Within the Resiliency+ initiative, a three-day virtual cohort meeting was organized from March 10 to March 12, 2021, gathering over 100 participants, civil rights activists from Ecuador, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Serbia and Tanzania, along with represenatives of USAID, Internews, ICNL, R4D, DevLab, PartnersGlobal and Partners Serbia. The event presented a unique opportunity to reflect on global challenges and obstacles to civic space by learning and discussing about specifics in some of the regions with fragile democracies, and share best practices to better respond, adapt and overcome such civic space shifts.

The first day provided opportunity for old and new cohorts of organizations to meet one another and, through a series of workshops, share any experiences, successes, and challenges concerning their participation in the Resiliency+ program and discuss the most prevalent threats and their new manifestations and how they impact the civil society sector.

The second day was dedicated entirely to the new cohort, which was presented with the notion of resiliency, civic space, and other key concepts within the R+ Framework. The workshops enabled them to familiarize themselves with the key findings from the first implementation of Resiliency+ under INSPIRES, express any expected challenges and outcomes, and later discuss the expected levels of involvement of the organizations, the different roles, rules, and opportunities.

The third and final day was marked with a public event, streamed via Partners Serbia official Facebook page. Civil society leaders from Latin America, Eastern Europe, East Africa, and West Africa kicked off a discussion on the new challenges and threats that civil society and civic space at large is facing as a result of the pandemic and its associated effects. The panelists and participants discussed experiences, successes, and challenges concerning their participation in the Resiliency+ program. The panelists included:

• Kellie Burk (USAID)
• Dan Spealman (Internews)
• Pablo Arcuri (Internews)
• Rebecca Vernon (ICNL)
• Christine Kuria (Katiba Institute)
• Sonja Stojanovic Gajic (NKEU)
• Humberto Salazar (Esquel)

For more information about this event, please visit Resiliency+ launch event official website.

To keep up to date with impact of COVID on civic space, visit ICNL's COVID-19 Civic Freedom Tracker and read about Coronavirus & Civic Space.