Background 

The project supports five countries Kenya, Senegal, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Mongolia, in promoting structural reforms aimed at creating an enabling environment for people's participation in public life. These reforms will focus on an appropriate combination of the following elements: 

• Regulatory frameworks for civic space. Legal and administrative provisions regulating the exercise of the freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, as well as the protection of human rights defenders.
• Citizen participation infrastructure. The concrete mechanisms and processes that allow for people's participation in different aspects of public life, such as procedures enabling citizen input into policymaking.
• Civil society strengthening infrastructure. Mechanisms to support civil society organizations, either through public investment (e.g. via social innovation funds) or private capital (via innovative financing solutions). 

To promote the meaningful and equal participation of all members of society without discrimination, the project will adopt a strong gender equality lens with a focus on women empowerment. The initiative streamlines, across all its outputs, gender equality principles and it comprises one key output that is fully dedicated to the promotion of gender equality. 

In addition, the project will systematically address the issue of young people’s inclusion in public life, including where applicable the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda, with at least one result per country specifically contributing to advancing young people’s leadership and participation. 

In Mongolia, the project will advocate for changes in legislation, procedures, and implementation approaches to make policymaking more participatory. In collaboration with the Accelerator Lab, it will carry out an ecosystem-level analysis of participation practice assessing what it takes to make legislative and policy decisions more participatory. Selected thematic areas, to be identified in collaboration with civil society partners, may serve as case studies. This exercise will lead to the identification of potential participation “accelerators” which will be piloted, building capacity among policymakers, CSOs, and professional groups for inclusive policy co-creation. Based on these pilots, the project will formulate relevant recommendations on improving citizen participation on policymaking in Mongolia. These recommendations will take into account and incorporate as appropriate, commitments from the OGP National Action Plan and insights from the August 2024 independent NAP review. 

Objectives 

Promote structural reforms aimed at creating an enabling environment for people's participation in public life