We are excited to announce our democratic partnership with Komponent to strengthen deliberative democracy, citizen assembly and citizen participation in political decision-making processes across Denmark. The collaboration should support citizens taking a more active role in discussing and shaping broad societal decisions and reduce the distance between the system and citizens.
The partnership between We Do Democracy and Komponent will drive this development through projects that help municipalities engage even more citizens in political decision-making processes and promote citizens’ influence and ownership of their local areas. The ambition is for participation to be the norm, not the exception.
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In collaboration with the municipalities’ joint development center, Komponent, We Do Democracy has developed a course for actors who want skills on how to create engaging and binding participation and involvement processes that actually make a noticeable difference. It is based on new and innovative methods and experience in citizen engagement that are used globally as well as at home. Meet some of the field’s brightest voices teaching how to drive and create participation.
The course focuses on how to develop and run participatory processes in municipalities and organizations to support solutions to difficult and complex challenges. Practitioners from different organizations and municipalities are introduced to techniques, knowledge and perspectives that can ultimately create lasting, robust and sustainable change in the students’ organizations and workplaces.
Deliberative democracy and its characteristics are at the forefront, both in a theoretical and practical sense. Specifically, you can expect to build competencies in planning, organizing and executing engagement and participation processes that create change. It creates an opportunity to reflect on what democracy really is and should be, and how to constantly revitalize it. This is done using the experience and knowledge of some of the leading players in the field, both internationally and nationally and locally.
The course is primarily aimed at practitioners who want to develop their skills in involvement and participatory processes. You gain both practical skills and become part of a professional network of other democracy practitioners who are all involved in developing and rethinking democracy. We Do Democracy partner and democracy advisor Zakia Elvang and consultant Kolja Dahlin, together with chief consultant at Komponent, Anne Mette Holme Bertelsen, will be running the course.
The course takes place in the Demokratigarage in Copenhagen and starts on Monday. January 15, 2014.
If this sounds like something for you and your organization, you can read much more and sign up for the course here.
Director and democracy advisor Zakia Elvang is excited about the collaboration, which speaks directly to We Do Democracy’s core mission:
“We work for a vibrant participant-driven democracy, especially with the use of citizens’ assemblies, and we find that citizens’ assemblies create great value in the municipalities we already work with. That’s why Komponent is a great match for us. They know the municipalities in depth and together with them we will have an even better opportunity to strengthen democratic development and bring leading international experience and methods to Denmark.”
Component’s Center Manager, Kalle Syberg Kjær, is also looking forward to bringing We Do Democracy’s knowledge and skills into play in the collaboration with all the country’s municipalities:
“The collaboration with We Do Democracy gives us a better opportunity to help municipalities in the important but difficult interaction between politicians, citizens and administration. We Do Democracy are experts in methods and processes that create a better democratic future, and we look forward to bringing this expertise into play when planning competence development programs or local development processes in the municipalities”