In our age of polarisation, populism, and pessimism, the future of democracy and governance have become salient concerns. In order to strengthen the foundations of civil society and civic space, the OECD has engaged in exploring innovative ways to effectively engage with stakeholders to source ideas, co-create solutions, and seize opportunities provided by digital government tools.

As part of this area of work, the OECD has been engaging with a network of practitioners, designers, academics, researchers, civil servants, and curators to frame the topic and scope of research, to gather feedback and inputs to the research in an ongoing manner, and to strengthen the ties between these important groups of actors.

The objectives of the network are to:

• Enable international connections and collaborations between democratic innovators
• Shape the OECD Open Government Unit’s work on innovative citizen participation
• Connect the worlds of practitioners, academics, designers, and civil servants
• Provide physical and digital spaces for exchange through an annual meeting and the Participo platform

Paul is a member of the OECD Innovative Citizen Participation Network.