PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2025-26
CIVICUS’s five strategic objectives work together and reinforce each other. If you would like more detail on our work mentioned below, please see our annual report.
State of Civil Society Report & People Power Under Attack
The State of Civil Society Report examines the dynamic agency of civil society. It makes sense of global events from a civil society perspective and identifies trends in civil society action at every level, from local to global. People Power Under Attack analyses the environment in which such action occurs. It presents annual trends on civic space conditions based on data gathered by the CIVICUS Monitor and its regional research partners across 198 countries and territories. Together, these publications offer a comprehensive understanding of what civil society is doing and achieving despite constraints, and of the nature and extent of those constraints. They provide both the story of civil society’s impact and robust evidence base on the challenges it faces.
Stand as My Witness & Diplomats and Defenders Dialogues
Stand as My Witness, a pivotal campaign to gather public support for the release of human rights defenders (HRDs) unjustly imprisoned, will celebrate its 5th anniversary. It helped release 32 activists from the 50 featured to date. We will strengthen the campaign through bolstering profiles, adding profiles of those receiving limited support, and escalating selected cases to UN and global forums. The Diplomats and Defenders Dialogue facilitates collaboration between diplomats, HRDs and stakeholders. It will focus on one country in each region with severe civic space restrictions based on civil society needs, where diplomatic engagement opportunities also exist. Potential candidates are Bangladesh and India (Asia Pacific), Guatemala and Nicaragua (Latin America), Tanzania, Uganda and Cameroon (Sub-Saharan Africa), and a country to be determined in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Innovation Awards
At the heart of this year’s Nelson Mandela–Graça Machel Innovation Awards is the ambition to cultivate a global community of civic space innovators, one that actively steers the purpose of the awards and supports the alliance in staying attuned and responsive to emerging trends. Building on the momentum of last year’s 20th anniversary edition, this year’s focus is on deepening co-creation and tapping into the Alumni’s own work, communities, and networks to strengthen CIVICUS’ approach to innovation. The Innovation Awards Alumni will distil key insights and shape a forward-looking agenda for civic space innovation. These insights will inform both a refined and more impactful next edition of the awards and the development of an Innovation for Civic Space track at International Civil Society Week, a space to showcase innovation, foster knowledge-sharing, enable peer learning, and inspire collective problem-solving.
Building Pro-Civic Space Narratives and Communicators for Civic Action
Recognising the necessity for investing in narratives that proactively promote civic action, we will build on the Communicators for Civic Action set up last year. Our collective efforts will embrace novel approaches, mutual learning, and collective action to shift minds and invoke stronger citizen action and support for civil society. On one hand, we aim to reach a broader global audience beyond traditional civil society so that they can benefit from and contribute to our insights, campaigns and solidarity actions. On the other hand, we will focus on delivering issues and context focused narrative campaigns across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The initiative will also counter harmful misinformation.
International Civil Society Week (ICSW)
Our flagship event, ICSW provides a platform for networking, knowledge sharing, community building and strategic planning. Its next edition will take place in November 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand, and will be co-organised with the Asia Democracy Network. It will focus on the theme ‘Celebrating citizen action: reimagining democracy, rights and inclusion for today’s world.’ ICSW will provide a space to collectively think new approaches to advance our shared values by engaging a broader range of stakeholders beyond traditional civil society groups and activists. This includes grassroots communities, educators and the private sector.
