Caux Inner Development Goals Forum 2026

Join us in Caux, Switzerland, from 13 to 17 July 2026, for the third edition of the Caux Inner Development Goals Forum, exploring the theme "The Alchemy of Forgiveness". 

About the Event

High above Montreux, nestled in the Swiss Alps, the historic Caux Palace will once again open its doors for the Caux Inner Development Goals Forum — a five-day journey of reflection, connection, and renewal.

The Forum will place a special focus on forgiveness — as both a personal practice and a collective act of renewal. This year’s edition is co-organised by the Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation, with its legacy of reconciliation; the Inner Development Goals Foundation, with its guide for inner growth; and the Alef Trust, with its integrative approach to education and systemic transformation.

Drawing on the experiences and contributions of these communities and beyond, and welcoming participants from all backgrounds, the gathering will explore how inner and collective transformation can regenerate belonging, foster understanding, and strengthen connection in a fractured world.

For 80 years, the Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation has welcomed people to the Caux Palace from across the world to explore how inner transformation can spark outer change. Born in the aftermath of the Second World War, Caux became a sanctuary for forgiveness and self-reflection — a place where former enemies met not as adversaries but as human beings, seeking to rebuild trust through honesty, humility, and hope.

Since then, thousands have come to Caux to heal divisions, restore dignity, and re-imagine what it means to live in peace with one another and with the Earth. 

Discover the programme

Video: Antonin Lechat

Who should attend the Caux IDG Forum? 

With an anticipated 250 attendees and speakers drawn from changemakers, entrepreneurs, First Nations, civil society, government, youth movements, academia and business, the event will provide a platform for collective exploration, inspiration, innovation, and the co-creation of practical strategies.  

Participating in the Caux IDG Forum is about unlocking your potential: it encourages individuals, groups and organisations to reflect on their roles, explore their resources, and connect with their responsibilities as changemakers, on the basis that everyone can make a difference.

​Forgiveness as a Pathway to Regeneration and Belonging

Forgiveness will be explored as a deeply human capacity for release, reconciliation, regeneration and belonging. It invites us to transform pain into understanding, rebuild trust, and open new pathways toward healing and cooperation.

Together, we will reflect on forgiveness in its many dimensions:

• Forgiving oneself — an act of self-compassion and growth.
• Forgiving others — a bridge toward reconciliation and restored relationships.
• Reconnecting with the Earth — acknowledging our interdependence with the natural world and cultivating a renewed sense of care, humility, and responsibility for the ecosystems that sustain life.
• Healing collective trauma — recognising that forgiveness also unfolds across generations and cultures.
• Acknowledging inherited wounds, engaging in truth-telling, and supporting processes of decolonisation so that communities may grieve, remember, and transform together. 

Interweaving with the Alef Trust’s work in its Nurturing the Fields of Change programme, we will explore together how forgiveness can ripple through all the dimensions of consciousness, from personal healing to community restoration and ecological renewal, revealing how transformation at any one level supports the healing of the whole.

Through these reflections, forgiveness becomes a way to regenerate belonging — to one another, to our histories, and to the living world we share.  

Image

Many Ways of Knowing: A Plural Understanding of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is not forgetting. It is an act of courage — a conscious choice to re-humanize where division has dehumanized. Yet forgiveness does not look the same everywhere. Across cultures and traditions, forgiveness takes many forms: from indigenous ceremonies of restoration and truth-telling, to contemplative spiritual practices, to community-based processes of reconciliation. Each offers unique insight into how human beings transform pain into connection.

The Forum honors this diversity of experience by inviting multiple worldviews and wisdom traditions into dialogue. Rather than centering any single narrative, we explore forgiveness as a universal human potential — one expressed through many cultural, spiritual, and philosophical lenses.

Together, we seek a shared understanding rooted in mutual respect, cultural humility, and the richness of global perspectives, and we bring methodologies that weave academic research with arts-based and embodied inquiry, creating spaces where intellect, imagination, and intuition meet.  

Continuing the Legacy

Here, among the forests and the clouds, participants are invited to rediscover the quiet strength that rises from forgiveness — not as an ending, but as a beginning: a path towards belonging, renewal, and the shared work of healing our world.

As new divisions and uncertainties unfold across the globe, the Caux IDG Forum 2026 — co-led by Caux Initiatives of Change, the Inner Development Goals Foundation, and the Alef Trust — rekindles the mountain’s founding spirit: a sanctuary where forgiveness, reflection, and action converge in service of a more humane and regenerative future.

Programme Highlights: What you can expect

The Caux IDG Forum 2026 invites a slower rhythm — one that values depth over density, reflection over rush. The programme offers spaces for inner reflection, creativity, and connection, allowing participants to engage at a meaningful pace.

Download the programme overview

Morning Ceremonies

Begin each day with an Indigenous Greeting the Day Ceremony, grounding participants in gratitude, presence, and connection with nature.

Community Groups

Small, facilitated circles for dialogue, story-sharing, and deep listening — spaces to explore personal experiences and build trust across difference.

Embodiment & Nature Practices

Ample time for silence, mindful movement, and immersion in the natural beauty of Caux — inviting reflection not just through words, but through being.

Carefully Curated Workshops

A select set of interactive workshops offering experiential exploration of forgiveness, regeneration, and belonging — blending reflective inquiry with practical application.

Open Sharing Spaces

Dedicated moments for participants to present and exchange their own projects, research, and creative work — fostering a community of mutual learning and inspiration.

Evening Gatherings & Cultural Offerings

Gentle evenings of Taize songs,  storytelling, and reflection that celebrate the shared human spirit and the diversity of cultural expressions.

Kids & Teenager Programme

Building on the successful 2025 model, the 2026 Forum offers a dedicated, family-friendly programme designed to nurture empathy, curiosity, cooperation, and meaningful connection.

Children and teenagers will enjoy creative, age-appropriate activities, including hands-on workshops, storytelling sessions, and interactive experiences, tailored to the participants who register. The programme aims to better integrate an intergenerational approach across the Forum, fostering dialogue, shared learning, and connection between young participants and adults. Families are invited to bring their children and teenagers, with all participants under 18 required to be accompanied by their legal representative(s).

Please note that the Kids & Teen Programme will depend on the number of young participants joining the Caux IDG Forum.

13 July: Welcome Day - Kicking off the Caux IDG Forum

DAY PASS OPTIONS AVAILABLE

Step into the Caux IDG Forum 2026 with a powerful opening experience: the Welcome Day, taking place on 13 July 2026 (15:30–22:00).

This first gathering, open to day guests, launches a five-day exploration of “The Alchemy of Forgiveness” - a journey designed to inspire inner transformation, collective healing, and the rebuilding of belonging in an increasingly fractured world.

Hosted at the Caux Palace, the Welcome Day sets the stage for the conversations, connections, and practices that will unfold throughout the Forum. As contributors, practitioners, and changemakers from around the globe come together, the Welcome Day will invite everyone to pause, reflect, and open themselves to forgiveness as a catalyst for both personal renewal and societal change.

Through shared stories, artistic expression, and guided reflection, the programme will illuminate the key themes of this year’s edition, rooted in the long-standing Caux tradition of honesty, humility, and hope:

• Healing inner wounds
• Restoring relationships
• Reconnecting with nature
• Understanding and transforming collective trauma

Take your place in this circle of honesty, humility, and hope — and let the journey begin.

FIND OUT MORE

 The Venue: The Caux Palace near Montreux, Switzerland

The Caux IDG Forum takes place in our centre for dialogue and peacebuilding - the Caux Palace. Once a former Belle Époque Grand Hotel, the Caux Palace overlooks Lake Geneva and the Alps from an altitude of 1000m metres. Its tranquil setting and rich heritage offer a unique and inspiring space for reflection, exchange and collective exploration, away from the noise of everyday life.

Discover the rich history of this extraordinary venue

What past participants say

"What an inspiring week! it was an experience that will have a lasting impact. I leave feeling empowered—with clarity, a new network, ideas, and the courage to shape sustainable change." 

"The Caux IDG Forum was a great reminder that change happens when theory and practice dance together."

"How do you describe a room and an encounter with around 200 people from 50 nations that you really feel one with? I always knew in my deepest dreams and desires that the world could actually look like that, but when I finally experienced it - it still leaves me speechless."

"With so much chaos, conflict and uncertainty in the world, the Caux IDG Forum felt like a sacred space to slow down, connect across divides, and talk about what really matters."

"A moment where community is the answer, where the feeling of belonging is strong and so soft at the same time."

"The Caux IDG Forum is not a quick impulse – but an invitation to pause, listen and grow together. And then there's this place: Caux. Full of history, clarity and presence. Anyone who has ever been there knows that change is not just a concept here, but lived experience." 

Discover the Caux IDG Forum 2025:

• Photos
• Report

 Our Partnerships

The Caux Inner Development Goals Forum 2026 is co-organised by:

Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation is a Swiss private charitable foundation with its centre for dialogue and peacebuilding, the Caux Palace, in Caux, above Montreux, Switzerland. Its mission is to provide a safe and privileged space to inspire, equip and connect individuals, groups and organisations from around the globe to engage effectively and innovatively in the promotion of trust, ethical leadership, sustainable living and human security.  

The Inner Development Goals Foundation is a non-profit organisation for inner development. The organisation researches, collects and communicates science-based skills and qualities that help us to live purposeful, sustainable, and productive lives, providing an essential framework of transformative skills for sustainable development. The Inner Development Guide, open source and free for all to use, is fundamental in the work to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Alef Trust is an international organisation advancing transformative education and research at the intersection of psychology, consciousness, and systems change. Through its global learning community and partnerships, it nurtures the inner development and shared conditions from which a more flourishing world can emerge.

Initiatives of Change International is a voluntary, donation- and grant-funded nonprofit association of national legal bodies (national teams) and international programmes. Registered in Caux, Switzerland, they coordinate the world-wide Initiatives of Change people’s movement, uniting a community of people of diverse cultures and backgrounds, who are committed to the transformation of society through changes in human motives and behaviour, starting with their own. Initiatives of Change International have special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN (ECOSOC), participatory status at the Council of Europe as well as a seat at the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

Your Registration Options & Cost

For your participation at CIDG 2026, choose the format that best suits you! 

Please note that registrations close on 14 June, subject to the organisers’ decision to set an earlier cut-off date if full capacity is reached before then.

FULL PACKAGE WITH ACCOMMODATION - BEST CHOICE

Full Forum: Monday, 13 July 13:30 → Friday, 17 July 13:30

Immerse yourself in the complete experience. This package offers the richest combination of plenaries, learning tracks, cultural events, and community connections.  This is most people’s choice.

Please note that if you sign up for this option, the Welcome Day is included. 

• All-inclusive event | Accommodation in budget-friendly single occupancy room: CHF 670.-   SOLD OUT!
• All-inclusive event | Accommodation in standard shared occupancy room: CHF 750.- 
• All-inclusive event | Accommodation in standard single occupancy room: CHF 990.- 
• Children from 6 to 14 | Accommodation shared with parents: CHF 405.- 
• Children from 0 to 5 | Accommodation shared with parents: CHF 0.-

FLEXIBLE ACCESS: EVENT PACKAGE WITHOUT ACCOMMODATION

Monday, 13 July 13:30 → Friday, 17 July 13:30

Please note that if you sign up for this option, the Welcome Day is included. 

• All-Inclusive Event (without accommodation) I 13 - 17 July: CHF 375.-  CHF400.-
• Welcome Day package (without accommodation) I 13 July  (15:30 - 22:00): CHF 50.-

Would you like to extend your stay to participate in the IofC Global Fellowship Gathering (20 - 24 July 2026)? 

Please read the information on the Caux IDG registration form carefully to book an extra night to extend until 18 July 2026. To book 18 - 20 July 2026 please click here (expression of interested - registration coming soon). Please note that this extended stay can only be chosen for particpants participating in the Global IofC Fellowship Gathering.

Welcome Day Day Pass: Registration & Cost

Curious about the Caux IDG Forum but unable to attend the full residential forum? Then the Welcome Day is the perfect opportunity for you to join us for a day in Caux.

Please note that if you are registered for the full forum, the Welcome Day is included and no additional registration will be required.

To make this event as inclusive and sustainable as possible, we offer three contribution levels for our day pass at the Welcome Day (13 July).

You are warmly invited to choose the amount that best reflects your circumstances and your wish to support the Caux IDG Welcome Day beyond option 1 which covers the basic costs. Every contribution is received with deep gratitude and directly supports our work and our solidarity fund. 

The Welcome Day pass includes:  

• Attendance of the Welcome Day in Caux (13:00 – 22:00)
• Afternoon tea and coffee break 
• Evening meal and activities 

_______________________________________________

• Option 1. I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in this event and to cover the practical costs | CHF 50.- 
• Option 2. I value this work and I am in a position to contribute a little more to help the Caux IDG Forum thrive | CHF 90.- 
• Option 3. I value this work and I am in a position to contribute a little more, I wish to sustain the Caux IDG Forum and support the participation of young leaders | CHF 150.- 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

More information

• Discover the programme 2026
• Terms & Conditions 2026
• Practical Information for your stay at the Caux Palace
• Visa Applications for the Caux IDG Forum 2026 - General Info & Information Zoom Sessions: Find out more 

Questions?

For further information, please get in touch BY EMAIL.