Participatory democracy, citizen dialogues and budgeting
Addressing Urban Violence and Local Security: Participatory Research with Young People in Colombia and South Africa
This report documents a persistent mismatch between official security priorities, still centred on crime and armed actors, and what young people themselvesidentify as most urgent: unemployment, lack of opportunity, and mental health. Drawing on these findings and recognising that despite being separated by continent, language, and political history, the two cities share a history of…
Addressing Urban Violence and Local Security: Participatory Research with Young People in Colombia and South Africa
This report documents a persistent mismatch between official security priorities, still centred on crime and armed actors, and what young people themselvesidentify as most urgent: unemployment, lack of opportunity, and mental health. Drawing on these findings and recognising that despite being separated by continent, language, and political history, the two cities share a history of…
Responsive Local Governance Matters
Insights for Strengthening Citizen Participation from wartime Ukraine This policy brief presents the most effective ways to promote citizen participation in local issues during wartime. War presents a unique environment characterized by significant physical danger, mental and physical fatigue for both citizens and officials, and geopolitical instability. As a result, the brief also explores how…
Responsive Local Governance Matters
Insights for Strengthening Citizen Participation from wartime Ukraine This policy brief presents the most effective ways to promote citizen participation in local issues during wartime. War presents a unique environment characterized by significant physical danger, mental and physical fatigue for both citizens and officials, and geopolitical instability. As a result, the brief also explores how…
Brand Audits
A tool for local governments to foster a just and plastic-free transition County governments carry the costs of plastic pollution but lack the tools to enforce producer accountability. Brand audits provide a cost-effective, citizen-led method to support EPR enforcement. Participatory audits strengthen local democracy, transparency, and inclusion of waste pickers. Institutionalizing brand audits can advance…
Brand Audits
A tool for local governments to foster a just and plastic-free transition County governments carry the costs of plastic pollution but lack the tools to enforce producer accountability. Brand audits provide a cost-effective, citizen-led method to support EPR enforcement. Participatory audits strengthen local democracy, transparency, and inclusion of waste pickers. Institutionalizing brand audits can advance…
Designing participation for better health outcomes
What Local Governments Can Learn from Participatory Budgeting in Kenya Participatory budgeting is widely promoted as a way to strengthen local democracy, but evidence on its effects on concrete development outcomes – especially health – remains limited. This policy brief summarises findings from a randomised controlled trial in rural Kenya that tested three forms of…
Designing participation for better health outcomes
What Local Governments Can Learn from Participatory Budgeting in Kenya Participatory budgeting is widely promoted as a way to strengthen local democracy, but evidence on its effects on concrete development outcomes – especially health – remains limited. This policy brief summarises findings from a randomised controlled trial in rural Kenya that tested three forms of…
Towards a Just Transition in Plastic Governance: Grassroots Waste Pickers, Participatory Spaces, and Environmental Democracy in Kenya
This study draws on the case of Mombasa county, Kenya, to examine the participatory spaces through which grassroots waste pickers engage local government and the implications for a just transition in plastic governance. Using environmental democracy and grassroots innovation frameworks, the analysis extends Gaventa’s typology of invited and created spaces by introducing co-created spaces emerging…
Towards a Just Transition in Plastic Governance: Grassroots Waste Pickers, Participatory Spaces, and Environmental Democracy in Kenya
This study draws on the case of Mombasa county, Kenya, to examine the participatory spaces through which grassroots waste pickers engage local government and the implications for a just transition in plastic governance. Using environmental democracy and grassroots innovation frameworks, the analysis extends Gaventa’s typology of invited and created spaces by introducing co-created spaces emerging…
