Connect.

World Partnerships connects people, ideas and projects that build a more peaceful, just and open world.
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World Partnerships is the official US Department of State partner for hosting global leaders under the Department’s “International Visitor Leadership Program" (IVLP) in Florida’s eight-county Tampa Bay area.

The IVLP is how we connect the World with Tampa Bay.
In 1940, Nelson Rockefeller was named the Coordinator of Commercial and Cultural Affairs for the American Republics. He initiated a professional exchange program with Latin America, inviting 130 Latin American journalists to the United States. Since that time, more than 230,000 international visitors have engaged with Americans through the IVLP. Each year, almost 5,000 International Visitors come to the United States. At any given point during the year, approximately 250 International Visitors are in the United States. More than 500 current and former Chiefs of State or Heads of Government are IVLP alumni. 

For 85 years, the International Visitor Leadership Program has been recognized as the “crown jewel” of United States public diplomacy. Its 75 nationwide visitor councils were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. Today, one-fourth of the United Nations member states have an IVLP alumnus as head of state or government.  American ambassadors call the IVLP “the most important foreign policy tool the US has at its disposal.”

These visitors are a unique high-level network of global leaders: They are hand-selected by the American Embassy in their country, and personally invited to the United States by the US Ambassador to learn who America is, and to see how we Americans live, work, learn, and play. This network represents government, business, academia, the media, the arts, and NGOs. They come from developed nations, emerging democracies and transitional states. World Partnerships creates professional programs, cultural activities and social networking for these leaders with their Tampa Bay counterparts.

​Since its founding 25 years ago, World Partnerships has welcomed over 7,000 “New Generation” leaders from 195 countries to the Tampa Bay region. 

Click here to learn more about the IVLP and World Partnerships programs.
​World Partnerships' national membership organization, Global Ties U.S., celebrated its 60th anniversary at our March 2021 virtual annual meeting. In his congratulatory comments celebrating this milestone, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized the importance of our exchange programs to a more peaceful, just and open world.

"When President Biden says that we will lead with diplomacy, this is also what he means - citizen diplomacy, like the kind you help foster every day. And that is fundamental to achieving so many of our foreign policy priorities - from revitalizing democracy at home and abroad, to revitalizing our alliances and partnerships."
Secretary of State John Kerry talks about the power of public diplomacy on the 75th anniversary of the IVLP in 2015.