International Civic Forum
Since 2016, the International Civic Forum (ICF) convenes leaders from civil society and other sectors who are at the forefront of protecting and advancing civic space around the globe. It is the annual platform for discussing key civic space issues, forging connections, and identifying opportunities for collaboration.
ICF 2024
The ICF 2024 will focus on “Digital trends (re)shaping civic space: Opportunities and challenges” and take place between 31 October and 1 November in Johannesburg, South Africa, following the Civic Tech Innovation Forum (CTIF), happening from 29 to 31 October. While the CTIF will bring the African civic tech community together to discuss civic tech innovations and uncover civic tech mysteries, the ICF will gather international civil society ecosystem to examine how digital trends are reshaping civic space. From exploring the impact of digital authoritarianism and disinformation to diving into the role of artificial intelligence, the ICF will tackle the challenges and opportunities that technology presents to civic space.
ICF participants will have the opportunity to explore digital themes throughout the week by attending both events.
Please note that the ICF is a closed, in-person, and invitation-only event. If you would like more information or wish to inquire about attendance, please reach out to Eva Gondor.
Past editions
The ICF 2023 dealt with “Anticipating futures: Moving from scenarios to actions” and brought together 40 civil society experts to Brussels (Belgium) at the end of November 2023. The event focused on operationalising insights from the future scenarios for civic and civil society operating space developed through the ParEvo foresight exercise “A history of civic space, 2024-2034” and examining ways of translating them into strategies and practices. The participants engaged with future scenarios and explored how to build up anticipatory capacities at the sectoral, organisational and individual level.
The ICF 2022 kicked off the initiative “Anticipating futures for civil society operating space” and brought together 60 civil society representatives to London (UK) in November 2022. The event raised awareness why (I)CSOs need to move beyond reactive responses to shrinking space for civil society and become more anticipatory; showed examples of how futures thinking and foresight can be useful; and generated ideas on building collective cross-sector anticipatory capacities and actions.
Convened in partnership with the Funders’ Initiative for Civil Society (FICS), the ICF 2021 shed light on “Anti-rights groups on the rise: How can we jointly address this challenge?” Discussions provided inspiration and insights on how to prepare for attacks from anti-rights groups and how to stand better in solidarity with those who’ve long faced the brunt of these attacks.
The ICF 2020 focused on how to counter misinformation and disinformation that target civil society organisations and the communities they serve. Participants discussed risks that mis- and disinformation pose, exchanged on ways of countering them, looked at useful tools and strategies, and explored new models of addressing mis- and disinformation.
