This report offers an evaluation of the project entitled “Enabling National Initiatives to Take
Democracy Beyond Elections” that was implemented by newDemocracy Foundation (nDF)
from 1 November 2018 to 30 November 2022 globally and in three country locations: Brazil,
Republic of North Macedonia and Malawi. The project benefited from a UNDEF grant of US$
250,000 to carry out activities designed to achieve three core outcomes:
- Enhance practical skills and knowledge of alternative models for deliberative
democracy among an ecosystem of practitioners, inside and outside government. - Exemplify how deliberative citizen engagement can resonate with elected
representatives. - Increase global uptake of citizen assembly (CA) models and/or the application of
deliberative principles/alternative forms of democratic decision-making.
In the view of this evaluation, the overall objective of demonstrating that complementary
democratic models are effective, implementable and practical and lead to trusted long-term
decisions because of the legitimacy, desirability and usefulness of participatory, and citizen
oriented, democratic models has been achieved. The interventions at the country level played
a key role in changing behaviours not just among ordinary citizens, but also among
government officials both during the project and afterwards. In addition, the contribution this
project has made to strengthening the tools and knowledge for conducting CAs is another key
impact. Whilst more could have been done to integrate learnings from the pilots to further
strengthen the comprehensive handbook produced, or as addendums to it, the fact that it has
been, and continues to be, used by global actors working to promote democracy globally in
their thinking and strategizing is a clear illustration of impact.
