Reinventing Democracy in the Digital Era – From Europe to Africa

On week of 8-14thth of May 2016, the Cyprus-based non-profit organization, Future Worlds Center, has traveled to Kenya for a week-long structured dialogue co-laboratory for the global initiative “Reinventing Democracy in the Digital Era” is which is funded by the “United Nations Democracy Fund”.

This ambitious international initiative which is implemented by Future Worlds Center has as its key objective to increase youth participation in decision making processes with regards to democratic governance by empowering young people from across the world to invent and propose new, innovative and concrete actions.

Following the European structured dialogue co-Laboratory which took place in Cyprus last February, young people from all across Africa gathered together in Nairobi for a week to discuss discussed the shortcomings of the current systems of governance at a regional and global level and proposed plans and actions. Participants represented a variety of African countries such as Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Cameroon, Uganda, Zambia and Malawi.

In order to collect the ideas of participants, the methodology of Structured Democratic Dialogue was employed. This method is very structured in process and very democratic in content and allows participants to truly engage in discussion, harnessing their collective wisdom. The process is designed to mobilize young people and to increase interaction among youth globally with the aim to advocate for and enable meaningful youth participation in democratic processes. From the 43 ideas which were collected on the first day, the two that were identified as the most influential “Lack of consciousness of citizens that they can participate in issues of democracy and governance” “Rampant run-away impunity among key government officers on public utilities”.

During the project, young people from Europe, Africa, North & South America, Australia and Asia and the Middle East will join their efforts of reinventing democracy through regional and collective actions such as a jointly authored e-book for change, a Manifesto for 21st Century and video clips “50 Proposals for Action”.

For more information about the project please visit the project website: reinventdemocracy.info or contact Maria Georgiou, Project Coordinator at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For more information about Future World Center please visit: www.futureworldscenter.org.