People around the world must be able to play a more significant role in decision-making and policy processes that affect them and their communities in order to uphold democracy; that’s according to participants in a UN discussion focused on strengthening democratic governance.
In recent years, the UN has increasingly looked at ways to restore the broken links between people and their governments by encouraging greater citizen participation. .
Civil society organizations (CSOs), in collaboration with the UN, have found that citizens’ assemblies are a very effective way of bringing together different members of local communities to work on policies and projects that directly affect them.
Representatives of three CSOs recently came to the UN Headquarters to share their experiences in running citizens’ assemblies: Cynthia Mbamalu is the Director of Programs at Yiaga Africa, a CSO in Nigeria, Silvia Cervellini is the co-founder of Delibera Brasil, and Iain Walker is the Executive Director of the NewDemocracy Foundation based in Australia.
Cynthia Mbamalu: Nigeria has a growing and large youth population, and one of the things we have learned is that the youth want to be part of the solution. They want to be heard.
We create safe spaces for youth dialogue, where different groups of young people learn by talking about policies. Any decisions that come out of those conversations can be used in government actions.
But we need to go further, to help young people move from student union movements to mainstream politics, and learn how to advocate for policies that affect issues that concern them. youth.
Silvia Cervellini: Brazil has a constitution of a citizen, which led to the creation of important institutions, such as the National Conference of States and Municipal Councils, but there must be a constant effort to ensure that participation is truly universal.
In our experience, we repeatedly witness what we call “citizen mode” activated, when different people work together to find the best possible solution for the common good, even for one a time as polarized as ours.
Iain Walker We all want to have a say in the decisions that affect us as citizens. Citizens’ assemblies are a step toward completing that role.
One reason is that they are a great opportunity to mix. We take people from all walks of life – old and young, white collar, blue collar, rich and poor – and put them in a room, to see what we can agree on.
Confidence deficit
Cynthia Mbamalu: Many young people want to participate but, in Nigeria, there is a huge trust deficit between the citizens and the government.
This is why we provide support for young people to promote the idea of participating in elections, so that they drive the conversation, and mobilize their colleagues.
Silvia Cervellini: Confidence goes both ways. We use any excuse to invite political leaders to trust the people, and when they see that citizens are involved in the participation process, they trust them to give the best answers to a problem.
When you have a mayor, or city councilors saying, “I need your help to solve this”, people feel a responsibility to make decisions for others who are not in the room.
And this is the magic of “citizen mode”: they don’t think about their individual interests or their preferences. They think, what is best for everyone.
Iain Walker: We all tend to trust people who are a bit like us, but parliamentarians often seem to live in an isolated and different world.
Ireland is a pioneer in creating projects that put randomly selected people and members of parliament in the same process: after spending several days together, they realize that MPs are not different from them.
Politicians are used to people coming to them promoting disagreements, and we often see an improvement in the assemblies of citizens, when they say “wow, people really take this problem seriously” seriously, and working to find an agreement”.
This is how we can rebuild trust in electoral democracy, 50 or 100 people at a time, to create a more trustworthy, united society.
Cynthia Mbamalu, Silvia Cervellini and Iain Walker as well as Aleida Ferreyra, the UN Development Program (UNDP) Global Lead for Democratic Institutions and Processes, interviewed by Annemarie Hou, Executive Director of UN Partnerships and the UN Democracy Fund, for a period of SDG Roundtablesa series of videos dealing with themes related to the Sustainable Development Goals.
How the UN supports civil society and human rights
This year marks 75 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a landmark agreement that aims to ensure a common future of dignity, freedom, and justice for all.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) calls for a safe and open civic space that is inclusive, celebrates diversity, and includes an age and gender sensitive approach that recognizes the role of actors in civil society, especially women, human rights defenders and journalists.
Yiaga Africa is working to increase youth engagement in the democratic process and, together with UNDP, launched #SixtyPercentOfUs in May 2022, a project aimed at mobilizing at least 60 percent youth voter registration on.
Delibera Brasil, which organizes citizens’ assemblies supported by the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF), which allows residents of Brazilian cities to participate directly in policy making to address poverty and inequality.
The newDemocracy Foundation, which, with UNDEF funding, helps countries bring underserved communities into the political system, and has produced a handbook on so-called “democracy beyond elections”, explains how the principles of representation and deliberation can be applied to countries in different countries. level of development.
UNDEF is a donor body described as a fund for CSOs, aimed at strengthening the voice of civil society, promoting human rights, and encouraging the participation of all groups in democratic processes.