A responsive and democratic system
Democratic Values
These can appear democratic in nature, but unless these structures are applied and implemented through a responsive and democratic system, citizens might lose trust in these institutions. To establish trust from citizens, these democratic institutions must perform with the highest level of transparency, integrity, and accountability.
Successful and well-functioning democratic governance manifests through intra-institutional strengthening, public participation, and transparency. Governance is processes that influence institutions’ behavior and, in turn, facilitates citizen interaction.
Our projects
Open Government Partnership Nairobi
Status
- Ongoing
Details
- In October 2020, the partnership between the Oslo Center, Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), and the Open Government Partnership (OGP) was established. The NMS, in collaboration with the Oslo Center, will strengthen the budget process and enhance service delivery, including under-represented groups in slum and low-income areas in policy decision making process. The Oslo Center, as a civil society member of OGP Local, will offer technical assistance to NMS on conceptualizing and developing mechanisms of citizen participation, development of a citizen feedback mechanism, and how to simplify budgets for a better citizen understanding.
Objectives
- The Oslo Center acknowledges the importance of civil society and government collaboration to create reforms that respond to the needs of citizens. OGP grants the platform to do this, so that the Oslo Center can partake in the support of Nairobi Metropolitan Services in strengthening its democratic governance, including creating space for citizen participation.
Women and Youth in Democracy Civic Engagement
Status
- Ongoing
Details
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This program, implemented in East, West, and Central Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, South Sudan, and Malawi) is molding a pool of young accountability champions through capacity building and networking sessions to develop accountability toolkits with a seed grant to scale up their novel ideas. The project enhances civic spaces by cascading the accountability knowledge to the grassroots. Thus far, cross-learning is deepening the application of knowledge and skills acquired in political accountability in designing grant projects.
Objectives
- The WYDE Program aims to improve the enfranchisement, empowerment, and inclusion of youth in all levels of democratic participation at the national, regional, and global scales.
Citizen Inclusion and Confidence in Kenya and South Sudan
Status
- Completed
Details
In cooperation with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), the Oslo Center initiated a program in 2016 supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY). The project was finalized in 2018 and created innovative bottom-up indicators of Citizen Inclusion and Confidence (CIC) in transitional processes. The aim of the CIC-indicators was to inform national and international policymakers on citizen priorities regarding inclusion. The project produced new research and analysis that can contribute to inclusive policymaking through mechanisms that could increase public confidence and citizen inclusion in transitional political processes in Kenya and South Sudan and beyond.
Objectives
The key findings from the research, including CIC indicators and research method, as well as policy recommendations for Kenya and South Sudan, were published in a report titled Transitional Processes and Citizen Inclusion in Kenya and South Sudan. There were several stages of the launch of the report, including validation and dissemination workshops, engaging key stakeholders and relevant individuals for comments and contributions. The launch has sparked great interest and valuable discussions among local and international policymakers and civil society actors.
Freedom of Religion or Belief in Kyrgyzstan Republic
Status
- Completed
Details
- In 2012 – 2014, The Oslo Center in partnership with Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) implemented the Freedom of Religion and Belief in Kyrgyzstan. The project organized two main activities that included a visit to Oslo by bureaucrats from Bishkek and training of Parliamentarians in Bishkek. The project enhanced interreligious cohesion by bringing together religious and faith communities, organizations and institution and building their capacity on human rights, freedom of religion or belief, minority issues, and security issues.
Objectives
- The Oslo Center enhanced intra and inter-religious cohesion in Kyrgyzstan. The project contributed to recommendations on the ammendments to the legislations pertaining to freedom of religion or belief.
Democracy Assistance in South Sudan
Status
- Completed
Details
From 2012 to 2016, the Oslo Center has worked with democracy support in South Sudan in collaboration with the South Sudan Youth Participation Agency (SSYPA) to strengthen the dialogue mechanisms between the different ethnic groups. Through the established Youth Dialogue Forums at the state and national level, the project aimed to unite youth across ethnic divides, create engagement in relevant political and governance issues and contribute to realizing peace and reconciliation, as well as to involve youth in political and legislative processes. The project has, through three project phases, established Youth Dialogue Forums in six original states. Several Youth Dialogue Forums have been conducted at the national level to address important peace and governance issues. The involvement of civil society in South Sudan is essential for its democratic development. As youth constitute almost 70% of the population, they are therefore a natural and important target group. The established Youth Dialogue Forums at state and national levels have been recognized by civil society and the government as important platforms for engaging youth in the ongoing democratic developments in the country.
Objectives
The most important achievement of this project is that the culture of dialogue and reconciliation began to take root among the youth through the platforms of the Youth Dialogue Forums. The youth participating in the Dialogue Forums are now more aware of the importance of dialogue in promoting peace and are enthusiastic about working together for the democratic development in South Sudan. The project was supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2012/2013) and the Swedish Postcode Foundation (2013-2016).
Universal Code of Conduct on Holy Sites
Status
- Completed
Details
Holy sites are of crucial spiritual and cultural significance to billions of people across the globe. Yet, history demonstrates again and again how easy it is for sacred places to become inextricably caught up in political, territorial, and religious disputes, becoming pawns of conflict themselves. Harm to holy sites has an impact on the core of people’s identities, reinforces community trauma, and adds a deep symbolic dimension to the conflict. Attacks on places of worship frequently fuel the escalation of violence as well. The result of all this is that too often, in the minds of many, religion becomes a synonym of violence, losing its potential to be a force for peace, justice, and reconciliation.
Objectives
The Universal Code of Conduct on Holy Sites is a cutting-edge strategy to mitigate interreligious conflict and build peace across the globe. See more information on the webpage of this joint initiative between the Oslo Center, One World in Dialogue, Search for Common Ground, and Religions for Peace. To read more about the collaboration click here.
Intra-Institutional Strengthening
Strong institutions are crucial pillars to strengthen and sustain democratic processes and norms.
Political parties are key actors regarding facilitating inclusive participation where citizens can articulate their needs and demand responsiveness. The Civil Service is another key actor as their behavior influence how citizens are treated, considered, and centered. This means ensuring civil servants know their civic and democratic mandate and obligations, including setting the tone for democratic governance. Regulatory and oversight bodies are central in the maintenance of the standards of democratic practices.
This means defining basic democratic processes for governance and political institutions, including ensuring responsiveness, control of power, and responsible use of resources.
At the Oslo Center, we aim to assist sub-national governments, regulatory bodies, and political parties in their institution-building. Institutions at the sub-national level must foster dialogue, stability, and peace through participation and consultation, as they tend to be the first line of contact with citizens.
Public Participation
Public participation is a key component of democratic governance. For citizens to feel ownership of and trust in the policies of the government, institutions must be driven by inclusion, transparency, and accountability.
To ensure accountable democratic governance, the executive part of subnational governments plays a critical role as they implement policies and programs. To ensure an open government, subnational executives must engage citizens in decision-making through public participation, including responding effectively to citizens’ needs.
The most important aspect of public participation is the emphasis of public’s sovereign power. Citizens delegate this power to their preferred government through democratic elections. It is therefore crucial to ensure that the public’s needs are met in decision-making processes.
The Oslo Center aims at working with political institutions to develop responsive and efficient public participation policies, mechanisms, and processes, as well as working with political institutions in the dissemination of critical information on decision making processes to the public.
Transparency – cornerstone in democratic governance
Transparency is a cornerstone in democratic governance, as it gives citizens the opportunity to demand information and accountability.
Transparency is a crucial part of mitigating corruption and promoting accountability. Institutions have a key role in ensuring transparency. Whilst discharging their roles and responsibilities, it is important that regulatory and oversight bodies ensure that political institutions are transparent in their structures and operations. Political parties in parliament/party caucus have a responsibility regarding transparency. The parliament has an oversight role in ensuring transparency in government. Additionally, the members of parliament’s representation of citizens are the foundation of inclusive governance hence the need to hold governments accountable and lobby the interest of the citizens.
At the Oslo Center, we support institutions to facilitate transparency through reforms, as well as reviewing communications strategies to bolster transparency and accountability through inclusive information sharing.
Key areas of impact
Political and electoral laws are developed and/or revised
Operationalization documents, incl. manuals, guides, handbooks, check-lists etc developed and disseminated for compliance and practical implementation of the legal framework
Published Political Party Dialogue: A Facilitator’s Guide
Mechanisms and platforms for intra-institutional dialogue and consultation established and strengthened