Colombian NGO works to innovate democracy across the Global South

One of the more than 65 members of People Powered is Extituto de Política Abierta, a Bogotá-based NGO that works throughout Colombia to “innovate democracy,” making it more deeply participatory and collaborative. Here is a lightly edited account of our interview (conducted by Pam Bailey, People Powered communications director) with Sebastián Calderón, one of the organization’s founders. He discusses the success of those efforts, the lessons they’ve learned, and their work to collaborate across Latin America and (now) the entire Global South.

Sebastián lifts up a book about the 2019 social unrest in Chile, which he says was very similar to the protests in Colombia.

What was the impetus that gave “birth” to Extituto?

In 2016, Colombians voted in a plebiscite on whether to approve, or say no to, a proposed peace deal with FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, an agrarian guerilla group that had been locked in a bloody conflict with the government since 1964). A small majority of the people voted against the peace process, rejecting the possibility of integrating the guerillas into society. I was studying law and history at the time and saw it as a big lost opportunity. I joined with some people from other universities to talk about starting a collective movement to say to the government that we can't lose this window for peace. 

That’s when I met and began collaborating with Nicolás (Díaz Cruz) and the others at an NGO called Seamos Democracia Digital, which worked on digital democracy. Everyone had hopes at the time about the potential of online platforms to build democracy. 

Later that year, the peace agreement was finally signed by the president and FARC, and ratified by Colombia’s Congress. For a variety of reasons, Seamos didn’t last; digital democracy isn’t enough, so in 2019, we decided to create something new. That is Extituto de Política Abierta, which means “politics that’s not inside, but outside” (or with the people)”: We're working to open the institutions and decision-making spaces so people can speak to power.

Columbia was in the news a lot in 2019-2021 because of all the street protests. What role did you play in that popular uprising?

Colombian protesters (photo by Andrea Cervera)

The first stage of the protests began due to generalized discontent with the government. However, they escalated when the police killed a student named Dylan Cruz. As a society, we began asking about the role of the section of the police that controls protests (ESMAD). We were really scared as a society because the Colombian government turned crazy. The police attacked a lot of members of civil society who were protesting without weapons. 

Later, in 2021, the protests became more economic. There was a famous interview with the minister of finance in which a reporter asked if he knew how much 12 eggs cost. And he cited a much lower price than what people were paying all around the country. Basically, the government didn't know much about how people in Colombia were living. 

Extituto supported many of the organizations working to reform the police and protect human rights. We helped get the word out, for example, about an online platform named GRITA, developed by an NGO called Temblores, through which people can report incidents with the police. And we are still working to put together a network of organizations that work to protect human rights in the rural spaces of Colombia, because there are still illegal armed groups that are active. 

Your work is in participatory democracy. Have you been successful in persuading people used to protesting to try working with the government?

We organized a bootcamp in December with Colombian and Chilean activists and I invited some of the leaders of the young people who went into the streets, made barricades and fought a lot with the police. We invited them because I wanted them to have a voice in the building of new tools for occupying and inhabiting politics. I told them, “Hey, we have to channel this anger from the streets into real decision-making.” They said, “Yes, we're interested. But we have to build some confidence first. We have to identify people we can trust. We young people don't have work opportunities, and we fight a lot against the police, so we don't have trust in many members of the government.” 

Bootcamp with Colombian and Chilean activists.

One thing that helped bring them over was to talk to the activists from Chile we had invited to join us. They shared how they were using political advocacy to build a new Chile. They told our activists, “Hey, there's a way in which you can become stakeholders in the decision-making processes of governments.”

We also created a book in collaboration with other activists both here and in Chile, a guide to political advocacy that describes the tactics and tools they can use to organize as a collective. Protest is definitely one important way to advocate. But it's not the only one; we have more and more tools to organize people and speak to power. 

How would you describe the state of democracy in Colombia today?

Democracy in Colombia right now is under threat from both the government and corruption. But there are some local institutions that are improving, trying to reach the people through participatory processes that allow them to make decisions. In Bogotá, for example, the mayor, Claudia López Hernández, has a big program called Open Government Bogota (GABO) that includes participatory budgeting. And she’s starting to consult with organizations that work in public innovation like Extituto, asking how can we really hear the people and empower them to participate in decisions? How do we work with people to co-design programs?

In the last year, we have worked with 10 local institutions that are thinking about how to do civic engagement. How do we achieve open government, participation and transparency? How do we achieve accountability, and take advantage of innovation and technology? 

Hear Sebastian in his own words.

How did you start working with activists in Chile?

Extituto has a national initiative called Occupy Politics, in which we work to strengthen candidates who are running on civil society agendas. Our goal is to help people occupy politics with collective agendas and a collective leadership, focused on improving democracy, transparency and accountability. 

I’d say this is one of our most effective programs. In the race for the city council of Bogota, we worked with 20 candidates, and 10 were elected. Then, with these 10 and other interested council members, we built what we call the DemoLab. One of its first initiatives was a citizens’ assembly, so that the people could participate in shaping a public policy for the POT (Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial, or land-use plan). 

Version 2.0 of Occupy Politics focused on the chamber of representatives in the Colombian Congress. We worked with 81 candidates in five regions of Colombia. Twenty-one of them were elected. 

To build our skills, we reached out to activists in Chile because they are also working to build their political advocacy abilities. We started having virtual conversations, and then in December, as I said, we held a bootcamp with six activists from Chile and 10 from Colombia. We created some prototypes for tools that can be used to both occupy and inhabit politics. That's the way Extituto works. At election time, we occupy politics. And then in between elections, we inhabit politics. We work to get our leaders to open up politics and expand participation, transparency and accountability. Through “occupy,” we get new collective leaders inside. Once they’re inside, we basically hack the institution. 

Later, some of us went to Chile, because we wanted to see and learn from how their constitutional assembly is progressing. We’ve joined with others to launch an initiative we call Reimagine LA (Latin America), so that Chile’s democratic innovations can spread. A lot of us have similar political contexts. In Chile, they had a big awakening of the people, erupting in big protests. Now they are having a constitutional assembly, made up of 50% men and 50% women, including some indigenous people and people independent of any traditional political party. That's very interesting for us to learn from—to have those big protests and then to direct that energy into voting and public decision-making. That's why we wanted to build with them. (A video of the Reimagine LA convening was shared on Instagram.)

Sebastián during his trip to Chile.

You mentioned that you want to start working across the Global South to collaborate on innovating democracy. Elaborate on that.

I'm the project coordinator for an initiative called Demo.Reset, in which People Powered is a partner. We think that the mechanisms for direct democracy must be improved to include more deliberative democracy. And we want to engage the entire Global South. 

Phase 3 of Demo.Reset will include a bootcamp that brings participants together to share experiences and develop five prototype solution models to implement.

Great theory and practice have been developed in the United States and some countries in Europe, but people from the global south were not invited to participate in building these theories. Note that I’m not necessarily talking about countries when I say north and south. In one country, there can be a sort of mini Global North and South. I’m talking about communities that are not invited by the academics and other “elites” to cobuild the theories that are then put into practice. Instead, we are left to try to make them work in our contexts. I call it “knowledge hegemony.” We have to build our own, new tools, or improve existing ones.

Through Demo.Reset, we're working with more than 100 organizations in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, India and Eastern Europe. We're working with these organizations to build collective knowledge, exchange experiences and share ideas on deliberative democracy. We need to identify the main barriers and challenges that we as the Global South have, like violence against our communities and the under-representation of women and people with disabilities in governments.

In October, we're going to have another bootcamp in Colombia, to co-create tools for deliberative democracy in the Global South, taking into account these challenges. We will invite people who work in democracy advocacy, but also people from other disciplines — for example, game designers, artists and graphic designers — to help us think about new approaches. 

How can People Powered help?

The work we’re doing has to be collective, a collaboration. That's the big importance of People Powered. You have a big network of people all around the world who are working on innovation in deliberative democracy. We want to build with you guys, and with your help, a network throughout the world. That’s what’s needed so people can change democracy and change society.