In this new episode of How Could We? recorded in the streets of Baku during COP29, Anne-Sophie Garrigou interviewed Rich Wilson, CEO of the Iswe Foundation, about the state of our democracies today and the role of citizen assemblies in making our democracies stronger.

In this episode, Rich says that we are at a pivotal moment for democracies today. Despite growing public demand for action, our governments and democratic systems are struggling to effectively address the climate crisis.

Rich discusses how citizen assemblies can help strengthen democracies by building agency for citizens, fostering learning, and being grounded in principles of solidarity and inclusion. The challenge, however, is in scaling them.

One of Iswe Foundation’s projects is to create a global, permanent citizen assembly to bring to COP30 in Brazil. Their goal is to support a new form of democracy and governance that can help address the climate crisis, by empowering citizens to drive change within their communities.

Visit the Iswe Foundation website to learn more: Iswe

Visit the Global Citizen Assembly website: Address the climate and ecological crisis | Global Assembly

Visit ⁠climate-kic.org⁠, and reach out to us at media@climate-kic.org with any questions.

This episode was presented and produced by ⁠Anne-Sophie Garrigou⁠.