former candidates for UN Secretary-General, the organization brings together more than 80 former heads of state, ministers, ambassadors and senior leaders of international bodies.

Each of the founders has led major global institutions, including the UN Chief of Staff’s Office, UNDP and UNESCO. This collective experience, together with that of its nearly 80 members, gives GWL Voices a uniquely informed view of how the multilateral system works from within, what it takes to drive meaningful change, and how to safeguard women’s rights and gender equality in a turbulent global context.

“The moment we are living demands that we align our words with our actions. Defending equality is not enough, we must embody it. The upcoming election of the UN Secretary General presents a historic opportunity to strengthen the system with the legitimacy and effectiveness that only genuine diversity in leadership can deliver,” states Susana Malcorra, President and Founder of GWL Voices.

Madrid, hub of multilateralism

Following the first edition in January 2024, Madrid once again becomes the chosen meeting point for this international dialogue, consolidating its role as a hub for global governance. The 2026 edition will bring together GWL Voices members from more than 40 countries, along with government representatives, multilateral organizations, and international entities committed to UN reform.

The GWL Voices Dialogue 2026 aims to turn evidence into action, mobilizing governments, institutions, and citizens so that 2026 becomes the year when equality is firmly established at the highest levels of the United Nations.