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The Global Citizens’ Assembly: Connecting people for shared decision-making and action
Assemblies bring regular people together to explore the challenges that affect everyone and turn collective insight into effective action.
What is the Global Citizens’ Assembly
The Global Citizens’ Assembly is an essential foundation for effective governance. It brings people from around the world together to participate in decision-making at all levels and have a real say on the biggest global challenges.
Built through a connected system of local and global assemblies, it enables everyday people to engage in structured deliberation, which shape policy and action.
How the Global Citizens’ Assembly works: A multi-level system
People already meet in their own communities to engage with and act on the challenges they face across:
- Local assemblies build on this engagement by creating structured spaces where everyone can participate in the decisions that affect their community.
- Global assemblies bring participants together through a lottery to deliberate on the global scale issues.
The Global Citizens’ Assembly links all of these local and global assemblies into one network, connecting otherwise fragmented processes so that collectively they have real-world impact.
How does an assembly work? A structured approach to participation
An assembly provides a structured environment for people to figure things out together. Through engagement with evidence, diverse perspectives, and facilitated discussion, participants work through complexity to agree on actions.
This process creates three core forms of value:
- Solidarity: People hear different views and talk things through so they find common ground and reduce division.
- Learning: People build a shared understanding that’s grounded in evidence, helping participants navigate complex issues and challenge misinformation.
- Agency: People feel more able to take part, contribute ideas, and act, drawing on their own knowledge, experience, and resources.
Participants develop recommendations and agree on collective and individual actions that will contribute to the change they want to create. This collective intelligence is grounded in lived experience and open discussion to deliver stronger public participation in global governance and meaningful action.
A bold vision for global-decision making: 10 million citizens. One Global Citizens’ Assembly
Our vision is to establish the Global Citizens’ Assembly as a legitimate, lasting, and influential institution. In a world where institutions often struggle to keep pace with rapid technological, environmental, and social changes, we are establishing a new model. One where power is distributed, citizens have a direct voice, and solutions are co-created by people from all walks of life.
How this has been developed
A timeline of the Global Citizens’ Assembly
Frequently asked questions
What is deliberative democracy?
Deliberative democracy brings people together to learn, discuss and work through complex issues collectively. It’s based on the idea that informed discussion can lead to more thoughtful and fairer decision-making.
What is a citizens' assembly?
A citizens’ assembly brings together a group of people, selected by lottery, to learn about an issue, discuss different perspectives, and develop collective recommendations.
What is a global citizens' assembly?
A global citizens’ assembly brings together people from different countries into one shared deliberative process.
What is a local or community assembly?
A community assembly is a local space where people come together to discuss shared challenges and explore possible responses in their area.
Is the aim for the Global Citizens’ Assembly replace existing democratic institutions like national governments?
No. It’s designed to strengthen them, improving how decisions are made by bringing informed public judgment into the process.
What is the difference between a citizens’ assembly and a consultation or engagement exercises?
Citizens' assemblies are not about collecting opinions. It’s about deliberation. It’s about people learning, weighing trade-offs, and working through complex issues together to reach consensus and agree on recommendations and actions.
How are the global and local assemblies connected?
The global assembly provides depth through structured deliberation. Local assemblies expand participation at scale – meaning more people and viewpoints can be represented. Together, they create a system where local perspectives and global dialogue reinforce each other.
How do participants stay involved over time?
Participants remain connected through ongoing updates, shared outputs, and opportunities to stay engaged, including running community assemblies themselves.