Our Voices Our Planet

Conference on democracy and sustainability

12-14 September 2022, ABC Bildungs- und Tagungszentrum in Drochtersen-Hüll, Germany

At the international conference OUR VOICES OUR PLANET, young adults, multipliers, educators and other individuals from democracy and sustainability movements in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe discussed the relationship between democracy and sustainability. Fifty people participated in the conference.

It was organized as a mixture of keynote speeches, discussions, networking opportunities, forums, workshops and sessions that could be freely organized by the participants.

The guiding questions of the conference were:

• What challenges do climate change and an eco-social transformation pose on democracy worldwide?
• How must democracy be (re)defined and lived to meet the need for global sustainability and climate justice?
• Who “sits at the table” and whose voices are rarely heard in public discourse and decision-making?
• How can people be empowered to participate in democratic processes for an eco-social transformation?
• How can we defy the shrinking space of civil society and strengthen its role in creating democratic and sustainable futures?
• Which kind of relationship between humans and nature do we need to protect our planet? What would our economy look like?
• How can we build resilience and common trust to remain calm and able to navigate with care despite all the urgency?
• How can we design education to foster a beneficial relationship between democracy and sustainability?

Programme

On the first day, Eiman Seifeldin and Christian Cray gave a keynote speech entitled 'Just a piece of the cake or the whole bakery? Defending democracy means defending our planet!', which was then discussed by the participants. On the second day, two workshop sessions on civil society for democracy and sustainability took place. The morning session focused on challenges, perspectives and discourses, and the afternoon session focused on strategies, practices and actions. The day ended with a fishbowl discussion and an open stage. On the third day, participants were invited to propose topics for discussion in an open space format.

Facilitation and preparation

The conference was facilitated by Timo Holthoff (www.welt-beziehung-bilden.org). It was planned by an international group that met online on a regular basis to plan the schedule.