The Global Democracy Coalition, a multi-stakeholder coalition of 100 democracy organizations across the world, is convening a Forum on 28 February & 1 March 2023 in preparation for the second Summit for Democracy, co-hosted by the United States, South Korea, Zambia, the Netherlands and Costa Rica on 29 & 30 March. The aim is to provide a space for inclusive dialogue to collectively prepare inputs to inform the Summit discussions, but also to generate collective ideas for a post-Summit process.
Specifically, the Forum is expected to:
Provide a space to discuss progress on S4D commitment implementation
Provide a space to take stock of the cohort process and share progress to date
Take collective stock of the state of democracy since the first Summit for Democracy
Provide a space for GDC partners to make their own commitments to democracy (GDC pledge)
Generate recommendations for the post Summit process
BRUSSELS GDC FORUM 2023 AGENDA - 28 FEBRUARY
13:00 - 14:30 CET
Networking lunch in Brussels
14:30 – 14:40 CET
Welcoming (in-person/online)
Jutta Urpilainen, Commissioner for International Partnerships, European Commission
14:40 – 15:15 CET
Opening session (in-person/online)
Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President, European Commission
Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary General, International IDEA
Johnny Walsh, Deputy Assistant Administrator, USAID
15:15 – 16:45 CET
Cohorts as means to deliver on the ambitions of the S4D (in-person/online)
Analyze the lessons learned, the outputs and some preliminary contributions as well as case studies.
Official presentation of the S4D Youth Civic and Political Engagement Cohort Menu of possible commitments for participating states.
16:45 – 18:15 CET
Commitment implementation (online)
Reflections on lessons learned on the S4D commitment process, progress in implementation and potential gaps
BRUSSELS GDC FORUM 2023 AGENDA - 1 MARCH
09:30 – 13:00 CET
Youth Democracy Cohort(in-person)
All participants invited to join the working session, discussing:
Handbook of good practices for Youth Participation
New organisations joining the cohort share their experience
Brainstorming on the project of a Global index on Youth Democratic Participation
Advocacy: methodologies and experience sharing
13:00 - 14:30 CET
Networking lunch in Brussels
15:00 – 16:30 CET
State of Democracy (online)
The session to take stock of how democracy has fared since the first S4D, through a joint reflection on the state of democracy, including emerging challenges and advances/bright spots
16:30– 18:00 CET
Post-Summit process (online)
The session will tie together the results from the survey, the workshops and focus group discussions to explore options for a post Summit process
18:15 – 18:30 CET
Closing session (online)
Ann Hudock, President and CEO of Counterpart International
USG official (tbc)