Convening civil society leaders to address the challenges shaping civic space
The International Civic Forum (ICF) creates a space for civil society leaders, practitioners and partners to step away from immediate pressures and engage with some of the bigger questions shaping the future of civic space. Through exchange, learning and collaboration, participants explore emerging challenges, share experiences and develop ideas for how civil society can respond.
Each year, the Forum focuses on a timely issue with significant implications for civil society. Its trusted, collaborative setting brings together different perspectives and experiences, creating opportunities to challenge assumptions, build connections and explore new approaches that can inform participants’ work beyond the Forum.
A space for exchange, learning and collaboration
The ICF is designed to go beyond traditional conference formats. Through facilitated discussions, practical workshops, expert inputs and peer exchange, participants are encouraged to challenge assumptions, share experiences and develop ideas together.
The Forum brings together perspectives from across geographies, organisations and areas of expertise. Its closed, invitation-only format enables open and constructive conversations and creates space to explore questions that may be difficult to address elsewhere.
Through the ICF, we aim to:
- deepen understanding of emerging challenges affecting civil society and civic space;
- connect people and perspectives from across the sector;
- strengthen practical knowledge and approaches;
- create space for experimentation and collective thinking; and
- identify opportunities for continued learning and collaboration beyond the Forum.
International Civic Forum 2022.
International Civic Forum 2026
Shaping the Story: Building Stronger Narratives for Civil Society
18–19 November 2026 | Amsterdam, the Netherlands
This year’s International Civic Forum will explore how civil society can strengthen its narrative power at a time when its role and value are increasingly contested.
Over two days, participants will strengthen practical narrative skills and explore shared values, principles, and areas of alignment that could provide the foundations for stronger narratives about civil society, while recognising the need to adapt them across different organisations, audiences, and contexts.
International Civic Forum 2023, Brussels
International Civic Forum 2024, Johannesburg
International Civic Forum 2025, Bangkok
International Civic Forum 2025, Bangkok
Earlier editions
The ICF 2025 took place in Bangkok, Thailand, as an in-person workshop on 5–6 November 2025, held alongside International Civil Society Week (ICSW), co-hosted by CIVICUS and the Asia Democracy Network. This alignment allowed the ICF to draw on the energy and diversity of ICSW’s global gathering while offering a complementary space to build on its debates, leverage synergies, and explore strategies to protect civic space. Centred on the theme “Advancing Rights Together: Shaping Strategies in the Face of Aligned Opposition,” the ICF 2025 created space for collective reflection on how to counter the discourses, policies, and narratives of anti-rights actors and strengthen the protection of rights. Participants discussed and enriched findings from a baseline mapping prepared by the Centre. To achieve this, participants identified their priority approaches for deeper exploration, focusing particularly on digital governance, narrative framing and coalition building.
The ICF 2024 focused on “Digital trends (re)shaping civic space: Challenges and opportunities” and took place at the beginning of November 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa, building synergies with the Civic Tech Innovation Forum (CTIF). While the CTIF brought together the African civic tech community to discuss civic tech innovations and uncover civic tech mysteries, the ICF gathered the international civil society ecosystem to examine how digital trends are reshaping civic space. From exploring the impact of digital authoritarianism and disinformation to delving into the role of artificial intelligence, the ICF explored the challenges and opportunities that technology presents to civic space.
The ICF 2023 dealt with “Anticipating futures: Moving from scenarios to actions” and brought together 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 civil society representatives to London (UK) in November 2022. The event raised awareness as to why (I)CSOs should transition from reactive responses to shrinking civic space toward anticipatory action. This was demonstrated through examples of futures-thinking for (I)CSOs and generating ideas of cross-sector capabilities 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 in stronger solidarity with those who’ve long faced the brunt of these attacks.
The ICF 2020 focused on countering 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 for mitigation; and explored new models of addressing mis- and disinformation.