Global Governance, Civil Society and Participatory Democracy: A View from Below - Tapa dura

"Civil society participation in global governance brings to bear an issue of interest in negotiating processes dominated by the articulation of country interests and provides a voice to a growing transnational public interest. This book is a splendid record of the efforts of FIM to structure these two dimensions of civil society engagement and should be read for profit by anyone interested in democratising global governance." Nitin Desai, formerly Under-Secretary General, United Nations"

In order to democratise governance at the global level, it is imperative to ensure that the voice of ordinary citizens, especially the most excluded, are heard and acted upon. What forms of direct citizen engagement in the arenas, platforms and mechanisms of global governance can promote this? Which of these forms and processes can be institutionalised? What mechanisms of democratic accountability can be enabled to make representative forms of global governance institutions accountable to the citizens of their own countries? Global Governance, Civil Society and Participatory Democracy: A View from Below answers these questions through the experiences of FIM Forum for Democratic Global Governance in democratising certain arenas and spaces of global governance. Such arenas are not only the powerful and global multilateral organisations of the UN system; they include supra-regional inter-governmental organisations such as the Commonwealth, the OIF, the OIC, as well as the G8, G20 and BRICS. FIM has facilitated connections and relationships within such key organisations of the multilateral sphere. By building these connections, FIM has actualised the exchange between local lived realities and the high level decisions that affect global governance. The lessons of FIM's engagement in the processes, challenges and outcomes of building democracy from below are relevant for civil society actors and policy makers alike. The book is a must read for all those engaged in facilitating, scaling-up and strengthening the mechanisms of participatory democracy in order to create global citizens who become agents of change for a better world.