Date: Thursday, October 1, 2026
Location: Athens Conservatoire Amphitheater, Greece
*For this year’s Forum, we are working together with the Athens Democracy Forum which will take place on 29 and 30 September.
Executive Summary
One question. One day. From listening to collective action.
The GDC Global Forum 2026 is not a conference of panels. It is one focused day of analysis, exchange, and collective decision-making, built entirely around a single question that surfaced independently across four regional forums held this year in Nairobi, Asuncion, Prague, and Seoul: why does democratic participation keep growing while democratic trust keeps declining, and what would it take for one to genuinely reinforce the other?
There are no traditional panels. The morning brings together the four regional convenors, each presenting a concrete finding from their own regional forum, sharpened by a short academic intervention, before participants move into breakout groups to stress-test the diagnosis together. In the afternoon, four Deep Listening Sessions, each opened by a practitioner who has worked the problem from the inside, add genuine cross-regional listening before any discussion of solutions. Everything feeds into a live Collective Choices session, where participants use a simple digital tool to help identify where real collective will to act exists, followed by the Commitment Commons, where each resulting mission leaves Athens with a named convener, a first set of partners, and a concrete next step. The day closes with a single voice: someone whose life has been shaped by whether democratic institutions held.
The Forum takes place in Athens, immediately following the Athens Democracy Forum, and produces a co-created outcome document that reflects what was actually decided in the room, not recommendations written afterward.
Context and Problem Statement
Across regions, democratic systems are under increasing pressure. Authoritarian practices are expanding, civic freedoms are being curtailed, and public trust in democratic institutions is eroding. At the same time, governments and donors are redirecting resources away from democracy and human rights toward short-term conceptions of security and economic stability.
This shift overlooks a fundamental reality: democracy, human rights, and inclusive governance are not separate from security and development, but their foundation. When democratic institutions weaken, societies become more unequal, fragile, and vulnerable to conflict. Restrictions on civic space, often justified in the name of stability, frequently deepen polarization and long-term instability.
The current funding environment has intensified fragmentation within the democracy ecosystem. Organizations with complementary mandates and shared values are increasingly forced to work in parallel rather than together. This weakens collective impact, duplicates efforts, and limits the ability of democratic actors to respond. Four regional forums held this year in Nairobi, Asuncion, Prague, and Seoul each surfaced a version of the same underlying pattern: democratic participation is expanding, while trust in democratic institutions is not. The GDC Global Forum 2026 takes that finding as its starting point, dedicating a single day in Athens to understanding why participation and trust have diverged, and what would allow one to genuinely reinforce the other.
From regional dialogues to a global agenda
The GDC Global Forum 2026 is the culmination of a structured, year-long global process rooted in regional dialogues. Throughout 2026, the GDC convened four Regional Forums in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, each hosted and co-designed with regional partners. These Regional Forums are spaces where regional democratic challenges, innovations, and priorities are identified, shared and debated from the ground up.
Each Regional Forum addressed democracy under pressure in its specific context, while engaging with a shared set of cross-cutting themes, including democratic resilience, civic space, inclusive participation, digital threats and opportunities, and collaboration across sectors. The insights, experiences, and proposals emerging from these Regional Forums will directly shape the agenda of the GDC Global Forum. This ensures that the GDC Global Forum is a true reflection of regional realities, rather than a top-down exercise detached from local contexts.
Each of the four regional forums surfaced a different piece of the same underlying question: how does democratic participation grow while trust in democratic institutions does not.
Africa Regional Forum (Nairobi), held in March 2026, examined why democracy exists formally, with elections and institutions in place, while kleptocracy, patronage, and state capture prevent it from delivering accountability, equity, or justice. The forum’s most significant contribution was a direct challenge to decolonize democracy: the demand to define democratic governance on African terms rather than through imported models.
Americas Regional Forum (Asuncion), held in April 2026, explored democratic renewal as a social and cultural project before an institutional one, examining how the most vital democratic energy is emerging outside traditional institutions, in territorial networks and horizontal community organizing. The forum also produced the region’s most concrete innovation ecosystem, with proposals spanning civic technology, local participation, and deliberative platforms.
Europe Regional Forum (Prague), held in May 2026, examined how democratic institutions are adapting to an information environment reshaped by AI, algorithmic manipulation, and foreign interference, arguing that disinformation must be treated as a security threat rather than a content moderation problem. The forum raised a question the other regions had not centred: who owns and controls the infrastructure on which democratic information depends.
Asia Regional Forum (Seoul), held in June 2026, addressed how democratic transitions consolidate rather than reverse, drawing on South Korea’s recent constitutional crisis as a live case study in democratic resilience, alongside closing civic space in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar. The forum also advanced the sharpest conversation on AI governance, examining the risk of decision-making authority shifting from accountable institutions to opaque algorithmic systems.
Across all regions, discussions will engage with shared questions: How can democratic actors collaborate more effectively under financial and political pressure? How can democratic innovations be scaled without losing local ownership? And how can democracy be defended while remaining inclusive, participatory, and forward-looking? These perspectives will converge at the GDC Global Forum through plenary moments, interactive sessions, and collective synthesis, connecting regional insights into a shared global narrative and a set of concrete collective commitments.
Programme
Coming soon!