ICLD’s Local Democracy Academy 2024: Applications Now Open 

Applications are now open for the 4th Local Democracy Academy, organized by ICLD, the Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy. ICLD is a non profit organization, to support democratic participation and change at the local level and with a focus on local democracy, local self-governance and decentralization.  

The Local Democracy Academy is an an action-research conference gathering change-makers dedicated to understanding and harnessing the power of democratic innovations.  In an era marked by anti-democratic challenges, hope emerges from the local level where local governments play an important role by sustaining and advancing democratic principles from below. It is against this backdrop that the biennial Local Democracy Academy returns, inviting researchers from all corners of the globe to join in an environment of learning and co-creation.

Goals and Objectives of the Academy  

  • Identify and analyze challenges experienced by democratic local governments to provide policy recommendations. 
  • Assess how local governments can fight anti-democratic trends at the national and global level. 
  • Co-design research initiatives to explore and address complex local democratic challenges.

The key thematic streams will be the following: Climate Action, Gender Equality, Democratic Resilience, Equitable Health, Youth Inclusion, and Human Rights Cities


At the Academy, participants will:  

  • Present their research around the key themes of the conference.    
  • Participate in Local Democracy Labs and use their expertise to discuss ways of addressing the challenges identified by local governments.   
  • Build capacity for impact-oriented research.   
  • Co-create ideas for research proposals and policy briefs.  

Junior and senior researchers with a strong interest in local democracy and democratic decentralization are invited to apply! 

Deadline for Application: March 31, 2024  – Apply Here!


You can read more here:

Local Democracy Academy  

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