At the 2025 OGP Global Summit in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, Nets4Dem hosted a special workshop together with hexagonal. This high-energy lab aimed at fostering critical reflection and experimentation of deliberative multi-stakeholder processes. During the session, participants explored, learned about, and prototyped inclusive participation models to address complex policy issues, drawing on insights from real-world cases.
Four working groups tackled each one of the following policy issues:
- Inclusive tech transformation for open government
- Open governance for health and social protection.
- Radical participation: from consultation to shared power
- Disinformation, trust, and the governance of information
To inspire group work, speakers from UNDP Armenia, CODE-NGO in the Philippines, Participation Factory as well as Spanish city administrations shared their lessons learned from the multi-stakeholder participation processes they implemented across various thematic and geographic contexts.
Key learnings from the session included:
- Civic tech can help overcome barriers to multi-stakeholder deliberation, such as unequal education or participation skills, language differences, geographic dispersion, and the extended engagement such processes require.
- A shared knowledge base among all participants is essential to enable balanced and informed dialogue.
- Engaging young people remains a challenge. Interest from young people does not necessarily translate into real participation over time. There is a strong need for more innovative spaces such as labs, fairs, congresses, and creative networking environments focused on exploring and co-creating solutions.
The session highlighted how open, deliberative spaces can strengthen collaboration between governments, civil society, and citizens. Nets4Dem and its partners will continue building on these insights to promote more inclusive and innovative democratic practices across Europe and beyond.
