As was mentioned when Redlad assumed the Chair and Secretariat of the Civil Society Pillar of the Community of Democracies, we wanted to get closer to the main actors of the Pillar, starting with members of the Executive Committee and the focal points.

Between November 17 and 30, a first round of meetings was held, which included the vice chair, Jacek Kucharczyk, president of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) and Darron Seller-Peritz, Policy Analyst of Cooperation Canada. Meetings with the other members of the Pillar’s Executive Committee, Multitudes and Expert Forum could not take place, but are being rescheduled.

We held meetings with the focal points of Guatemala, the United States, Korea, Mali, Morocco and Nigeria. We are advancing in dialogues via Email with the focal point of Japan, and we will coordinate in the coming days the scheduling of a virtual consultation with the focal points of Costa Rica, Mexico, El Salvador and Argentina.

Both focal points that did not respond to the initial call to schedule a meeting, as well as other members of the Pillar, will be contacted one by one in order to hold the pending meetings in the first half of December. We are very grateful to the people who answered the call and who have been so open to sharing and collectively dreaming of the new Civil Society Pillar of the Community of Democracies.

Once the second round ends in December, we will present a detailed report on what was found in the meetings, which have revolved fundamentally around a dialogue on three questions: what is the role that the pillar should play? How do Focal Points see their role in the pillar? How does the pillar align – or could it align – with the Focal Points’ institutional priorities and day-to-day actions?.

We will keep you posted on this exercise that had helped us to get to know more about the amazing focal points we have, understanding better their priorities and aspirations with the Pillar.