This high-level Forum brought together nearly 1000 participants, 230 participants in person at Daystar University and over 500 participants online, from 14 African countries, representing civil society organizations, policymakers, youth movements, environmental justice advocates, and democracy practitioners. The event served as a critical platform for stakeholders to assess the state of democratic resilience, anti-corruption measures, electoral integrity, and climate governance in the region.
Youth Democracy Cohort Events
The Youth Political and Civic Engagement Cohort is one of the multi stakeholder platforms launched as part of the Year of Action after the first Summit for Democracy of December 2021.
Youth political involvement was not high on the agenda of the participating countries during the Summit for Democracy's early phases. According to the Democracy Dashboard, only six countries approved youth pledges during the first Summit for Democracy, which emphasized the importance of developing a strong and active group to place youth on the global democracy agenda.
Since its launch September 2022, the Cohort has gathered organisations from all continents to take meaningful action to implement the Summit for Democracy commitments on youth political participation through actions, resources, knowledge, research etc..
Call To Action To Civil Society | The Future Of The Summit For Democracy Needs Youth
Democracy organizations co-leads of the Youth Democracy cohort (International IDEA, the European Partnership for Democracy, the European Democracy Youth Network and AfricTivistes) call on civil society organisations and other stakeholders around the world to promote youth political participation as a bedrock of the Summit for Democracy process for the future.
The call comes in the context of the second Summit for Democracy which takes place in Washington, Seoul, San Jose, The Hague, and Lusaka on the 29th and 30th of March 2023 at which countries will discuss the most pressing challenges facing democracy. The Summit for Democracy will mobilize leadership and commitments to expand support to democracy globally.