Democracy Festivals - changing political culture through dialogue
Even in the time of Corona, Kenya warms up to their democracy festival with "Talks under Trees" - the newest branch on these spaces for dialogue and participation
Participants in The People Dialogue Festival, December 2020
A new concept in DIPDs work is to inspire partners in introducing new ways to revitalise democracy by creating new spaces for dialogue and participation.
The Danish concept of Democracy Festival – in Danish a ‘Folkemøde’ – is one such way to inspire partners in their local contexts to strengthen the link between a political system and citizens as well as creating spaces for dialogue and participation. This gives citizens the opportunity to engage decision-makers face to face.
The idea is to strengthen democratic culture and dialogue by creating a venue for political parties, civil society, private sector, religious leaders, trade unions, youth organizations, women movement and ordinary citizens - to meet in an informal environment.
Democracy Festival in Nepal
Inspired by the Danish Folkemøde, the Joint Mechanism for Political Party Strengthening (JOMPOPS) in partnership with the Nepal Parliament Secretariat organised the first ever Democracy Fair in Kathmandu, Nepal, as part of the Constitution Day Celebration.
The specific occasion for the festival held in 2018 leads back to Nepal’s current democratic status, which now has reached a certain level of maturity that the country has not seen previously, and which made this event possible.
The Democracy Festival was hosted by the Parliament of Nepal, where the political parties were engaged in fruitful dialogues with the citizens and each other.
On stage the political leaders discussed issues such as the implementation of the constitution and how to get more women into political leadership. Having such high-level discussion on public display is not on the daily menu in Nepal. Neither for the public nor for politicians. During the three-day Democracy Fair political debates were taken to the streets of Kathmandu, with thousands of local citizens, party members and political leaders gathering to celebrate democracy and cross-political collaboration.
The event was considered a milestone for Nepal’s democratic transition by several actors from the political parties in Nepal. The Democracy Festival brought all political parties together. The topics discussed were complex and relevant in developing and strengthening the relatively young democracy. Among the themes covered were inclusion of women in the political system and the decentralization of power. Finally, the Speaker's Corner worked well with an open scene, where especially young people could voice their opinions.
People Dialogue Festival in Kenya
With the aim to provide a platform for dialogue between citizens and political and opinion leaders the Center for Multi-party Democracy Kenya (CMD-Kenya) organised a democracy festival, called People Dialogue Festival, in Kenya in 2019 and 2020. In both 2019 and 2020 the Festival took place at the same date as the anniversary of the Handshake Date when the Building Bridges Initiative was born.
The People Dialogue Festivals brought onboard key people from the political parties who came and engaged in a meaningful political dialogue. The People Dialogue Festivals had a plethora of lively events and also engaged a number of youth organisations and civil societies. In the Democracy Festival in 2020 the participation of key political and development actors was further strengthened to include increased participation from government, United Nations and political parties.
Danish politicians from the Liberal Party, the social Liberal party and the Alternative party have participated and shared experiences on dialogue and participation through democracy festivals.
Both festivals were quite successful, and the People Dialogue Festival is now a core activity in the well-established long term partnership between CMD and the Liberal Party of Denmark; a partnership which DIPD joined in 2018.
