The IOPD will organise a webinar for International Day of Democracy with the title: Local and regional governments facing the rise of distrust, polarisation and extremisms.

The objective of this virtual session is to explore how distrust towards institutions and among citizens is growing due to the rise of disinformation, fake news and polarisation and how it impacts democracy. It also aims to present possible solutions through local participatory and deliberative democracy to address these challenges.

ICLD’ research director Ana-Maria Vargas is one of the panelists. She will talk about the challenges of democracy globally from the perspective of the local governments. How can local governments counter act antidemocratisation trends from the national level?

Panelists:

Jose Manuel Ribeiro, mayor of Valongo
Mohamed Wajdi Aydi, former Sfax Deputy Mayor, expert in Local Governance and
coordinator of the Association Afrique Intelligence
Nils Munthe, Policy officer – SALAR
Ana Maria Vargas, PhD and Research Director in Knowledge Centre – ICLD
Patrícia Marques dos Santos, Open Government Coordinator for the City of São
Paulo