International Civil Society Week (ICSW) 2025, held from November 1–5 2025 at Thammasat University in Bangkok, brought together more than a thousand activists, civil society leaders, academics, and changemakers under one powerful roof. Co-hosted by CIVICUS, the Asia Democracy Network and the Asia Pacific Social Forum, this gathering is widely regarded as the most significant global civil society event, a space to reflect, strategize, and strengthen networks at a moment when civic freedoms are under growing assault.

For the Melton Foundation, ICSW is a long-standing partner in advancing global citizenship and shared responsibility. Our collaboration stretches back years, and this edition was no different: Matthias Hausdörfer, our program consultant and a senior Melton Fellow and educator, represented us in Bangkok, deepening our engagement and exchanging vital insights.

ICSW matters now more than ever. At a time when authoritarianism is making alarming gains, when civic spaces shrink, and when many development narratives lean dangerously toward efficiency over justice, this global convening offered a clarion call for deeper solidarity. It reminded us that while our world is increasingly fragmented, our collective responsibility remains a force for meaningful change.

At the ICSW, the theme, “Celebrating citizen action: reimagining democracy, rights, and inclusion for today’s world.” felt urgent and anchored in reality. Civil society actors gathered reflecting on how deeply the world is divided, how civic space is under threat in dozens of countries, and how social movements need to work not only in isolation but in coalition. Matthias, drawing from his experience with us at the Melton Foundation, emphasized that our work must resist fragmentation, that alignment is not just a strategy but a necessity.

“Our efforts need to be aligned more intentionally to resist fragmentation within the very sector that seeks to address it.”

Across the week, the program featured a rich array of workshops, plenaries, and thematic deep dives.

Highlights:

  • From Classrooms to Communities: Building Peace Through Transformative Education.
    Organized by: Masterpeace Romania
    This interactive workshop used intercultural and scenario-based learning methods to demonstrate how transformative peace education can turn classrooms into spaces that foster empathy, cooperation, and conflict resolution. Participants engaged in dialogue, role-play, and creative exercises to explore practical ways to expand peacebuilding from individual learners to wider communities. In a global context where civic space is increasingly restricted, such educational approaches are essential for cultivating the skills and mindsets needed to build inclusive, resilient societies and strengthen global solidarity.
  • “Human Algorithm – Collage Storytelling”, in this creative workshop, participants explored how algorithm-driven narratives flatten complexity, and how art and storytelling can push back by preserving human nuance. It was organized by independent artist Nanyadiri.
  • “Lethal in Disguise: Crowd-Control Weapons and Shrinking Civic Space” (organized by ECNL), this critical session surfaced the real-world consequences of weakening accountability and expanding the use of repressive policing.
  • Civil Society Futures: Resourcing, Accountability and Sustainability – Reimagining Civil Society Resourcing: A Blueprint for Action Organized by: CIVICUS

This session transitioned from strategy to practical action in the area of civil society resourcing. Participants collaborated to co-create outcomes tailored to various contexts and emphasized the importance of investing in safe spaces for local actors to connect, exchange ideas, and establish shared priorities. The session was particularly insightful in revealing specific data on the global funding crisis affecting the development sector. It is not only US aid but a global pattern resulting in defunding for development work, civic education, and peacebuilding.

  • “Decoding AI Harm: A Lab for Challenging Algorithmic Injustice,”
    This session,  organized by CIVICUS and led by Caio Vieira Machado, a lawyer and social scientist specializing in the intersection of law, technology, and policy, was a scenario-based workshop focused on identifying and addressing biases and harms amplified by algorithmic systems. Participants used real-world cases to map risks, test audit tactics, and design mitigation strategies. The workshop provided clear input on the relationship between AI and human actors, emphasized the consequences of yielding decision-making to AI, and demonstrated how data itself reproduces biases and is never neutral.

Our Learnings and Reflections

  • Global patterns of repression are not isolated. Authoritarianism is not a local problem. Across regions, we see the same tactics: dismantling protests, arresting opposition, weakening the press, weaponizing disinformation, and narrowing civic space. This is not just a political pattern but a systemic threat to democracy.
  • Solidarity must go beyond transactions. The development sector, despite its good intentions, often behaves like an economy. Projects compete dramatically: good cause A versus good cause B, each vying for funding, each telling a more tragic story to appeal to donors. This competition undermines real collective action and alignment.
  • Efficiency can silence justice. There was a strong undercurrent in many conversations about how the neoliberal model, with its obsession for outputs, metrics, and “impact”, shapes civil society. As one panelist put it (echoing Melton’s own thinking), “if we take efficiency too seriously, we risk replicating the language of the oppressor.” Evaluation frameworks, KPIs, and reporting tools matter, but they must not override care, ethics, or systemic change.
  • Technology is not neutral. Many discussions explored how AI, algorithms, and automated tools are shaping how civil society communicates and mobilizes. When we lean too much on such tools, we risk flattening our stories, losing nuance, and making our advocacy more generic.
  • Resilience is rooted in relationships. Real strength comes when civil society actors build bridges: between sectors, generations, and geographies. Mutual respect, humility, and willingness to listen emerged again and again as the foundation of durable solidarity.

Based on these reflections, here are the commitments and strategies we believe are urgent moving ahead, for civil society at large:

  • Deepen collaboration, not competition. We must actively seek alliances. Rather than pitching our projects against others, we should ask: What gaps remain unfilled? Where can Melton partner to amplify, rather than duplicate, the work of others?
  • Reevaluate our metrics. How we measure success must be rethought. Impact is more than numbers. We should invest in frameworks that value healing, transformation, justice, and community, not just output.
  • Center narrative and storytelling as justice. Rather than only producing reports, we need to keep weaving stories, personal, messy, real, that resist the flattening power of efficiency. Storytelling and art are not extras; they are integral to change.
  • Guard our digital tools with care. We must be intentional about the AI and algorithmic tools we adopt. We should train our teams in digital literacy, algorithmic awareness, and participatory technology so that we control the narrative, not the other way around.
  • Build for solidarity across borders. Our work must reflect global citizenship not just in rhetoric but in practice. That means listening to local activists, compensating equitably, sharing resources, and standing in solidarity even when it is inconvenient.

ICSW 2025 in Bangkok reminded us that, even as civic spaces shrink and repression tightens, there remains a vibrant, determined global community that refuses to give up.

The road ahead will not be easy. But ICSW showed us that hope endures, not because our work is effortless, but because our solidarity is intentional. If we can stay vigilant, center justice over efficiency, and invest in belonging, then global solidarity remains not just an aspiration, but a lived reality.

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