Network for Democratic Solidarity
The global rise of illiberalism threatens democracy everywhere. A coordinated response, based in democratic values, is needed to protect against this threat.
The CIC began this work in 2021 with support from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation of Canada. Our project “Renewing Our Democratic Alliance” engaged close to 200 leading scholars and practitioners from the two countries on a wide range of shared threats to democracies that share our pluralist, inclusive values.
The results were extremely promising, and RODA concluded in late 2022 with a call to launch a permanent new structure to facilitate mutual learning between the two countries.
In June 2023, the CIC helped launch the Network for Democratic Solidarity. The Network aspires to bring together pro-democracy actors in many countries across the Global North and South. By convening government officials, on one track, and civil society actors, on another, the Network hopes to generate a deeper sense of solidarity through mutual learning.
For more information, look at the website: https://democraticsolidarity.nationbuilder.com/
About Us
We are building a network for democratic solidarity.
RODA is a partnership between pro-democracy actors in Canada and Germany,
both in government and civil society, facilitated through a partnership by the CIC and KAS Canada
Project Goals
Germany and Canada have pioneered a new approach to democracy support, aligning policies in a process of mutual learning. The RODA project seeks to codify this approach and employ it in a new likeminded group of governments and civil society organizations across the Global North and Global South. In time, we hope this approach will reframe and reinvigorate he global democracy agenda.
Jeremy Kinsman, Project Initiator
Dr. Norbert Eschborn, Project Co-Chair
Ben Rowswell, Project Co-Chair
Samantha Tristen, Project Manager
Annika Weikinnis, KAS Canada
Iris Bernheim, Junior Research Fellow
Origins
RODA started as an effort to deepen German-Canadian cooperation to address global problems in light of a growing assault on the values democracies share and the shared interests we pursue together in multilateral diplomacy. Following informal exchanges in 2018, the CIC and KAS Canada launched the project in 2021.
Over the course of 2022, RODA has expanded to include pro-democracy actors in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as North America and Europe.
