Upcoming events
Spring School on Climate Citizens' Assemblies
Climate and democracy are shouting for help! From polarization to electoral short-termism, institutions are struggling to provide solutions. In these decisive moments, citizens yearn for a voice in shaping the future. Climate Citizens’ Assemblies are one of the most promising methods to tackle this deadlock.
Are you eager to delve into the heart of this transformative approach? KNOCA and FIDE, in collaboration with DemNet, proudly present a new edition of the Spring School on Climate Citizens' Assemblies. Save the dates - May 21-22, and join us in the vibrant city of Budapest for an immersive exploration of democratic solutions to the climate crisis.
What to Expect
In-Depth Learning: Gain comprehensive insights into the dynamics of Climate Citizens' Assemblies and their pivotal role in improving democracy.
Expert Partnerships: Benefit from the combined expertise of KNOCA, FIDE, and DemNet, ensuring a rich learning experience guided by leaders in the field.
International Collaboration: Engage in a global dialogue on the challenges and opportunities surrounding climate and democracy, contributing to a shared understanding of best practices.
From Votes to Voices: Expanding European Democracy
What could democracy become by fostering inclusive and continuous citizen involvement ?
Amid the European Elections campaign, we bring citizens, institutions and experts to explore other ways of doing democracy. Voting alone is not enough to tackle the democratic challenges of our time. Learn from leading examples expanding citizens’ engagement and, with that, the European democracy.
The agenda features new democratic voices, the role of youth, local projects, and the future of EU-level deliberation. Join the conversation to broaden our democracy!
Learning Call on Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss
Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss is the fifth national assembly commissioned by the government since the first Convention on the Constitution over a decade ago. No other government in the world has made such extensive use of citizens’ assemblies. It is also the first time a national government has commissioned an assembly to consider how the state can respond to the challenge of biodiversity loss. Another first is the Children and Young People’s Assembly that ran alongside and fed into the process.
This learning call will consider the experience of running the assembly and its impact to date.
Hosting Climate Assemblies in Challenging Environments
Organisers of climate assemblies have often worked within stable political systems in which conflicts remain mostly civil and very rarely pose a serious challenge to participants or organisers. But what happens when you organise assemblies in areas characterised by social and political polarization, where politicians are accustomed to fierce confrontations or worse; where democracy is backsliding or the rule is authoritarian or some of the key stakeholders are willing to resort to fake news, threats, or outright attacks to get their way?
Tackling disinformation: Strengthening democracy through information integrity
This conference will bring together leaders from government, business, and civil society to identify effective policy responses to the urgent challenges our democracies face in the information space.
Conversations will focus on government architecture and coordination mechanisms, efforts to build societal resilience, and regulatory responses. By focusing on tangible questions around what works and why, the conference will also set the stage for working toward OECD guidelines on the issue and provide the occasion to discuss expanding the OECD DIS/MIS Resource Hub’s engagement and reach.
Workshop on Permanent Climate Assemblies
A small number of municipalities are experimenting with more permanent climate assemblies – a new institutionalized element of their climate governance architecture. What lessons can we draw from these early initiatives? What are the pros and cons of establishing more permanent bodies?
In this workshop by KNOCA, organized in collaboration with FIDE (Federation for Innovation in Democracy – Europe), we will hear from colleagues in Brussels, Milan and Paris about their different approaches to institutionalizing assemblies and the lessons they have learned to date. Led by Yves Dejaeghere, Executive Director of FIDE, we will consider the opportunities and challenges of creating new permanent assemblies.
Autumn School on Citizens' Assemblies
FIDE is organising a new iteration of its Autumn School for policy-makers looking to learn and broaden their understanding of Deliberative Democracy and Citizens’ Assemblies. Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, is partnering with FIDE to bring the deliberative wave to the Nordic countries and provide local expertise. It aims to inspire politicians, civil servants and society actors through know-how and tangible case studies to implement these processes in their spheres of action.
Designing the Follow-up to Climate Assemblies
Designing the follow-up to climate assemblies: how to embed recommendations within the public administration?
Commissioners, organisers, advocates and researchers of climate assemblies tend to focus most of their attention on the assembly itself. Too often what comes after the assembly is neglected. For those assemblies commissioned by governments (and this is the majority of cases), we tend not to put the same energy and resources into designing and implementing a robust follow-up process within the public administration. No wonder we are often disappointed with the impact of recommendations on policy and strategy.
Standard Evaluation Criteria for Citizen Assemblies
The Osservatorio Italiano Assemble Cittadine (OAC) has developed a set of fundamental and distinctive principles to evaluate and assess the quality of Citizen Assemblies. Currently, these evaluation criteria are being applied to different case studies in Italy.
In an upcoming webinar, the organizers will present these evaluation standards as their proposed methodology.
Europe, for a citizens-led policy
Deliberative democracy is popularizing. What started as a few pioneering examples at the beginning of the century has now exploded into all levels of government, including the European Union. The term is no longer unfamiliar to policy-makers, and now the challenge is to implement citizens’ assemblies effectively. In 2020, FIDE was established with a mission to guide and advise on how to bring quality to this promising approach that can strengthen our democratic system.
On June 22, we want to present how this form of democracy is helping governments be more effective in designing policy while building trust among their populations. Join us to discover how all governance and policy fields link to deliberative democracy to increase its reach and inclusion!
Workshop on Systems Change
A workshop on Systems Change is essential due to the growing need for effective participatory democratic tools like Citizens' Assemblies (CAs) to tackle complex problems at the root of various crises, particularly climate change. Current guidance on designing and evaluating deliberative processes has rapidly emerged, but there is a lack of resources for designing such processes to address broader systemic transformations that are crucial for a sustainable future. This workshop aims to bridge this gap and explore methods for fostering meaningful discussions on systemic change.
A conversation with Ireland’s Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss
In October 2022, Ireland held its first Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. Designed with children and young people, the Assembly brought together 35 randomly selected members aged 7-17 from across Ireland to explore, discuss and create calls to action on how to protect and restore biodiversity in Ireland.
In this talk, Katie Reid (participation lead for the Assembly) will host a conversation with some of the children and young people involved about their experiences, calls to action and hopes for the future.
Citizens' Assemblies, a new wave of citizens' engagement in Europe
Climate change is often seen as a super wicked problem. Citizen participation can help to increase support for and legitimacy of policy decisions, and in this context citizens' assemblies can be a very appropriate tool to address highly complex problems such as climate change.
Citizens' assemblies are models of non-expert decision-making by a group of randomly selected citizens. The process involves in-depth learning about the topic in question from documentation and expert presentations. The methodology includes facilitating debate and discussion of ideas to reach a set of recommendations for decision-making by the group.
In this workshop, examples of citizens' assemblies carried out in Europe at different scales will be presented in order to learn about the advantages of these processes, as well as the difficulties they face.
The impact of Citizens' Assemblies on Participants: How to fulfill the transformative potential
In this webinar organised by People Powered, Marjan Ehsassi, Ph.D., and Silvia Cervellini will reflect on how participation can be transformative for participants while the actual practice does not consistently reflect this potential.
The Government of Chance - Sortition and Politics from Athens to the Present
The Ash Center invites you to an online book talk and series of panel discussions to mark the publication of The Government of Chance: Sortition and Politics from Athens to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2023) by Yves Sintomer, Ash Center Visiting Democracy Fellow; Professor of Political Science, Paris 8 University; and Associate Member, Nuffield College, University of Oxford. Jane Suiter, Professor of Political Communication at Dublin City University will chair the discussion.
Supporting participants post-assembly
Should assembly members be supported after a climate assembly has finished? If so, to do what? Do organisers have a responsibility to support them? Are participants uniquely placed to lobby for change? What are the risks?
Discover more and register here: knoca.eu
Spring School on Climate Citizens' Assemblies
Registrations are closed
FIDE is organising a spring school on Climate Citizens’ Assemblies (CCA) to build the necessary capacities of institutions and organisations to run these deliberative processes. The event intends to boost the experiences currently underway and encourage the creation of new ones both in Italy and throughout the continent. For that reason, FIDE is partnering with the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA) from the European Climate Foundation to provide the richest and latest experiences across levels of government and social movements. Together we will bring you first-hand knowledge and advice on how to design your deliberative climate project in your community. From the designing phase to the institutionalisation processes already spreading across the continent, we will bring valuable insights to every context.
The event is aimed at those in positions to advocate, design or implement a CCA. These are specifically politicians, civil servants and civil society actors looking to set up or engage in a specific process or project.
Training on citizen engagement in policymaking
Citizen engagement is recognised as a crucial element for robust, sustainable and inclusive policymaking. This course covers the rationales for citizen engagement, principles of best practice, as well as applied tools for running or contracting citizen engagement activities. The course includes a focus on the main types and methodologies of citizen engagement such as deliberation and co-creation together with case studies and political context, and guidance on how to plan citizen engagement activities and find necessary resources. The course is designed for any policy or scientific officer who is interested to learn about meaningful citizen engagement that goes beyond consultation methods.
Should citizens' assemblies have decision-making power?
From the local to the global level, randomly selected citizens deliberate in citizens' assemblies on topics such as climate protection, care, abortions, marriage rights for same-sex couples and more. The results of these assemblies go to governments and parliaments as recommendations for action. However, politicians are not obliged to implement the citizens' proposals.
That's why many people are asking themselves: Can't citizens' assemblies also make binding decisions? Are binding citizens' assemblies a way out of the crisis of democracy?
The NGO Mehr Demokratie organises a panel to discuss this with the experts Marcin Gerwin, Hugh Pope and Sarah Händel on the 18th of April.
Workshop on NGO playbook: Why and how should climate NGOs engage with Climate Assemblies?
Climate policy community has so far not engaged with the climate assemblies at scale. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss the challenges, current practice, and guidance to the civil society on why and how to engage with climate assemblies.
Another democratic future is possible: Inspiration from Europe
In February 2023 a permanent citizens’ climate assembly began its work in Brussels, Belgium. In this new institution, randomly selected citizens deliberate and make recommendations on Brussels’ climate policy – but also monitor their political and policy follow-up. This assembly is the latest in the wave of institutions and processes grounded in the principles of the fast-developing field of deliberative democracy that has swept the world – but especially Europe – over the past decade. In this “hot topic” seminar we will talk about the drivers of this “deliberative wave”, its successes and challenges, and reflect together on the opportunity for Aotearoa New Zealand to adopt some of these approaches - and perhaps even lead the world into a deeper form of democracy.
What Does the Next Democratic Paradigm Look Like? Widening the Horizons
There is another democratic future beyond broken electoral politics or autocracy. How do we build it? Join Democracy Next to explore it!
Workshop on Evidence in Climate Assemblies
Knowledge curation – the art and practice of conveying relevant and nuanced information to (and with) citizens – is a central but also underexplored element of climate assemblies. The purpose of this workshop is to offer a platform for members to explore and share experiences, ideas, and reflections on best practice for selecting and presenting evidence in climate assemblies.
Deliberative Democracy Days: Moving deliberative democracy and participatory tools forward
The "Deliberative Democracy Days: Moving deliberative democracy and participatory tools forward" is an event aimed at civil society organisations, researchers in democratic studies, practitioners, youth associations, teachers and youth workers, policymakers and representatives of public authorities.
This 3-day event will take place from March 13-15, 2023 at the European Parliament, Info Hub, in Brussels, Belgium.
Elevating Citizens’ Voices - Avenues for Participatory Democracy at National, Regional and Local Levels
The Assembly of European Regions (AER) and the European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP) are glad to invite you to the launch of their joint publication: Elevating Citizens’ Voices: Avenues for Participatory Democracy at Local, Regional and National levels, hosted on the premises of MEP and AER Vice-President Lukas Mandl at the European Parliament in Brussels.
This publication offers a close look at the opportunities and benefits of deliberative democracy in Europe and beyond. It examines selected successful models of participatory processes at local, regional and national levels. Thereby, it provides examples and food for thought for governments and civil society actors on how citizens can be directly involved in making decisions that shape their lives.
SHEtalks: The Promise and Limits of Citizens' Assemblies by Dr Irena Fiket
SHEtalks are a serial of informal research seminars held at Center for Sustainable Healthcare Education, University of Oslo. SHEtalks are research lunch lectures. The spring 2023 program was put together by researcher Gabriela Saldanha.
On this occasion, Irena Fiket will delineate the major characteristic of these innovative institutions and discuss the benefits they can bring to democratic participation but also their major limits.
A new chapter for participatory democracy
Building on the success of the project From local to European and leading up to the 2024 European elections, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is renewing its partnership with the Bertelsmann Stiftung to support local and regional politicians, authorities and interested parties in establishing participatory democracy within their constituencies through capacity building.
The kick-off conference aims to set a direction for the project that is in line with the local and regional priorities in Europe. What are the needs of the regions, cities and municipalities in Europe? What support and assistance in capacity building do you need to carry out citizen participation projects?
Read the full agenda here.
The Future of participatory and deliberative democracy
As part of the ‘Civil Society Organisations: a pillar of democracy and a key player to overcome current challenges’, the main workshop on day 3 will focus on the trends and prospects for advancing deliberative democracy.
Organised by: The European Movement International (EMI), European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and Solidar, in cooperation with the EESC ad-hoc group on Fundamental Rights and the Rule of Law and the EESC ad-hoc group on European Citizens' Initiative.
Potential of climate change assemblies to counteract strategic actors
The Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance is organising a hybrid event on the strategic potential for climate assemblies. In this talk, Jane Suiter presents an analytical framework for studying climate change assemblies building on systemic deliberative theory.
Inclusion and disadvantage in climate assemblies
The use of random selection and facilitated deliberation is assumed to generate high levels of equity and inclusion. Certainly, the participants in climate assemblies (and other deliberative mini-publics) are more diverse than most other political institutions. But do elements of climate assembly practice lead to disadvantages for particular social groups? Do we need to look more closely at the design and practice of climate assemblies through the lens of equity and inclusion?
Launch of the U.S. Summit for Democracy's Cohort on Deliberative Democracy and Citizens' Assemblies
Ahead of the second Summit for Democracy on March 29-30 2023, the Cohort on Deliberative Democracy and Citizens' Assemblies will hold an official (online) launch event on the 17th January 2023 at 4:00PM CET.
If you would like to feature your deliberative event on this website, please write us at info@fide.eu