DEMORESET

THE PURPOSE

Join DemoReset and be part of a new wave of deliberative democracy in the global South!

Empowering democracy worldwide.

We are a collaborative community from the global South, bringing together diverse of ideas to change democracy. This is an opportunity to observe, connect, and enhance your understanding of deliberative processes. Learn and strengthen your strategies and skills through collaborative experiences in various contexts of the global South.

Now’s the time to embrace the new perspectives of the global South!  Be part of the large community of DemoReset.

THE BACKGROUND

Deliberative democracy is changing the way people do democracy worldwide, and Demo.Reset is leading the way!

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By bringing together community groups, experts, and local voices, we’re committed to identifying challenges in participating in deliberative democracy and finding common solutions. We’re dedicated to making democracy better and bringing in new and creative ways for people to get involved.

Our main objective is to work to build a functioning democracy according to the dynamics and possibilities of the populations in the Global South, setting an example for the world.

HOW WE DO IT?

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DEMO RESET 1.0

Established in 2021, Demo.Reset is an initiative that connects DemoReseters, organizations, academics, activists, dedicated to empowering democracy and participation processes across the Global South. Supported by funding from the National Endowment for Democracy and Colombia’s Extituto de Política Abierta, We work collaboratively to identify and address challenges in participatory contexts, with the aim of analyzing diverse democratic contexts. Our Demoresters community spans continents, from Latin America to Africa and Asia, uniting over a hundred organizations with a common purpose.

During this version, we lived at DemoReset/Lab where 30 representatives from the global south met in Bogota, Colombia to talk about deliberative democracy and citizen innovation for transformation, and 6 prototypes were built to address challenges identified during our laboratory.

In addition, different tools were created and implemented during the course of 2022 to share knowledge, experiences and findings of barriers that democracies in the global South cross.

DemoTalks

10 masterclasses, guiding you from theoretical foundations to practical insights in deliberative processes.

Exchange
Experiences

Witness how diverse actors present innovative solutions, addressing and transforming specific aspects of these shared challenges.

Deliberation Memoirs

Get to know our publications. Learn about the deliberation stories told by organizations and practitioners of deliberative democracy in the Global South. Get closer to their experiences, challenges, and initiatives.

This experience of Demo.Reset 1.0 encouraged us to continue working for democracy in the global south. We also wanted to continue in collective co-construction based on the realities and possibilities of our territories, to reach a dignified, strengthened and inclusive democracy for the global south. THIS IS THE REASON FOR THE NEXT LEVEL.

DEMO RESET 2.0

Our goal at Demoreset 2.0 is to help democracy advocates improve citizen participation in governance through deliberative processes.

We are bringing together a community between organizations and professionals from 4 HUBS from different countries in the global south, who are already making a difference in their communities.

This project understands that the practice of deliberation requires experimentation, prototyping, testing, and iteration. DemoReset is, in short, a laboratory of deliberation. So whether you’re interested in learning more about citizen participation, getting involved in local governance, or just curious about how democracy works, Demo.Reset is for you.

During 2024 and part of 2025 we have 4 Calls, which you can’t miss.

We were looking for research and regional mobilization partners to collaborate with Extituto. One organization or alliance per hub was selected to work with us from 2024 to 2025.
Our second call is now open, focusing on Design and Testing of Unique Deliberation Practices for Regional Participation.
We're thrilled to announce our third call for applications, offering two one-month residencies in the hubs where Demo.Reset/LABs have taken place.

DEMORESETERS:
NOW IS YOUR TIME!

Navigating the world of deliberative democracy in the South comes with its unique set of challenges.

Our goal: make the way we decide things together stronger and more creative, by using ideas that work well locally and by building a team of Demo.Reseters.

Democracy Advocates
and Practitioners

Our frontline team, from experienced mobilizers to emerging startups, are the driving force behind our efforts. They implement methodologies, advocate for change, and amplify our impact within communities.

Are you ready to be our next democracy advocated and practitioner?

Regional Mobilization
and Research Partners

Drives regional initiatives, conducts research, and fosters collaborations in Sub-Saharan Africa, India & Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.

(CPAED, Centre for Environment Education, MOSAIC, Resurgentes, CILA).

FIND US HERE

We are growing our community, if you are part of these regions: Southeast Asia / India, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America ¡You can be part of our community and participate!

Are you part of any of these regions? You can be part of our community and participate! 

* Explore more information specific to your hub or region by clicking on each area in the map below.

If you are from any of the countries mentioned above or from Albany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, or Malaysia… We’re looking for you!

WHAT’S NEW

Stay informed and be part of the deliberative democracy movement! Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive updates, inspiring stories, and valuable insights.

Demo.Reset is at the forefront of changing how global communities practice deliberative democracy. 

Demo.Reset is at the forefront of changing how global communities practice deliberative democracy. 

Demo.Reset is at the forefront of changing how global communities practice deliberative democracy. 

A PROJECT OF:

IN ALLIANCE WITH:

Every quarter we will send our ON.Reset, where you will find:
1. How we are doing (findings and current project agenda).
2. What’s coming up (what are our next events).
3. Recommendations of the month (three articles that will contribute to the knowledge).

HUB Latin America

Get to know the Latin America Organizations. 
Resurgentes Regional Leader: 


Mission: Implementing four climate assemblies in vulnerable Latin American cities. 
Consortium Resurgentes is forging alliances for impactful climate change agenda.

Consorcio de Localidades en Acción CILA 

Asuntos de Sur, Argentina https://asuntosdelsur.org/
Fundación Ciudadanía Inteligente, Chile https://ciudadaniai.org/
Procomum, Brasil https://www.procomum.org/
Extituto de Política Abierta, Colombia https://www.extituto.com/

Mission: Promoting collective intelligence on citizen deliberation in Latin America, presenting joint projects for environmental agendas with a gender perspective.

Hub of Sub-Saharan Africa

Connect with your Regional Mobilizer
Regional Leader: Obi Jane

Location: Kaduna, Nigeria
Centre for Peace Advancement and Socio-Economic Development (CPAED)
Mission: Advocating for deliberative democracy, non-violent conflict management, and improving socio-economic conditions of women, youth, and children. 
Building Peace, transforming lives
Contact: https://cpaedng.org/
info@cpaedng.org

HUB Southeast Asia and India

Connect with your Regional Mobilizer

Regional Leader:Sanskriti Menon
Location: India
Organization: Centre for Environment Education (CEE)
Mission: Enhancing understanding of sustainable development. CEE focuses on innovative educational programs, building capacities for sustainable development.
Transforming Education for Sustainable Futuresn 
Contact: https://www.ceeindia.org/

HUB Eastern Europe

Connect with your Regional Mobilizer
Regional Leader: Melina Mohoric
Location: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Mosaic. Shaping Ideas into Success Stories.

Mission: Supporting cities, associations, and businesses in transforming ideas into successful projects. Mosaic specializes in participatory budgeting and inclusive work methodologies.
Contact https://mosaic.com.hr/

Info@Mosaic.com.hr
Zagreb: +385 99 536 1054
Dubrovnik:  +385 99 536 1054

Melisa Ross

PhD candidate at the Berlin Graduate School for Social Sciences (BGSS) of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and a research fellow of the Healthier Democracies project led by Public Agenda in New York, USA. “My research focuses on the Latin- American left turn, postneoliberalism, citizen participation and democratic innovations”.

Maria Paulina Ibarra

Executive Director of Fundación Multitudes, a non-profit organization based in Chile. She has global experience in transparency, citizen participation and accountability, having worked with organizations such as Open Government Partnership and the World Bank. She holds a BA in Communication from Marymount University, and an MA in Communication from Georgetown University.

Susan Lee

Susan is a student and democracy practitioner from Seoul, South Korea. In 2020, she co-founded the World Citizens’ Assembly, a prototype for a global citizen’s assembly based on iterative pilot testing, with Yago Bermejo Abati. In 2021, Deliberativa began co-incubating the Global Assembly, the first sortition-selected global citizens’ assembly in the lead-up to COP26. Deliberativa coordinated the delivery of pilot tests on multilingual virtual deliberation to inform the final Assembly design. As part of the Implementation Circle, Susan supported the recruitment and management of 100+ global partners to implement a decentralized sortition and train local hosts of Assembly participants. In the fall of 2021, she co-designed and implemented the deliberative process and output consolidation methodology. Susan has been the main spokesperson for the GA since the project launched; you can see some of Susan’s media work here and here. Susan is interested in imagining participative models of global governance, decolonizing deliberative democracy, and placing youth at the front of the deliberative wave.

Yago Bermejo

Yago has been working on democratic participation projects for more than 10 years. He has experience in facilitation, process design and strategies for the use of democratic digital tools. From 2016 to 2019, he has been responsible for ParticipaLab, a democratic innovation laboratory, at Medialab Prado, in coordination with the Participation Area of the Madrid City Council, in which he has developed numerous projects related to Decide Madrid as well as the design of the Observatory of the City and the G1000 of Madrid, pioneering experiences in the use of lottery and deliberation in Spain.

Claudia Chwalisz

Claudia is the lead author of the first OECD report on deliberative democracy: Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave (2020; co-authored with Ieva Cesnulaityte), and she led the development of the OECD Good Practice Principles for Deliberative Processes. She oversaw the development of the OECD Evaluation Guidelines for Representative Deliberative Processes (2021) is the author of a new OECD paper on Eight Ways to Institutionalise Deliberative Democracy (2021). She co-ordinated the OECD Innovative Citizen Participation Network of leading international practitioners, academics, public servants, artists, and designers, and she edited the OECD’s online digest Participo.

Yanina Welp

Associate researcher at the Albert Hirschman Center on Democracy, Graduate Institute, Geneva (Switzerland) and editorial coordinator of Agenda Pública. Between 2016 and 2019 she was co-director of the Latin American Zurich Center, at the University of Zurich. She has a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona, Spain) and a degree in Political Science and Social Communication Sciences, both from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina). She obtained the Habilitation with the Venia Legendi in Latin American Studies from the University of St.Gallen (Switzerland). She is co-founder of the Red de Politólogas. She specializes in the study of political participation, a topic on which she has published books, articles, and book chapters.

Azucena Morán

Research associate at the Institute for Sustainability Research – Helmholtz Center Potsdam. Her transdisciplinary work explores deliberative and participatory responses to planetary challenges. She serves on the Editorial Board of Participedia and on the Steering Committee on Democratic Innovations of the European Consortium for Policy Research (ECPR).

Andre Noel Roth

He is a Political Scientist (1990), Master in Political Science (1994) and Doctor in Economic and Social Sciences, mention in Political Science (1999) from the Université de Genève-Switzerland. He has been professor of public policy analysis in Switzerland and in several universities in Colombia and Latin America. Since 2006, he is a Research Professor (currently tenured) attached to the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Law, Political and Social Sciences (FDCPyS) of the National University of Colombia, Bogotá. He has held the positions of Coordinator of the Doctorate in Political Studies and International Relations, Director of the journal Ciencia Política, Director of the Instituto de Investigación Socio-jurídica UNIJUS and Vice-Dean of Research and Extension of the FDCPyS. He is also Director of the Research Group “Analysis of Public Policies and Public Management”. Public Policy and Public Management Analysis” (APPGP) (category B Colciencias 2021), Coordinator of the Innovation in Governance Innovation in Governance Laboratory (GobLab) of the FDCPyS, Co-coordinator of the group Comparative Public Policy group of ALACIP and Co-editor of the journal Mundos Plurales (FLACSO-Ecuador). Ecuador). He has published several books and dozens of chapters and articles on public policy and administration. administration.

We’re happy to announce our latest call for applications, designed specifically for organizations from the Global South like yours, is NOW OPEN! 🚀 This is your chance to join us in strengthening democratic practices!

This is a great opportunity for increasing your organization’s impact! Don’t miss it!
Get started by reading our👉 terms of reference👈

🌟Let’s shape the future of democracy together! 🌟

DIFFERENTIAL

  • The differential of the practices is related in the first place to the specific community origin of those who develop them: Indigenous peoples, LGTBIQ+ Communities, collectives or other forms of association and collaboration between young people, women and social movements.
  • The differential of the practices is related in second place; with the singular forms, procedures, aesthetics and rituals, which have been developed by the communities to carry out conversations, processes of informed decision making and actions of influence on local authorities. In this context, the differential is centered on recognizing and mapping the aspects of each practice: How does the word circulate, what procedures are used to better “understand” the problems among all those involved, what role do bodies, images, symbols, other aesthetics play, how is the memory of what is said constructed, how are spaces distributed so that the conversation is conducive, how is time managed for the conversation, are decisions made, how is the conversation carried out, and how is it carried out?

DELIBERATION

Deliberation is understood as a conversation among diverse actors and with diverse opinions in which space, time, methodologies and procedures are available so that the actors involved can carefully consider the pros and cons of a decision before adopting it, seek the best ways to express their opinions and/or influence the decisions of local authorities on a topic of common interest.

PRACTICE

It is that methodology, process, space and/or tool developed and implemented by communities and civil society organizations with the intention of convening spaces for conversation and decision making on issues of common interest; among community members and/or with local authorities in which it is intended to achieve some kind of collective influence.