Words Matter! 2025 Summary Report
In July 2025, The Oslo Center brought together global leaders, community advocates, religious figures, politicians and experts from around the world for Words Matter! 2025. The second annual conference brought together passionate democratic defenders to explore practical ways to tackle disinformation and re-build trust in a fractured world.
This Words Matter! 2025 Summary Report contains session highlights and concrete calls to action from every panel held during the conference. It offers insights on how to rebuild trust in democratic institutions, along with practical steps for governments, tech platforms, civil society, and individuals to push back against disinformation.
Explore key takeaways, session highlights, and actionable recommendations in the Words Matter! 2025 Summary Report.
The Oslo Center 2024 Annual Report
In 2024, The Oslo Center expanded its efforts to strengthen democracy and human rights, reaching communities across Africa, Asia, and Europe. From addressing the global rise of hate speech and disinformation, to convening hundreds of young leaders at the Africa Youth Forum in Nairobi, we empowered youth and women, strengthened civil society, and advanced inclusive governance and democracy around the world.
Read more about our key activites and achievements in The Oslo Center 2024 Annual Report.
AI Regulation in Elections: Combating digital disinformation in Kenya’s 2027 elections
As Kenya prepares for its 2027 elections, AI-driven misinformation poses an urgent challenge to democratic integrity. This report explores the growing risks of AI-driven manipulation, highlights lessons from Kenya’s 2022 elections, and offers actionable recommendations for safeguarding electoral transparency.
Download the report to learn more about the steps we can take to ensure fair and accountable elections in the AI era.
Youth Political Accountability in Kenya 2025 - Inclusion at the Center
As part of the Oslo Center’s contribution to the development of democratic systems that respond to the needs of the citizens, the Youth Political Accountability in Kenya 2025 – Inclusion at the Center report reflects the current realities of exclusion while exploring pathways toward equitable participation. Drawing on findings from the 2025 Youth Inclusion Forum, the reports identifies gaps and opportunities for youth engagement within political parties, focusing on key thematic areas such as party constitutions, policies, and electoral practices, highlighting both progress and stagnation.
The Status of Youth Inclusion in Political Parties
The Youth Political Accountability in Kenya (2025) report, conducted by The Oslo Center in collaboration with youth leagues from ten political parties, examines the state of youth inclusion in political parties. Based on surveys from 428 youth across all 47 counties and an analysis of key party documents, the report highlights systemic barriers such as high campaign costs, patronage networks, and limited leadership opportunities that hinder meaningful youth participation. Many young people struggle to connect with party ideologies, which are often seen as fluid and opportunistic rather than principle-driven. Despite constitutional provisions for youth representation, compliance remains inconsistent, with tokenism prevailing in youth leagues and internal party structures.
However, the report also highlights emerging opportunities, including the rise of digital activism and grassroots mobilization, which are reshaping youth political engagement. It calls for urgent reforms, including stronger legal enforcement of youth quotas, financial support for young candidates, and greater transparency in party governance. Strengthening youth leagues, leveraging technology for political education, and promoting inclusive internal election processes are key recommendations to ensure youth are not just mobilizers but active decision-makers in political parties. By addressing these gaps, Kenya can harness its youthful demographic to drive a more accountable and inclusive democracy.
Political Accountability Handbook 2024
The Political Accountability Handbook was developed by The Oslo Center with support from Uraia Trust and funding from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark in Kenya. This is a comprehensive guide designed to strengthen transparency, inclusivity, and responsiveness within political parties. It provides practical tools for political audits, ensuring compliance with legal frameworks, ethical standards, and democratic principles.
The handbook promotes citizen engagement, particularly for Special Interest Groups (SIGs) such as youth, women, and persons with disabilities, fostering a more accountable and representative political system. By equipping stakeholders—including political parties, civil society organizations, regulatory bodies, and the public—with clear guidelines and accountability mechanisms, this resource contributes to the advancement of good governance and democracy in Kenya.
Dialogue at the center - A report of the Africa Youth Forum 2024
The Africa Youth Forum report presents key outcomes and recommendations from the Africa Youth Forum, hosted by The Oslo Center in Nairobi, Kenya, in August 2024.
The Africa Youth Forum is a global platform for young people to voice their opinions, share ideas, and collaborate on solutions to challenges that directly affect them and their communities. The 2024 Africa Youth Forum took place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 15 August 2024.
Words Matter! White Paper – Commitment from the conference
This paper collates key contributions to the Words Matter! Conference, which took place on 30 April 2024 in Oslo, Norway.
The conference, organised by The Oslo Center, brought together a diverse range of global leaders, expert speakers and international guests to discuss the problem of hate speech and its ramifications in our society, and to make recommendations for the development of shared, and more efficient tools to counter all forms of hate crimes.
Democracy at the Center: 2022 - 2023 Annual Report
The report analyzes the key organizational achievement in 2022 – 2023 while assessing the context under which the interventions were implemented. The program approach is anchored on a Three I-Model of Imperative, Innovative, and Impactful and aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 5 on Gender Equality, Goal 16 on Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, and Goal 17 on Partnerships for the Goals.
The report highlights TOC’s programs within each strategic thematic area and outlines a sustainability plan composed of partnerships, research, and policy for continuity. This report narrates TOC’s transformative democratic journey, highlighting stories of impacted individuals and institutions. With a focus on regional, citizen-led democratic integration and inclusion, TOC aims to solidify accountable and transparent governance in a globalized world.
Walk the Talk - SIDPAK Report
The Walk the Talk report assesses the extent to which the legal framework governing Kenya’s political parties supports the inclusion and participation of special interest groups, defined as women, youth and persons with disabilities (PWDs).
The study has been carried out by the SIDPAK Consortium. Comprising NIMD, DIPD, Oslo Center, Mzalendo and CMD Kenya, this Consortium helps contribute to the development of inclusive and democratic political actors in Kenya and is funded by the European Union.
The report highlights our key findings, and resulting recommendations for legislators, political parties, the Attorney General, the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) and Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. -We hope that our findings will help these bodies to take steps to address the legislation gaps and devise mechanisms for enforcing and implementing the existing policies and laws as we work together to level the playing field for all groups in Kenyan politics.
Public Knowledge, Attitude and Perception Survey - Puntland, Somalia
The Public Knowledge and Attitude and Perception (KAP) survey has been published by the Puntland Development and Research Center (PDRC) on behalf of the Strengthening Inclusive Multiparty Systems (SIMS) consortium that was implemented in Puntland, Somalia. The consortium consisted of The Oslo Center, Demo-Finland, and PDRC. The publication was financed by the Embassy of Sweden in Nairobi, Somalia Section through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The pre-election survey sought to analyze how citizens understand the political agenda, policy issues to be addressed by political associations, how well these are aligned with their community priorities, the transparency and quality of election planning by the electoral commission as well as the inclusion of women, youth, and minorities in the election process. These findings have implications for Puntland’s nascent democratic system adopted as part of the democratic transition from long-practiced tradition.
A Social Accountability Tool - Empowered Youth Generation in Governance
The Social Accountability tool provides a framework for a citizen-led action to hold governments and service providers accountable for the proper use of resources. More specifically the tool targets the youth population by providing them with a platform to harness their potential in civic responsibility. The tool provides models that can be applied by the citizens to engage with duty-bearers to ensure accountability, transparency, and responsive governance systems.
The publishing of the social accountability tool was made possible through the generous support from DANIDA through Uraia under the Strengthening Public Accountability and Responsiveness in Kenya (SPARKe) programme.
Gender and Political Research - Case study of three counties of Kenya
The Oslo Center with support from Uraia Trust and Royal Danish Embassy implemented the Women Leadership and Participation Program. The program strengthened women’s political leadership to address systematic barriers to political inclusion in three counties of Kenya namely Nakuru, Kirinyaga and Kajiado. After the election in 2022, the Oslo conducted a research on the performance of women in the electoral process and further analyze the systemic barriers to women’s electability at the National and County level and provides pertinent recommendations for the engagement of women in political processes and particular attention and emphasis was on the three select project counties. The research presents interesting findings on the space of women in Kenya’s politics and the barriers to women electability with recommendations that could support in mitigating the systemic barriers.
For more information find the link below.
Nandi County Citizen Priorities
County-focused policy documents developed through a citizen-led participatory approach to identify policy priorities and proposals in Nandi, Meru, and Mombasa Counties for implementation by duty-bearers.