Changing power dynamics in world politics, a shift from ignoring to directly attacking international law and human rights standards and massive foreign aid cuts are rapidly shaking the very foundation of civil society’s work. At the same time, the legitimacy of civil society’s role in society is consistently being questioned, including in countries with long traditions of democracy, while individual civil society actorsare being targeted to an increasing extent.

This bleak picture of the geopolitical setting that we as civil society actors operate in, calls for an updated analysis of effective civic space strategies and a reimagination of our forthcoming approaches and tools to enable civic space.

To support us in this conversation as Danish civil society actors, Global Focus is pleased to invite you for a roundtable dialogue on 21 May from 10-11.30 CEST with our longtime allies in this endeavor, International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) and CIVICUS.

During the meeting, we will get an updated analysis of the state of civic space globally as well as civic space strategies from both ICNL and CIVICUS. Based on these presentations, we encourage you to share your perspectives on the world we are now operating in. Together we will discuss to what extent and in what ways this require us to change our approaches and joint plans for civic space globally, in the EU and in Denmark.

The meeting will take place physically in our new civil society house, VOX, at Lyngbyvej 100 (Room: Iguazu, building 1).

We hope to see you!