The International Day of Hope: Why Hope Is a Strategy, Not a Feeling
What the UN's newest international day means for purpose-led founders and leaders - and why hope is the most important thing you can offer the people who follow you.
In 2025, Gallup published its Global Leadership Report - the most comprehensive study of what people need from their leaders ever conducted. Across 52 countries, they asked a simple question: what does the most positive, influential leader in your life contribute to your daily experience?
The answers clustered into four themes: hope, trust, compassion, and stability. But one dominated overwhelmingly.
Hope accounted for 56% of all attributes mentioned - far outdistancing trust at 33%, compassion at 7%, and stability at 4%. For organisational leaders specifically, the figure rose to 64%. When leaders provide hope, something measurable happens: the proportion of people who are thriving rises and the proportion who are suffering falls. Hope is what followers need most, by a significant margin.
At a moment when that matters more than it ever has, the United Nations has given hope its own day.
What Is the International Day of Hope?
On 4 March 2025, the United Nations General Assembly designated 12 July as the International Day of Hope. The resolution was initiated by the Permanent Mission of Kiribati and co-sponsored by 23 member states, with support from 161 nations. The choice of date is deliberate - 12 July is Kiribati's National Day, and as the first country on the International Date Line to see the sunrise each morning, it carries a powerful symbolism of new beginnings.
The International Day of Hope is a day to celebrate and promote hope as a guiding principle for individuals, communities, and nations alike. It invites us to pause, reflect, and recommit to a future built on an unwavering belief in a better tomorrow.
This is more than symbolic. The resolution draws on the values of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it builds on earlier initiatives such as the International Day of Conscience. It calls on member states, civil society, and individuals to cultivate environments where hope can thrive - through public education, community engagement, acts of kindness, and the promotion of reconciliation.
The UN is clear about why this matters now: in a world facing growing unrest, widening social divisions, and persistent economic and environmental challenges, hope is a transformative force. It can bridge divides, drive progress, and uplift the human spirit.
Why Hope Is Strategic
Most people think of hope as a feeling - something warm and reassuring that arrives when you want to believe things will work out. The science tells a different story.
The psychologist C. R. Snyder spent decades studying hope and defined it as a cognitive framework with three components: goals - a clear vision of what you want to achieve; pathways - the perceived ability to identify routes to get there; and agency - the motivation and belief that your efforts will make a difference.
This matters because it means hope can be developed, strengthened, and practised. It also means that when hope is absent - when someone can't see a vision, can't find a pathway, or has lost the belief that their actions matter - they stall. The research is consistent: people with higher levels of hope view obstacles as temporary challenges and generate alternative routes forward. People with lower levels of hope interpret obstacles as dead ends, lose their sense of agency, and disengage.
For anyone who leads - whether that's a team, a business, a community, or a family - this has profound implications. Your ability to help the people around you see a future worth building toward, find pathways to get there, and believe in their own capacity to act is the single most important thing you do.
I'll be writing in more depth about Hope Theory and how it underpins the approach I call hope-centred strategy. But the International Day of Hope is the right place to start - because it connects the science of hope to the global challenges we're all navigating.
Hope and the Sustainable Development Goals
The UN explicitly links hope to the Sustainable Development Goals - the blueprint for a better and more sustainable future for all. Their research identifies hope as a driver of progress across several critical areas.
Health and wellbeing (SDG 3). Hope improves mental health outcomes and supports engagement in medical treatment. Higher levels of hope correlate with lower rates of depression, anxiety, and trauma-related stress. Cancer patients with higher hope report better survival rates and stronger adherence to treatment.
Education (SDG 4). Hope enhances student motivation, academic persistence, and long-term learning outcomes. Development programmes that integrate hope-building strategies - such as coaching and mentoring - yield improved results for people living in poverty.
Gender equality (SDG 5). The connection between hope and women's empowerment is one I care about deeply. When women founders are systematically underestimated - when the narrative frames their businesses as small, niche, or lifestyle-driven - the effect is to erode hope at a structural level. Agency is undermined not by personal failure but by an ecosystem that consistently fails to take women's commercial ambition seriously. Restoring hope in this context means building the evidence, the visibility, and the pathways that allow women to see what they've actually built - and what they're capable of building next.
Economic inclusion (SDG 8). Hope drives personal ambition, long-term savings, and entrepreneurship. This is the SDG where I see hope at work most directly in my own strategic advisory practice - founders who can see a future they believe in, who have visible pathways to get there, and who trust their own agency are the founders who build businesses that last.
Climate action (SDG 13). Hope sustains the long-term commitment required for environmental preservation. Climate work demands a "long game" mindset - the willingness to invest in outcomes you may not see for decades. Without hope, people disengage from the very challenges that most need sustained attention. Every client I work with who is building in the climate and nature space is, whether they use the language or not, practising hope.
Hope and Peacebuilding
The UN also recognises hope as a foundation for peace - fostering trust between groups, encouraging dialogue, empowering young leaders, and strengthening social cohesion. Hope contributes to peacebuilding by initiating the process through trust and dialogue, and by fostering reconciliation and a shared sense of identity.
As a UNESCO dialogue on peace and human rights expressed it: there is no peace without hope, no development without trust, and no future without belief in one.
In a world where polarisation, conflict, and mistrust feel increasingly prevalent, this connection between hope and peace is a reminder that the work of building a better future is not separate from the work of building better relationships - between communities, between nations, and between people who see the world differently.
What This Means for Purpose-Led Founders and Leaders
If you're building a purpose-led business, hope isn't a luxury or an afterthought. It's the strategic foundation that everything else rests on.
The Gallup data confirms what I see in my work every day. When leaders provide hope - when they help people see a future worth working toward, find pathways to get there, and believe in their own capacity to act - everything improves. Engagement rises. Suffering falls. People move forward with confidence rather than anxiety.
The UN's decision to designate an International Day of Hope validates something that purpose-led founders have always understood intuitively: that building the future we want starts with believing it's possible, seeing how to get there, and having the courage to act.
Questions to Reflect On
As you mark the International Day of Hope - whether on 12 July itself or whenever you're reading this - here are some questions worth sitting with:
Can the people you lead see a future they believe in? Have you articulated a vision that gives them something to build toward - or are they working day to day without a clear sense of where it's all heading?
Can they see pathways to get there? Are the routes forward visible and achievable - or do the obstacles feel like dead ends?
Do they believe their efforts matter? Is there evidence that what they're doing is working - or has the connection between effort and outcome become invisible?
And what about you? Can you see your own vision clearly? Can you see the pathways? Do you believe in your own agency?
Hope is strategic. It's measurable. And it starts with the leader.
The International Day of Hope is observed on 12 July each year, following its designation by the United Nations General Assembly on 4 March 2025.
If you'd like to explore what hope-centred strategy looks like in practice - for your business, your leadership, or your team - I'd welcome a conversation. Book a call and let's explore it together.
I'll be writing more about Hope Theory - the science behind hope-centred strategy - in a companion piece. If you'd like to read the Gallup Global Leadership Report in full, you'll find it here.
Denyse Whillier is the founder of The Purpose Company, working with purpose-led founders and leaders to build the future they want. Read more about her experience and approach here.
