Quorum: women and youth innovating democracy - NIMD

The project QUORUM was implemented between 2021 and 2024, primarily in the departments of Tolima, Cauca and Caqueta, and at the national level. Despite challenges faced throughout implementation due to contextual factors such as the COIVD19 pandemic, the national strike of 2021, the 2022 national elections, and the 2023 locallevel elections, NIMD managed to stay flexible and adaptive in its programming to make progress towards expected results. Examples of results achieved by QUORUM between 2021 and 2024 include the following: Objective 1: women and youth capacity strengthening Quorum implemented different types of Training Schools throughout the life of the project, each which catered its programming to a different type of audience. These included: Schools for Dialogue, Innovation and Leadership (2021) (EDIL for its acronym in Spanish): a training program for women and youth interested in strengthening their democratic abilities and capacities. Democracy Training Schools (2022): a training program for civic, social and political leaders who, in general, intended to become candidates in the 2023 territorial elections. It focused on increasing knowledge, democratic capabilities, appropriation and application of innovative democratic tools and methodologies. Mentoring and Network Program Ocupar la Politica (OLP) (2023): a specialized mentoring program whose objective was to strengthen candidacies from underrepresented population groups, committed to political innovation and collective leadership, and who aspired to become candidates for departmental assemblies, municipal and district councils, and Local Administrative Boards (JAL). From Election to Action: Innovation School OLP (2024): a training program that looked to provide elected individuals and their teams practical tools that could be implemented in their corporations, in addition to clarifying the positions they occupy and their scope of work. This cycle of the OLP school contributed to the closing of the Quorum cycle of accompaniment to the candidates for the 2023 territorial elections (now elected officials) who participated in the processes of OLP and the Democracy Training School in previous years. Additionally, Quorum developed an online Knowledge Management and Elearning Platform designed to provide information, methodologies, and remote assistance to emerging leaders interested in becoming candidates for the 2023 elections. In total, approximately 1,700 women and youth strengthened their capacities and abilities to participate in electoral processes and locallevel decisionmaking spaces. Students who participated in the last iteration of the OLP increased their capacities by 88% on average, while those who participated in the EDIL and Democracy Training Schools increased their capacities by 78% on average. In aggregated terms, approximately 300 people participated in the OLP training courses, both in the training and mentoring phases, of which 145 became candidates and 44 were elected in 2023. As per the external evaluation, 95% of participants confirmed that Quorum satisfied their needs in terms of participation and voice in public and/or political matters. Most participants coincided that the Project provided them with a holistic capacity building process focused on political and electoral participation, and that they not only increased their theoretical knowledge but also put it to use in practical innovation processes. Objective 2: strengthening of organizational capacities of political actors To contribute to the strengthening of organizational capacities of political actors, Quorum implemented different types of innovation laboratories: First, diverse Youth Dialogue Processes were implemented in the prioritized territories. This methodology was designed specifically to work with representatives of elected youth in the Youth Municipal Councils. A total of 851 people participated and strengthened their capacities to design and implement new forms of citizen participation that expand democratic spaces particularly for historically marginalized groups. Additionally, Collaboratories (multiactor dialogue spaces) were implemented in partnership with members of the House of Representatives in Cauca, Tolima and Caquetá. The Houses participation and adoption of the Collaboratories was important in showing highlevel national commitment and acceptance to implement innovative practices for participation of women and youth. Collaboratories were implemented with citizen interest groups to provide feedback on bills, generate legislative initiatives, and create reform proposals. These spaces allowed citizens not only to learn about the legislative process but also for constituents and representatives to get closer to citizens, which strengthens trust in the institutions and brings citizens closer to the legislative processes. Quorum also implemented 16 technical assistance processes for women and youth from popularly elected corporations or political parties. This included technical assistance for candidates to the Special Transitory Circumscriptions in the prioritized territories. It also included trainings for the Municipal Youth Councils and municipal youth platforms to strengthen their knowledge on public policies, youth participation subsystem, deliberation strategies, and state and local government structures. Furthermore, support was provided for multiactor dialogues around the development and updating of local youth public policies. Multiactor dialogues were also supported for prioritization and codesign of action plans/youth agendas in each department. Overall, the innovation laboratories have contributed to (i) decisionmaking among youth representatives who prioritize topics according to the needs and interests of youth in their municipalities, (ii) the design of expectation campaigns and invitations for youth audiences, and (iii) the elaboration of action plans that took into consideration youth priorities and key actors. Some concrete examples of this include the following: 1) the Collaboratory in Bogota, hosted with the Presidential Council for Youth (Colombia Joven), the Accidental Youth Commission of the House of Representatives, and the Javeriana Youth Observatory, focused on formulating a proposal to reform the Statute of Youth Citizenship. As a result, a document was prepared for relevant actors, including Colombia Joven and the Accidental Commission, as input for an eventual reform. 2) the technical assistance provided to the municipal council of Popayán resulted in the filing a draft agreement on Violence Against Women in Politics by councilors of the Legal Commission for Women's Equality. 3) as a result of the youth audiences, the Florencia municipal youth public policy included inputs and recommendations provided by youth participants. Additionally, in contribution to objective two, Quorum complemented financial and technical resources with the NIMD project Leap for Peace, to strengthen the capacities of social, political and community women leaders to advocate and position their needs and requests in the formulation process of local development plans. This advocacy strategy was implemented by the International League of Women for Peace and Freedom (LIMPAL). 139 women participated in the workshops that focused on: (1) knowledge leveling to provide technical and conceptual tools to the processes of formulation, implementation and monitoring of development plans, (2) cocreation to identify problems and key actors, propose alternatives solution, create an action plan and a followup strategy. As a result, women strengthened their advocacy abilities they acquired communication tools for strategic dialogue with political actors and they established working groups with local entities and government officials to incorporate gender measures in the local development plans. Objective 3: proposal for a political reform for the political participation of women and youth The political reform proposal presented by the Government passed in 4 of the 8 debates necessary for its approval in 2022. However, during the start of the second round in Congress in March 2023, the Government withdrew the project. Thus, NIMD adapted the design of its Mini Public strategy so that the proposals for change derived from the process could have impacts beyond a political reform. For example, in: the intention to reform the Youth Citizenship Statute, the national youth public policy, the Youth Accidental Commission (Chamber), and the Legal Commission for Women's Equality (Senate). The Mini Public: Youth Citizen Assembly is a democratic innovation process that brought together young people from all over the country to deliberate and create proposals for change to the electoral political system in order to improve their political participation and influence. 440 people participated in the 4 phases of the Mini Public. As a result of the Mini Public, 105 young people (53% of participants identified as women, 46% as men, and 1% as nonbinary) participated in deliberation processes in Bogota. The assembly members prioritized 30 proposals for change and consolidated the Declaration for the Political Participation of young people in Colombia by formulating 10 principles that synthesize the proposals for change and the expected results. The results of this work were socialized on March 17, 2023 in Congress. During the advocacy phase of the Mini Public, 11 inperson bilateral meetings were held in Bogotá between the representatives of the monitoring committee (12 young people) and different relevant actors at the national level to present and advocate for the proposals for change and the Declaration be considered in different public policy processes. The Mini Public was the first inperson citizen assembly in Colombia that brought together young people to deliberate on public issues. Through the Mini Public, NIMD began coordinating with the Presidential Youth Council and the Accidental Youth Commission of the House of Representatives. This close collaboration opened the doors for NIMD to become a part of the technical advisory committee for the formulation of the national youth public policy and the cooperation committee of the accidental commission. In both spaces, NIMD has been positioning youth's proposals for change that resulted in the Mini Public. NIMD reports that the Presidential Council for Youth adopted the proposals for change that resulted from the Mini Public as input for the formulation of the national youth public policy. In contribution to objective three, Quorum also published the book Juventud en Dialogo: Herramientas para la transformacion del Sistema politico y electoral colombiano, which is comprised of 6 chapters: (i) the contributions of deliberative democracy to public dialogue, (ii) proposals for the strengthening of youth in the framework of political reform, (iii) the current regulatory context with a youth focus, (iv) gender in the framework of the participation of women, young people and people with diverse sexual orientation and gender identity as underrepresented actors, (v) a proposal to update the recommendations of the Special Electoral Mission, and (vi) an advocacy route for the approval of proposals for youth participation in national and regional settings. This book was presented and made available to diverse key stakeholders, including Colombia Joven, now the Viceministry of Youth, which was also received it as input for the elaboration of the national youth public policy. The book was also utilized as a pedagogical tool to prepare youth for their participation in the MiniPublic.

The strategic objective of the Contribution is to contribute to increase women and youth equal political participation and influence in decision making settings as a guarantee for the full exercise of their political rights. By the end of the Contribution is it expected that the political participation of women and young people has increased in targeted territories and at the national level, leading in the long term to a more democratic and inclusive political system. In order to achieve this goal, NIMD Colombia has set three specific objectives: 1. To improve the capacities and skills of women and youth from the most conflict affected territories to participate in political and civic process and influence decision making settings of their communities 2. To enhance the organizational capacities of political actors to guarantee the equal participation of women and youth in decision making settings 3. To develop a women and youth lead an evidence based proposal to improve their political participation and representation under equality parameters.