Over the past few years, more NGOs have adopted co-leadership models — appointing co-CEOs or co-executive directors — in a drive to share power and bring in leaders with different experiences and skillsets.
Mama Cash, Greenpeace UK, Open Philanthropy, and the African Visionary Fund are among the organizations in the global development space that now have co-leaders.
There are various driving forces behind this trend. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed many organizations to adopt more flexible ways of working, and co-leadership can help to enable this in the C-suite too. Calls to decolonize the development sector and to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion — especially at the top — have also been important.