STRENGTHENING PUBLIC DISCOURSE
WHATÂ AMPLIFYING GRASSROOTS NARRATIVESÂ
Amplifying grassroots narratives is a way to strengthen public discourse on civil society by allowing civil society to share their lived experiences in their own words.
The Grassroots Solidarity Campaignâs jam sessions were created by and for activists as an attempt to protect and nurture the mental, physical and emotional energy that drives activists and groups individually and collectively. The sessions addressed this overlooked need of grassroots activists by offering safe and informal spaces to connect with peers beyond their pressing work agendas, cultivate relationships, unwind and laugh, support their individual and collective wellbeing, and exchange knowledge and skills.
The second season of the CIVICUS Voice podcast featured voices of people, communities and organisations defending civil liberties and human rights. The golden thread between the seasonâs six episodes was a focus on the right to protest. The podcast provided analysis of protest restrictions and included interviews with protest leaders from a range of social justice movements. It had over 1,700 downloads.
The videos produced by the Strengthening Civil Society in Latin America initiative present short stories of civil society resilience in the face of challenges told in the activistsâ own words and voices. More information about this initiative can be found under the strategic objective âContributing to stronger emergency and sustained support ecosystems for activists and organisations at riskâ.
The Grassroots Solidary Revolution (GSR) videos were viewed 121,500 times in the first month. Followers of the grassroots collective partner Bogotart provided 90 per cent of the views. Bogotart produced stories about five Colombian artivists. The storytellers appreciated the independence and creative freedom to produce their stories for audiences important to them. The reach was also amplified through the CIVICUS network and the creators appreciated CIVICUSâs collaboration.
LEARNING QUESTION: What types of narrative support for activists and organisations at risk are resulting in changes in local narratives, in which contexts and why?
During the GSR campaign, it became clear that improving the resourcing realities of grassroots activists required spaces for them to share their challenges, humanise their work and make their demands to donors known in their own words.
Unfortunately, few have resources to create quality content and when they do, they have limited reach and donât achieve enough visibility. To address this gap, in 2023 the GSR campaign made a public call for proposals to provide funding for activists with storytelling experience. Five activists â from Chile, Colombia, Haiti,
India and Nigeria â were each granted USD 5,000 to produce a video story aligned with key topics of the campaign. They had total creative freedom to produce what they wanted.
Narrative support in form of investments and freedom to produce and disseminate content in the language, formats and channels that made sense to them were highly valued. Support included small grants and accompaniment to produce quality content; support to amplify and disseminate their messages with global audiences; connections with other storytellers and opportunities for learning from each otherâs ideas and creative approaches.
The resulting stories amplified grassroots voices about the realities, funding struggles, stigma, dangers and daily challenges facing grassroots activists. They also demonstrated the positive impact their work is having on their communities.
PEER LEARNING
Accountability practices
CIVICUS also strengthens public discourse by promoting accountability practices that build trust in civil society. CIVICUS supports key peer-to- peer constituent accountability activities such as Global Accountability Week and the Accountability Accelerator. These focus on three practices of dynamic accountability: giving account, taking account, and holding account to enhance civil society responsiveness and relevance, and in turn build public trust in civil society.
One of CIVICUSâs key networks, the Affinity Group for National Associations (AGNA), alongside the Global Standard for CSO Accountability and Accountable Now, hosted three online events for the Global Accountability Week in October 2022. The Dynamic Accountability Community of Practice, a joint initiative by Accountable Now, CIVICUS and Restless Development, provided the introduction to the online events. The community of practice provides an ongoing space to ask questions and encourage the accountability journey throughout the year. With the dedication of the AGNA network and accountability partners, the Global Accountability Week was held in 2022 despite having no funding. However, with no funding or political will secured there would be neither Global Accountability Week in 2023, nor accompanying activities and resources.
With support from the CIVICUS AGNA Coordination Team, CIVICUS Resilient Roots and Rendir Cuentas, 15 AGNA members signed up for and concluded the 90 Day Accountability Challenge and shared resources on the Transparency Platform to enhance organisational legitimacy, transparency and constituent accountability. Resourcing opportunities to continue the activities in 2024 is being pursued.
The Accountability Accelerator course content was significantly updated and expanded, building on the successfully facilitated version of the course in early 2022. It is now available to participants in a self- paced video-based format on the member community platform and includes accompanying peer-learning opportunities.
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LEARNING QUESTION: What types of narrative support for activists and organisations at risk are resulting in changes in local narratives, in which contexts and why?
Our journey in dynamic constituent accountability was transformative for our organisation.
We were inspired to take it to the next level, apply the same principles and values, and work to shift public discourse in Madagascar.
In 2018 Projet Jeune Leader (PJL) joined the CIVICUS Resilient Roots initiative and began its dynamic constituent accountability journey. It developed and tested a paper-based Constituent Voice magazine about its comprehensive sexuality education programme. The magazines were meant to improve PJLâs transparency and build trust by collecting and responding to feedback from partner school communities. Through this approach, PJL was able to prevent and address misconceptions and misunderstandings about the content and purpose of their in-school sexuality education programme. Excitingly, the feedback mechanism also enabled PJL to generate and document a critical mass of support and demand for their programme from constituents across Madagascar.
What follows is a brief description of how that internal organisational journey in constituent accountability inspired PJL to create a feedback loop for local to national level decision-making.
In 2021, PJL won the Pitch, a competition by Knowledge SUCCESS, allowing them to extend a concept started when they took part in the Resilient Roots initiative. PJL created a magazine series designed to create a critical loop between local knowledge on youth sexual reproductive health and national level decision-making processes in Madagascar. Four locally oriented magazine issues were distributed to nearly 20,000 young people, parents, school officials and other community members across three regions of Madagascar, including blank pages for their feedback. PJL used stories, articles and questions to inspire readers to share their reactions and lived experiences on key topics of youth sexual reproductive health. The PJL team received 8,498 written comments from community readers.
The feedback resulted in community-informed solutions on the âhot topicsâ that were relevant, feasible and pressing in the Madagascar context. PJL then developed four issues for decision-makers focused on what constituents â including young people from marginalised rural communities â wanted national decision-makers and technical advisors to do differently in their work on that topic. The PJL team used the magazines to open a conversation and build meaningful and lasting relationships with these national stakeholders.
PJL is now the preferred sexuality education provider for Madagascarâs Ministry of Education and is expanding its efforts into rural public schools with widespread public support â a milestone they say would not have been possible without their journey in dynamic constituent accountability.
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