When people have a healthy sense of trust in their leaders and public institutions, things work better. Where there is trust, people can better tolerate different views, markets work more efficiently, civil society and governments are more responsive, and collaboration for the public good becomes more possible.  

IREX cultivates trust with and alongside our partners by focusing on three things: demonstrating competence, showing good intent, and promoting belonging. We recognize that these actions can only be perceived as trust-building within an enabling environment of reliable information. This short paper describes a framework for trust-building and describes seven practices and six outcomes of trust-building. 

Trust matters not as an end goal itself, but because it accelerates progress toward our strategic goal: more just, prosperous, and inclusive societies.