PAST EVENTS

31 May 2023 09:00 - 17:00

Strengthening Democracy and Citizen Participation

In Person Event | Organised by Innovation for Change (I4C) | Held in Catalonia Hotel, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in Spanish (with English translation available)
Advancing respect for human rights

Innovation for Change (I4C) is a global network of people and organizations who connect, partner, and learn together to defend and strengthen civic space and democracy and overcome restrictions to our fundamental freedoms of assembly, association, and expression. We are a community-led network inspired by ideas, methods, and technologies from across different sectors

The Latin American & the Caribbean (LAC) Hub is organizing an in-person event to shape formal discussion, hear the voices of the region, help to do advocacy and reflect on the main challenges that Democracy is facing in the region today. The event will be organized around the following formats: Sharing data on the state of democracy in the region, panels with keynote speakers and sharing good practices and successful cases.

The main topics addressed will be:
1. The reduction of civic space in the region. The work of CSOs in promoting democracy and defending civic space. Identifying the main threats to democracy
2. Generating advocacy to defend the enabling environment
3. Civil society in the digital age: Fighting misinformation in LAC and generating digital empowerment in the region for activism
4. The future of Democracy: new agendas, new actors and the role of innovation in social change.
5. Partnerships for Democracy: a showcase of successful partnerships cases with the private sector and international cooperation in the region

Call to action: As a result of what is discussed and shared during the event, we will prepare a Draft Declaration of the Democracy Summit, that will be circulated to the participants after the event for validation and feedback, and the final text will be shared by all for advocacy purposes.

23 May 2023 15:00 - 16:15

Summit for Democracy’s Gender Equality Cohort, Post-Summit Event

Virtual Event | Organised by Summit for Democracy Gender Cohort | Held in (CET) International IDEA HQ, Stockholm & Webex (online) in TBA
Advancing respect for human rights

The Summit for Democracy’s Gender Equality Cohort will conduct a post Summit event on 23 May 2023, 15.00 – 16.15 CET International IDEA HQ, Stockholm & Webex (online)

This event contributes and sustains the efforts to sustain gender equality on the global agenda for democracy. The event will highlight the importance and good practices for advancing gender equality as a prerequisite for democracy in the post-Summit context.

12 May 2023 10:00 - 12:00

2nd Roundtable: LEGISLATIVE BRANCH, AS A BALANCING FACTOR FOR A FULL DEMOCRACY

Virtual Event | Organised by Save Democracy | Held in Mexico in Spanish
Defending against authoritarianism

This 2nd rountable count with Representatives from Chile, Costa Rica y Uruguay.

The objective of this Forum, integrated for three roundtables, is to generate an in-depth debate on the shared responsibility resulting from the regionalization of the important common problems that affect our countries, including the protection and development of democracy itself.

5 May 2023 11:00 - 13:00

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH, AS A BALANCING FACTOR FOR A FULL DEMOCRACY.

Virtual Event | Organised by Save Democracy | Held in Mexico in Spanish
Defending against authoritarianism

The objective of this Forum is to generate an in-depth debate on the shared responsibility resulting from the regionalization of the important common problems that affect our countries, including the protection and development of democracy itself.

This Forum will be held in Zoom in three roundtables: the first one will have the participation of Representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru, on May 5th ; the second section will count with Representatives from Costa Rica, Chile and Uruguay, on May 12th ; and the last one will be held by Representatives from the United States and Mexico, on May 15th..

30 April 2023 01:00 - 06:00

The power of voting

In Person Event | Organised by Atlas Movement | Held in Kenya in English
Defending against authoritarianism

This citizen-driven event will be focused on crowdsourcing innovative proposals on topics such as: what are the issues with voting in Kenya and across the world, what are the best practices the rest of the planet should hear about, and what solutions they wish to be brought forward for the sake of democracy. The session will be opened with thought-provoking remarks by prestigious speakers,

Together, participants will formulate concrete, detailed policy solutions to issues linked to voting that will be presented at the 2023 Athens Democracy Forum.

27 April 2023 12:00 - 13:30

Southern Perspectives on international assistance to democracy and human rights: Is donor support fit for purpose?

Virtual Event | Organised by Thinking and Working Politically, The Policy Practice | Held in (BST) University of Birmingham in English
Defending against authoritarianism

Democracy and human rights have been under increased pressure globally. The Varieties of Democracy Institute’s latest report has found that advances in democracy over the last 35 years have been wiped out, and that 72% of the world’s population live in autocracies in 2022. In this challenging context, international development agencies have been adjusting how they support democracy and rights objectives. Lessons are being learned about how aid can be most effective, including by using thinking and working politically approaches. These are often presented and acted upon from the perspective of donor agencies or implementers of democracy and human rights programmes, through donor funded reviews and evaluations, such as the latest UK Independent Commission for Aid Impact report on the UK’s approach to democracy and human rights. This webinar aims to flip the global conversation. It starts from the perspective of democracy and human rights activists from the Global South, rather than aid agencies. It asks what they consider to be good practice in terms of the provision of external support, what has undermined their efforts, and what can be done differently.

12 April 2023 09:30 - 11:00

Biden’s Summit for Democracy in the shadow of Ukraine

Virtual Event | Organised by Danish Institute for International Studies | Held in (EST) Danmark in English
Defending against authoritarianism

In this seminar, leading international experts take stock of Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy initiative in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, which has exacerbated the tensions between democracy and authoritarianism.

On March 29-30, 2023, the United States hosted the second Summit for Democracy as a follow-up to the first Summit in December 2021. An initiative of the Biden administration, the Summit is part of a broader agenda to foster democratic renewal in the face of a global democratic recession and a rise of authoritarianism.
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, immediately following the first summit, tensions between democracy and authoritarianism have been further exacerbated. The increasingly strained relationship between the US and China also adds to the tension. Geopolitically, the world has changed dramatically between the first and the second summit.
Last year, the EU’s Strategic Compass and the US National Security Strategy emphasized the link between democracy and security and stressed the need to strengthen the defense of democracy. Against this backdrop, what should we make of the Summits? How do we assess their impact on democracy? How have European countries responded to the initiative? What are the broader implications for transatlantic relations and the role of democracy in foreign policy?

6 April 2023 09:00 - 10:00

Higher Education & Youth Activism: Stories and Strategies For Collective Action

Virtual Event | Organised by USAID Higher Education Learning Network | Held in Virtual in English, with Spanish and French translation
Advancing respect for human rights

What role does higher education play in developing personal agency, resilience, and efficacy of youth activists? How can higher education strengthen and support collective action and civic engagement? Learn directly from youth activists how higher education inspired and prepared them to engage in social change. This event is sponsored by the USAID Higher Education Learning Network (HELN) in partnership with Powered by the People. Participants will share their perspectives on ways to strengthen higher education to support youth activism and help contribute to new research on the intersection between higher education and student activism.

5 April 2023 - 7 April 2023 16:30 - 14:00

European Supranational Democracy as a Model for Citizens’ Participation beyond Borders

In Person Event | Organised by Maison Jean Monnet | Held in (CEST) France/Europe Expérience (Paris, April 5) and Maison Jean Monnet (Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, April 6 and 7) in French and English
Advancing respect for human rights

It will address the issues of citizens’ participation across borders, through popular vote for a supranational Parliament and transnational participation beyond the vote, through instruments such as the European Citizens’ Initiative and innovative experiments in deliberative democracy such as the European Citizens’ Panels – which paved the road for a possible future European Citizens’ Assembly- as well as others on which the discussion is still ongoing (from the Pan-European Referendum to Participatory Budgeting) . It will also explore how this complex ecosystem of democracy that is both transnational and supranational at the same time – and that is now attempting to combine representative elements with ‘direct’ and ‘participatory’ elements – is increasingly inspiring other areas of the world that are attempting, inspired by the European Union, similar processes of macro-regional integration (Mercosur, African Union, Asean…), as well as how this model can also be scaled up to the global level, in the perspective of a full global democracy of institutions and citizens, combining representative with deliberative-participatory democracy.

5 April 2023 16:00 - 17:30

ODI/ICAI Democracy and Human Rights Learning

Virtual Event | Organised by ODI | Held in (BST) at ODI London offices or online in
Advancing respect for human rights

It gives me great pleasure to invite you to attend an ODI/ICAI democracy and human rights learning event on Wednesday 5^th April at 16:00-17:30 BST at ODI London offices or online to discuss and learn from the findings of ICAI latest democracy and human rights review. The review looks at UK support to democracy and human rights globally, over the last seven years, including since the FCDO merger in 2020.

Geo-political re-alignments and democratic reversals of different kinds and shifting civic space, have thrust the question of what kind of international support for democracy and human right is needed, to the top of the global political agenda.

This event will be an opportunity to learn about what has and what has not worked in terms of democracy and human rights support, and to hear from those on the receiving end, specifically organisations that support democracy and human rights, including from the Global South.

Please confirm your attendance via email to Ella Remande-Guyard (e.remande-guyard@odi.org.uk), please specify if you will be joining us in-person or online.