Citizen assembly

During the winter and spring of 2025, 56 citizens selected to be representative of the entire country gathered in the Future Panel—Norway’s first civil society-initiated citizens’ assembly. We Do Democracy, together with SoCentral, served as the citizens’ assembly’s independent third-party secretariat. The members learned, discussed, and made recommendations on how Norway should best use its wealth for the benefit of the world, Norway, and future generations.

Citizens’ everyday experience is key to developing climate adaptation and transformations of our landscape that not only work technically, but also create co-ownership. Largest Danish citizen gathering on climate adaptation in a partnership between Egedal Municipality and Novafos gives green light for action.

The future of welfare is under pressure, and new ways of approaching the difficult task and conversation are needed. In Greve, politicians chose to invite citizens into the heart of the discussion, and citizens responded by identifying new paths to take in the country’s first welfare citizen gathering.

The Copenhagen Citizens Assembly in Bispebjerg is the first of the local Copenhagen Assemblies in the City of Copenhagen. The assembly aims to involve young people in how to best ensure the well-being of all young people in the area, and the City of Copenhagen has therefore invited all young people in Bispebjerg between the ages of 14 and 24 to participate. The 24 young people who signed up have all been given a place in the assembly, and in the fall of 2023 they will work together to find solutions to key questions about young people’s well-being in Bispebjerg.

Gentofte Municipality is involving its citizens in the transition to a more sustainable municipality. Therefore, a citizens’ involvement process is underway, where 30,000 citizens are invited to become part of a municipal Climate Citizens’ Assembly, which will make recommendations for a climate plan for how Gentofte Municipality can become more CO2 neutral.

For the first time ever, a Danish university is hosting a climate assembly. The purpose of the climate assembly is to ensure broad involvement of students and staff in the faculty’s green transition. This applies in particular to the question of how the faculty can achieve its own climate goals and how the faculty can and should actively contribute to society’s green transition.

What should the future Østerbro in Copenhagen look like in terms of cars, urban spaces, and urban nature? Based on this question, all citizens of Østerbro are invited to participate in a neighborhood citizens’ assembly and make recommendations to the City Council.

The citizens’ assembly in Næstved consisted of representative citizens who were asked to make recommendations for the future of the municipality.

How can a municipality best realize the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals? Rudersdal municipality wanted the citizens of Rudersdal to help them find answers to the question, which led them to hold a Citizens’ Assembly on realizing the SDG’s in practice.

Albertslund is a municipality with a long tradition of working progressively with citizen involvement and democracy. Therefore, after a political process, the municipality decided to invite all citizens over the age of 16 to participate in a Citizens’ Assembly on the future of Albertslund, to be run by We Do Democracy.

Denmark’s first citizen panel working with climate as both mitigation and adaptation took place in Hørsholm Municipality. The citizens developed recommendations to be included in the municipality’s general climate action plan.

How can Europe help make Danes’ lives more meaningful? The political party ‘Radikale Venstre’ is testing deliberative democracy as a new method for developing their European policy initiatives with the help of ordinary citizens. Both those who are pro-EU, those who are Eurosceptic and those who do not yet have an opinion on the EU.

With the Youth Assembly, we are testing a new involvement format that invites young people in the 16-24 age group to work on recommendations for a good youth life.

Denmark’s first municipal climate citizens’ assembly took place in Greve Municipality. Here, the members of the citizens’ assembly developed a number of ambitious green recommendations for how the municipality can become CO2 neutral – as part of DK2020

How can a municipality best realize the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals? The municipality of Rudersdal wanted the citizens’ help to find out, which led them to hold a citizens’ assembly on realizing the SDGs in practice.

City centres around the world are under pressure and facing a radical rethink – on the citizens’ terms. In 2019, the City of Copenhagen established the country’s first Citizens’ Assembly in collaboration with We Do Democracy. The task was to identify a future for a sustainable and viable city centre in Copenhagen. Politicians wanted a representative group of citizens to lead the way for the capital.

Albertslund is a municipality with a long tradition of working progressively with citizen involvement and democracy. Therefore, after a political process, the municipality decided to invite all citizens over the age of 16 to participate in a citizens’ assembly on the future of Albertslund, to be run by We Do Democracy.

Denmark’s first municipal climate citizen gathering took place in Greve Municipality. Here, the members of the citizens’ assembly developed a number of ambitious green recommendations for how the municipality can become CO2 neutral – as part of DK2020