We’re 2 years old! Here are the highlights
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People Powered is 2 years old! And we’ve been growing up fast: learning to walk on our own, play well with others and assemble building blocks. We already speak six languages, have a global playgroup with 73 members and have written 14 international publications. Isn’t it amazing what kids can do nowadays?
In July 2020, we launched People Powered after a year of planning with 58 participatory democracy leaders from 28 countries. Then, last year, we developed a strategic plan for our work.
To mark our birthday, we’ve shared below what we’ve accomplished so far toward our three strategic directions, what we’ve learned and what’s next. If you like what we're doing, consider supporting our work by donating!
Direction 1: Build pathways for policy change
We’ve established a coordinated, global approach for democratizing democracy. We’ve built connections across the fragmented landscape of individual projects, reports and events, creating pathways that lead governments to use, expand and improve participatory democracy. And we’ve created innovative, long-term infrastructure to make these pathways more powerful:
Online resource center: There’s too much information out there, making it hard to know what resources are most relevant. Rather than build an exhaustive library, we reviewed countless guides, videos, sample ballots and other practical materials on participatory democracy, and compiled the most useful and recommended ones. So far, we’ve assembled 358 resources in 16 languages.
Participation Playbook: Practitioners and researchers have learned a lot about how to design participatory programs, but this knowledge is hard to access. Together with 60 global experts, we synthesized this knowledge into a free, interactive “choose-your-own adventure” tool. The Participation Playbook guides government reformers step by step through the process of designing their participation program, based on global best practices and resources. We’re piloting it now with participants in our Rising Stars mentorship and Climate Democracy Action programs.
Digital Participation Platform Ratings and Guide: As the pandemic forced us online, our members asked for more objective guidance on digital tools. We convened a global team of technologists to develop the first comprehensive ratings of digital participation platforms, and an accessible guide to selecting and using them.
Training: There are a lot of common challenges when designing and implementing participation programs. We worked with our members to develop four online courses to help navigate these challenges, starting with inclusion of marginalized communities and addressing climate change.
Mentorship: We created a global mentorship program, in which we pair seasoned experts with people seeking to launch or improve a participatory democracy program. To date we have supported 75 government reformers and advocates.
Direction 2: Build a global community of practice
We’ve brought together a global community of participatory democracy organizations, practitioners and researchers to help direct our work. We serve as a sort of “union” for these members, addressing common challenges and directing resources to common priorities. And we’ve connected this growing community with bigger international organizations, to amplify our impact.
Member community: In our first two years, 73 organizations from 40 countries signed up as members of People Powered, alongside the individuals on our participatory budgeting (PB) research and practitioner boards. These members, the majority of whom are based in the Global South, are the experts leading our activities.
Having fun in a People Powered member workshop.
Funding: We created a global, pooled fund for participatory democracy projects and organizations. Our members have collectively allocated $355,000 to their prioritized projects.
The digital platform that People Powered uses to engage its members in deciding how to spend each year's budget.
Research: One of our original mandates was to coordinate global research on participatory budgeting, to better align it with needs on the ground. Thus, we formed the Global PB Research Board, then developed and began implementing an agenda to guide its work. So far, we’ve issued findings on the impacts of PB and the lessons that have been learned from national PB laws, making them accessible via events, articles and info sheets.
The original Global PB Research Board
Partnerships: We formed a variety of partnerships with international organizations to help us move global democracy work beyond elections. One example is our new Climate Democracy Action program, initiated with the World Resources Institute and FIMA, which will support 40 cities as they launch participatory programs to address climate change.
Direction 3: Build the organization
To enable all of this work, we’ve also built our organization. We expanded to a team of eight global staff, with more coming soon. We incorporated as an independent nonprofit organization. We grew our budget to nearly $1.5 million USD, and set up a global democratic governance structure for managing these funds and our work.
What’s next
Launch the Participation Playbook: After piloting it this year, we’ll publicly launch the Participation Playbook in 2023. We’re setting up a learning management system to integrate it into our mentorship program, and we’ll add new “tracks” to support different types of participation, programs in schools, and at different levels of government.
Provide new support and funding programs: Building on the Climate Democracy Action program, we’re exploring new ways to support innovative organizations and policymakers, focused on inclusion, digital participation, and specific priority countries and regions.
Create new international partnerships: We’re planning new partnerships to support national-level participatory democracy, youth participation and digital democracy.
What to do
Since we’ve just turned 2, we have two asks of you:
We’re so thankful for all the people who contributed to and supported People Powered in our first two years!
People Powered staff and board of directors
Global Participatory Budgeting Boards
People Powered member organizations
People Powered funders