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COVID-19 has Boosted Civil Society Participation in International Meetings Despite Technical Glitches
An obvious consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the sharp reduction in global air travel and postponement of nearly all face-to-face global meetings and conferences. All sectors experienced an “events lockdown”, including international development organisations like the World Bank, which cancelled all in-person meetings beginning in March 2020.
Civil society activists, who normally travelled to participate in major discussions on development-issues, were among those grounded at home. One might conclude, therefore, that the pandemic undermined participatory global governance, leaving the deliberations on critical issues to an exclusive group of senior officials in public sector organizations. The evidence, however, points in the opposite direction. Once forums and meetings were re-scheduled and moved online, civil society participation actually increased in the numerous virtual conferences and webinars held over the past year.
What’s more, the composition of civil society contingents attending international meetings soon began to shift. There has been a marked increase in participation by representatives from civil society organizations (CSOs) based in low-and-middle income countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Before…
