The World Forum for Democracy 2016 will focus on how education can help bridge the social divide and become a real asset for our diverse democracies.

The Forum will analyse the impact of education systems on democracy and identify innovative initiatives and practices which can make education (both formal and non-formal) more democracy-centred, and critically assess their potential to trigger systemic change. It will focus on the issue of how education can become better at nurturing citizens as active members of society who engage in public space – and how grassroots innovation can be enhanced to promote change in education practice on a greater scale. The Forum will discuss not only what Education can do for Democracy but also what Democracy can do for Education.

The Forum will consist of plenary sessions for high-level addresses; keynote introductions and a joint debate/summing up, as well as a series of focused working sessions – labs – to address specific issues through the critical analysis of tested initiatives or new ideas. The key conclusions and lessons learnt from the labs will be discussed in a summing up session in order to prepare the overall conclusions for the Forum.

Themes and Labs 2016