February 5, 2025 @ 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm UTC-5
In Democracy Action Lab, we ask: What strategies and interventions will contribute to the long-term vitality of liberal democracy around the world?
The number of countries experiencing democratic setbacks has dramatically increased in the last 10-16 years. By some measures, 72% of the world’s population (approximately 5.7 billion people) currently live under authoritarian rule – including the United States, which has been labeled a “backsliding democracy” by IDEA. It is important for pro-democracy groups in the U.S. to situate their work within this global context, both because there are many lessons to be learned from dissidents and protest movements in other countries, and because the erosion of democratic institutions in the U.S. will have serious consequences for the health of democracy in those countries.
Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI) is a leader in the global conversation on threats to democracy. RDI’s Frontlines of Freedom program supports movements and dissidents fighting against these forces, such as formerly exiled magistrate and rule of law advocate, Claudia Escobar, now Guatemala’s Ambassador to the Organization of American States. Remarkably, Guatemala bucked the global trend by restoring democratic governance last year, after many years of corruption and kleptocracy. For our first Democracy Action Lab session of the year, Ambassador Escobar will share how pro-democracy activists brought down a long-standing authoritarian regime, in conversation with RDI CEO Uriel Epshtein.
We will have 15-minute post-session “office hours” at 11:15am PST | 2:15pm EST | 7:15pm GMT open to anyone interested in staying on to continue the session conversation or ask specific democracy-related questions of our facilitators and/or Forward Global peers.
Questions? Contact Jocelyn Berger: jocelyn@forward-global.org