Current and Past Accelerator Participants

As of April 2024, People Powered has completed two cycles of the Climate Democracy Accelerator (CDA) and one cycle of the Digital Democracy Accelerator. Learn more about the current and past participants who have completed the program below.

Climate Democracy Accelerator (CDA)

Current cohort participants

Stay tuned for updates on their progress and action plan implementation!

  • Asuncion, Paraguay: Alma Civica, in partnership with the Youth Network for Climate Action in Paraguay 

  • Los Cocos, Argentina: Asociación Civil Humanidad, in partnership with the Colaborativa Municipalidad de Los Cocos

  • Garowe, Somalia: Bareedo Platform Somalia, in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Range and Climate Change 

  • Monrovia, Liberia: Center for Youth Civic Leadership and Environmental Studies (CYCLES), in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia

  • Belo, Cameroon: Centre for Research, Environmental Protection and Conservation(CeREPC), in partnership with their Municipal Council

  • Bujaru, Brazil: Delibera Brasil, in partnership with Prefeitura de Bujaru

  • Bishkek, The Kyrgyz Republic: Development Policy Institute, in partnership with the Department of Economics and Investments under Bishkek Mayors office

  • Mar Chiquita, Argentina: Dirección de Ambiente de Mar Chiquita, in partnership with Democracia en Red

  • Embu, Kenya: Kounkuey Design Initiative, in partnership with Embu County Government

  • Lyon, France: Live Love Agora, in partnership with Ville de Lyon

  • Kampala, Uganda: Might foundation, in partnership with Masajja Division Youth Council, a branch of the National Youth Council-Uganda

  • Nanyuki, Kenya: Pathways Policy Institute, in partnership with the Laikipia County Government

  • Medellin, Colombia: Prospera, in partnership with the Municipio de Vigia del Fuerte

  • Mamallapuram, India: Society for Education and Action, in partnership with the Department of Fisheries with Environmental Forest, Government of Tamil Nadu

  • Jubam, South Sudan: Youth Relief Organization, in partnership with the South Sudan Ministry of Health and the South Sudan Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security

 

Past cohort participants

  • Argentina: Municipalidad de Rosario

  • Brazil: Edgar Reinaldo Prandini, Centro de Referência Popular - CERPO

  • Brazil: Mandato Coletivo "A Cidade é Sua"

  • Brazil: Prefeitura do Recife

  • Chile: Gore Los Lagos

  • Chile: Gobierno Regional Metropolitano de Santiago

  • Chile: Ilustre Municipalidad de Pichilemu

  • Chile: Municipalidad de Maipú

  • Democratic Republic of the Congo: Aide et Action Pour la Paix

  • Democratic Republic of the Congo: Research Center for Environmental Planning

  • Ghana: Wassa Amenfi East Municipal

  • India: Vishwadeep Trust

  • Kenya: Community Initiative Action Group Kenya (CIAG)

  • Mexico: Fundación Por Un Campo Productivo IAP

  • Nepal: Good Neighbors International

  • Nicaragua: Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Universidad Centroamericana (Nitlapan-UCA)

  • Nigeria: Ashley Lashley Foundation

  • Nigeria: Environmental and Rural Mediation Centre (ENVIRUMEDIC)

  • Nigeria: Muhammad Ibrahim, Break-Free From Plastic Awareness Initiative

  • Nigeria: People Environment and Sustainability Foundation

  • Palestine: Rahaf Rifai

  • Pakistan: Sindh Community Foundation

  • Paraguay: Alma Cívica

  • Scotland/United Kingdom: Neisha Kirk

  • Senegal: Centre de Suivi Ecologique

  • Senegal: Espace de Co-production des Offres Populaires Pour l'Environnement et le Développement en Afrique (Enda ECOPOP)

  • Sudan: UN-Habitat

  • Tanzania: Dodoma Environmental Network

  • Tanzania: Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF)

  • Uganda: Uganda Community Based Association for Women and Children Welfare (UCOBAC)

  • United States: People's Voice on Climate

  • Venezuela: Juventud Unida en Acción

  • Zambia: Freeman Mubanga, Centre for Environment Justice (CEJ)

  • Zambia: Future-Prenuers Zambia

  • Zimbabwe: Community Voices Zimbabwe

  • Zimbabwe: Green Governance Zimbabwe Trust

  • Zimbabwe: Green Institute Zimbabwe

  • Zimbabwe: Harare Lemba Jewish Community

  • Zimbabwe: Reyna Trust

  • Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association

Learn more about the grant recipients that received $20,000 each!

All participants received a $10,000 grant to support the start of their implementation, and an additional $20,000 awarded to the best action plan

Best award recipient ($10,000 grant and $20,000 award) 

  • Uttarakhand, India: Himadd Samiti, in partnership with the Bardrinath Forest Division of the local council, will convene a citizens’ assembly of forest councils, a traditional governance system, for watershed and erosion management and carbon sequestration, to improve conditions for subsistence agriculture and environmental resilience.

Grant recipients ($10,000) 

  • In Semarang, Indonesia: Pattiro Semarang, with the support of Semarang’s local government’s planning office, will lead a participatory policymaking process to assess the socio-economic impacts of the climate crisis on vulnerable coastal communities.

  • Quintana Roo, Mexico: Ciudadan@s por la Transparencia, alongside the state government, will lead the development of a participatory environmental governance system to protect the natural environment, move towards renewable energy, and embed climate democracy in the state’s 2050 Strategic Plan.

  • Rajasthan, India: the Manhila Housing Trust in partnership with their local government, is co-creating an early warning system for intense heat that can reach low-income women with limited access to technology and high levels of illiteracy. 

  • Laikipia, Kenya: the Laikipia Wildlife Forum and county government, are running a citizens’ assembly to tackle a heavy reliance on rainfed agriculture, through increasing community participation in creating climate-resilient policies.

  • Colobre, Panama: Fundación CoMunidad, alongside the government committee convened to protect Panama’s hydrographic basins, are implementing a citizens’ climate assembly with the goal of decreasing landfill waste by 10% and increasing jobs in the circular economy.

  • Nairobi, Kenya: Youth-Voice for Peace and the county government are running a participatory policymaking process to reduce air pollution from the diesel-powered informal public transportation system.

  • The Mchinji district of Malawi: The Youth Alliance for Sustainable Development are working with the district council to reduce the high deforestation levels through a participatory policymaking process which will be used to create policy proposals to make the forestry industry more sustainable.

  • Ekiti State, Nigeria: the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative is working with the state government to implement a participatory policymaking process to create accountability and inclusive governance for climate change adaptation, in the context of high reliance on subsistence farming. 

  • Kasangati, Uganda: I4DEV with the town council are convening a citizens’ assembly to institutionalize citizens’ voices in municipal climate action to ensure well-coordinated, inclusive and sustainable actions are taken. 

  • Rosario, Argentina: The Municipality of Rosario is working with the Rosario Community Management Centre to design a citizen lab to eradicate chronic landfills in the city, using the tools of participatory policymaking. 

  • Corrientes, Argentina: The Municipality of Corrientes is working with the Red de Innovación Local to develop participatory strategies for sustainable tree planting to increase climate resilience in the city. 

  • Nuevo León, Mexico: The Secretaría de Participación Ciudadana of the state government is working with a local accessibility organization to create a participatory policy framework for sustainable and accessible transport to decrease emissions. 

  • Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Ecuador: The Provincial Government is working with young people, using both participatory policymaking and legislative theatre, to design a plan for environmental conservation, while building capacity in youth leadership on sustainability.  

  • Yerevan, Armenia: The Yerevan Municipality is working with EcoLur through a process of participatory policymaking to embed civil society within the government to co-create a plan for the green transition.

Digital Democracy Accelerator (DDA)

Past cohort participants

All participants received a $15,000 grant to support the start of their implementation, and additional $100,000 awarded to the two best action plans. 

Best award recipients ($15,000 grant and $100,000 award)

  • Warsaw, Poland: Fundacja Pole Dialogu’s project is focused on the protection of children’s rights in the digital world; while there are digital policies aimed at protecting children’s rights, there is a lack of regulation and enforcement of the policies. They will use citizen’s assemblies to understand how Poland can protect and strengthen children online. The aim to bring the recommendations of citizens' assemblies to institutions advocating for and implementing the policies – parliament, government, ombudsman for children's rights. 

  • Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria: American University in Bulgaria (AUBG): Artificial intelligence has introduced many challenges, including plagiarism, lack of/or credit, incorrect information, and many more for universities around the world. In response to these issues, the American University in Bulgaria, like many other universities, banned the use of AI without engaging the faculty and students about the benefits and risks of AI. AUBG’s innovative project combines participatory policymaking and citizens' assembly approaches to create a safe environment for students, faculty, and staff to deliberate the threats and opportunities of using AI in academic settings.

Grant recipients ($15,000) 

  • Spain: Decidim Free Software Association will be using participatory policymaking to create a framework that allows public administrations to deploy digital policies in a participatory way at all stages of public policy, from design to implementation. Their main goal is to build a set of tools and a policy template that guides government bodies in implementing a Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) policy for the software they build. Something akin to the Open Data Charter that governments can adopt as a commitment, and as a resource, something like the Open Source Program Office.

  • Spain: Coglobal seeks to continue and expand these practices, implementing a participatory cycle that allows opening a debate on the design of policies aimed at the integration of AI in the teaching-learning processes at the University of Malaga. Opening a debate around the impact of AI on teaching-learning processes is a manifest need in the university community, in the face of the rapid development of AI and its imminent impact on education.

  • United Kingdom: Shared Future CIC aims to develop an inclusive and effective strategy around local climate data, they will undertake ‘open data work’, that enhances community awareness and capacity for working with such data, and works towards community stewardship of such data. This builds on work such as Liverpool Civic Data Coop’s Round ‘ere project and the OEDP’s community data hubs. “While some participants may have a background in ‘data’, the ability of all citizens to access and critically engage with such data (both quantitative and qualitative) is critical to achieving ‘empowered deliberative democracy.’”

  • Spain: Platoniq Foundation will undertake a citizen dialogue aimed at teenagers (Youth Agora), to allow them to propose new digital policy recommendations to public administrations on issues such as polarisation and misinformation, cyberbullying, digital anxiety and gender self-perception.

  • Greece: Symbiosis is undertaking a participatory policymaking process to support and strengthen the participation of migrants and marginalized groups such as refugees, LGBTQI+, and other communities, in the development of digital policies. This includes the engagement of migrants in shaping the use of Decidem i.e to help revise the policies and rules for how the platform is used in migrants’ contexts following local baseline assessment.

  • Spain: Accionar.io aims to implement a public policy on media literacy in Murcia through a participatory policymaking process aimed at combating misinformation that undermines trust in institutions and media, exacerbating social polarization. Community involvement in designing these plans ensures that strategies are relevant and effective, fostering empowerment and respecting the diversity of perspectives, resulting in more impactful interventions against misinformation.

  • Romania: Station Europe will be using participatory policymaking to involve young people in creating and refining policy recommendations. The absence of a structured process for civic participation has led to a disconnection between younger people and policymakers, resulting in less effective policies for the rapidly changing world. At the national level, Station Europe is collaborating with the Youth and Sport Commission of the Chamber of Deputies in the Romanian Parliament to establish connections between young individuals and policymakers, fostering increased understanding and active engagement in policymaking.

  • Germany: Hansestadt Rostock, in partnership with Rotorwerk, will be undertaking a citizen assembly to assess the precise needs and interests citizens of their municipality have in terms of public participation in general and digital participation in particular. Their project particularly focuses on senior citizens and the issues of digitalization they face, young people assembly and the issues young people face with participation, and finally the risks and opportunities of digital participation for migrant communities.

  • France: Mission Publiques will lead a Global Citizens' Assembly on AI which is designed to directly influence and generate more equitable and effective AI policies by feeding high-level discussions during the UN Summit for the Future in September 2024. The findings and data of the global assembly and the local assemblies will be publicly accessible to the global community on a dedicated website.