The People Powered 2025 Convening is designed to empower you with the skills, knowledge, and connections you need to advance participatory democracy in your community, organization, and globally. This year’s program combines practical training sessions, collaborative workshops, and engaging site visits, creating an engaging space for learning and exchange, and for co-developing shared global resources and programs.
April 23–24: Professional development trainings and partner workshops
Sign up for 1-2 day long trainings to build practical skills and capacity. At registration you will indicate your preferred trainings, and we will then confirm training registrations with you based on availability. We will also host closed workshops with partners on these days, to launch accelerator programs and address key global issues.
Participatory Democracy Fundamentals: An introductory course to build core understanding of the most common practices of participatory democracy, and how they can be successfully used to engage citizens, improve governance, and address major public issues. (training by People Powered staff and members)
Inclusive, Creative & Fun Facilitation: This training will equip practitioners and facilitators to integrate fun and creative exercises into various participatory programs, to support inclusivity and maximum engagement. (training by Katy Rubin)
Introduction to Legislative Theatre: This session will give an in-depth and interactive introduction to the legislative theatre methodology, for practitioners seeking new ways to inject energy, accessibility, creativity and fun into their policy-making processes. (training by Katy Rubin)
Participatory Budgeting for a Solid Social Contract in Africa (in French): This training will prepare you to use participatory budgeting as a tool for consolidating relations between local elected officials and the population, to find consensus, increase revenue, and foster the social contract. (training by ASSOAL)
Social Accountability Approaches: This training builds a foundational understanding of citizen engagement as essential to a just and participatory democracy and equips participants to effectively use social accountability tools in projects that improve service responsiveness and accountability. (training by Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
Mainstreaming Gender in Local Governance: This training provides a foundational understanding of integrating gender perspectives to ensure equitable participation and benefits for all genders and learning approaches to drive institutional transformation toward gender equality. (training by Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
Mainstreaming Participation Masterclass: An advanced course for government reformers who are already managing participatory programs, to help mainstream or embed high-quality and inclusive participation practices across key government sectors, processes, and institutions. (training by People Powered staff and members)
Inclusive Democracy Masterclass: An advanced course for government reformers who are already managing participatory programs, to help engage youth, women, displaced people, and other marginalized communities in participatory decision-making more effectively. (training by People Powered staff and members)
Mainstreaming Participation Accelerator Workshop: Orientation workshop for accepted participants of the Mainstreaming Participation Accelerator.
Inclusive Democracy Accelerator Workshop: Orientation workshop for accepted participants of the Inclusive Democracy Accelerator.
April 25: Site visits to local participatory democracy programs and other cultural experiences
See participatory democracy in action and learn from local experiences, through guided visits to programs in Nairobi. Stay tuned for more details!
April 26-27: Workshops, networking sessions and more!
Parallel sessions to build relationships, exchange ideas, and develop shared resources and programs to address common challenges. Sessions include:
Case Clinics to develop solutions to specific participant challenges
Capacity-building workshops on fundraising, monitoring and evaluation, AI, program sustainability, and more
Thematic workshops to exchange experiences and advance collaborative projects on participatory organizational governance, institutionalization of participatory programs, global and transnational governance, inclusion of marginalized communities, digital participation, and more
Co-creation workshops to develop shared resources and programs, for compiling impact data, developing resources on digital participation, creating AI policies and tools, supporting participation in closed and closing spaces, and more
Networking and social sessions to build relationships and connections
More details to be announced soon!