EU4Democracy campaign makes an impact

Brussels, September 2017 – As part of the EU4Democracy campaign from 15 September to 15 October 2017, Media4Democracy helped develop a package of advocacy materials to support EU Delegation activities. The materials were used by nearly 30 EU Delegations from Afghanistan to Zambia, providing ideas for events and communications items such as images and banners to ensure more effective messaging.

The month-long EU4Democracy campaign included events to celebrate the International Day of Democracy (IDD) on 15 September 2017 and the International Day on Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) on 28 September 2017.

The 2017 campaign focused on the Right to Know and on how citizens can more actively raise public awareness and mobilise communities, helping to ensure the free flow of information necessary to meet people’s social, economic and political needs.

The main aim of the campaign was to highlight support to democracy and human rights as a fundamental priority of the European Union. It also highlighted the role of citizens, civil society, media and other stakeholders in advocating democratic accountability and access to information.

Joint effort

The ‘‘EU4Democracy Package’’ was prepared by Media4Democracy and its partner EIDHR technical assistance project, Supporting Democracy: A Citizen Organisations Programme. The package provided communications materials, suggestions for activities and background information to assist effective  participation in the campaign.

Whenever possible, EU Delegations were encouraged to promote activities that involve local stakeholders, such as students, civil society, media, politicians, researchers and interested and active citizens. Harnessing the power of social media was an important element of the campaign, so the suggested hashtags  #EU4Democracy and  #MyDemocracyIs were actively promoted.

Other activities included debates and workshops, and a video competition asking people to record what democracy means to them.

The campaign will be repeated in 2018, with a new focus to showcase a different facet of EU support for democracy.