March 23rd, 2023 at 10:00 – 12:00 ET, 16:00 – 18:00 CET

Fundación Avina

To kick off the EDGE Members’ Dialogues on Democracy and Systemic Change, EDGE held Session 0 “The Constitutional Process in Chile & How Philanthropic Actors Can Actively Be Part of Democratic Transformations” in collaboration with EDGE member Fundacion Avina and their partners Ciudadanía Inteligente and Ahora Nos Toca Participar.

This session looks at how the relationship/joint work, based on closeness and truthfulness, between philanthropic actors and civil society movements, networks, and organizations, becomes a relevant element when considering the need for systemic transformations in the global south democracies.

We started with a presentation on how civil society in Chile has learnt and improved from its numerous transformations during the past 15 years, we listened to alternatives on how to jointly build civic and participatory processes between philanthropic actors and social movements, and we had a dialogue on how narratives and counternarratives had an immense effect on what happened last year and on what will happen in 2023.

To inspire you to consider funding democratic innovations with a systemic change lens, below are some of the big takeaways from our conversations as well as extra resources to continue your learning and reflecting on the meaning of supporting democratic processes with a systemic change lens.

If you would like to be part of these dialogues and learn in community, become an EDGE member!

Lessons from Chile on funding democracy with a systemic change lens:

Centering those systematically marginalized

Invest in amplifying the voices of communities that are excluded from the democratic and decision making processes.

Increasing flexibility, leveraging intermediary partners or conveners and connecting actors

Donors and funders need to be flexible and need to get to know the work of social actors so they can prioritize financial decisions in reaction to their needs
The activism in Chile and the work Fundacion Avina did to support social actors in Chile was improved and potentialized because of learnings from similar work they did in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil. There is history and trans-contextual learning for common structural challenges. These kinds of documentation and systematization of past experiences and exchange of knowledge and collaborations between activists is important and needs to be funded
Similar to the above, the role of conveners (traditionally referred to as “intermediaries”) needs to be recognized in this systemic change work and their way of work needs to be recognized and replicated. Avina builds relationships with grantees and designs their grant processes with them. Within this process of working together, Avina is able to share learnings from other groups they have supported,connect and bridge between different actors. This looks like connections between activists and systemic change makers from different contexts undertaking similar challenges but also connecting those systematically excluded to decision makers Avina is connected with

Funding shifts in values and unquantifiable experimentation

Make room for experimentation on what democracy could mean. A new democratic process requires a reimagination of relationships between citizens, institutions and governments. This requires an expansion and opening of our lines of thinking and working. Dedicate resources to those expansions
It is impossible to protect democratic processes without a shift in values. Funders need to move money towards this longer term work of values shifting which entails funding different sectors like research and academia. Funders are currently not fond of civic culture changes and institutional culture changes. Funders need to invest money into participatory process and the labor of making them stronger
There is a need for what a new narrative for democracy could be. How can progressive ideas align with political priorities? Funding to answer that question is needed

Building infrastructures for democratic transformations

There is a lot of unsustainability in the work of shifting democracies. Activists get burned out, run out of resources, or simply need breaks after long campaigns that end up being unsuccessful. In this process, knowledge is lost and communication across different actors is halted. Resources are needed to make this process more sustainable and to invest in making information public and knowledge sharing easier beyond the efforts of individual players
To build on the above, more money is needed to the long process of building networks and infrastructures of activism
Money is needed to fund the process of building political strategies and collaboration strategies