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Sofia Platform Foundation in collaboration with Democratic Society, City of Reykjavik and Citizens Foundation, organized a Local Democracy Lab – an online public deliberation event to discuss the condition of democracy through the lens of the Covid-19 pandemic as part of the Populism and Civic Engagement (PaCE) project. The event took place in the town of Belene on Saturday, July 3, 2021.

Local Democracy Labs are organized across Europe in another five countries: Iceland, Spain, Poland, Scotland and Hungary.

Objectives
Local Democracy Lab creates an opportunity for the residents of Bulgaria to discuss their viewpoints and concerns on how the local authorities handle the pandemic and propose recommendations to decision-makers. 

Activities
Over the 3-hour-long event, participants had a discussions in groups, facilitated by professional facilitators, using a World Cafe format – a dialogue method giving space for everybody to add their input. Their contributions are featured in the PaCE project research and the outcomes are to be widely shared among European researchers and policymakers.
 

Materials
You can find the report on the conclusions of the event here in English and here in Bulgarian.

Partner organization
Local Democracy Lab Bulgaria is part of the PaCE (Populism and Civic Engagement) project, an EU-funded research and innovation programme, aiming to understand and address the negative tendencies associated with populism politics. PaCE is run by a consortium of European universities, NGOs and public institutions.