Summary of Major Recommendations

The 106 governments that launched the Community of Democracies in 2000, resolved as part of the Warsaw Declaration they endorsed, to “promote civic education and literacy, including education for democracy.” Representatives of these governments and many non-governmental organizations met in Seoul in November of 2002 and affirmed that there is great potential for democratic societies to cooperate to “promote a culture of democracy through education....”

The NGO Forum at the Seoul Community of Democracies conference recommended that a meeting of governments, national and international NGOs, and multilateral institutions be convened to consult on the development of a strategy for promoting democracy education worldwide.

Therefore, the Council for a Community of Democracies and the American Forum for Global Education convened a meeting of 34 representatives of governments, non-governmental organizations and international institutions at the Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund from June 8–10, 2003, to consider practical ways in which these educational commitments might be met.

Considerable progress has been made in different parts of the world since the Warsaw and Seoul conferences. Successful initiatives have been launched and best practices of democracy education can now be shared.

However, in many countries little or no democracy education exists, and where it does exist, it is often taught in a manner that does not encourage participation and critical thinking. The major conclusions of the participants gathered at Pocantico were:

Major Conclusions

• Education is key to the survival and expansion of democracy. Democracy requires not only institution building but also active citizens who have the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes of democratic life, without which a democratic culture will not prosper.
• Democracy education should be sensitive to issues of culture, gender, and tradition.
• Democracy education is essential to protect, sustain, consolidate and advance the democratic gains in all countries, especially in societies in transition.
• Democracy education should be an integral part of the education of every citizen everywhere, and should be considered as essential as reading, writing, science,
  and mathematics.

Major Recommendations

• Greater attention should be given by educators, scholars, governments, non-government organizations, foundations and others in the international community to the fostering of democracy education.
• Additional resources are needed to adequately support democracy education initiatives.
• The Convening Group of the Community of Democracies should make the promotion of democracy education a major priority, and should work with its participating governments to raise this matter high on the agenda of the international community. The Community of Democracies is especially suited for this undertaking.
• Democracy education should be an essential element in international development strategy, and emphasized in the worldwide Education for All initiative of the United Nations. The Community of Democracies should urge participating governments to advocate the importance of democracy education in the international organizations in which they are represented, among them, the international development organizations, banks, and multilateral and political organizations.
• The participating governments in the Community of Democracies should include democracy education in their national development strategies.
• Donor governments, regional organizations, corporations, and foundations are urged to make democracy education a priority in future funding activities.
• The United Nations system should be invited to declare a “Decade of Democracy Education,” and help mobilize the resources to make it a practical success.
• Special attention should be paid to the Middle East and Africa. Lessons gleaned from successful pioneering work in domocracy education in the transitional societies of Europe, Asia, the Americas and parts of southern Africa should be applied to those two areas.
• The established democracies should learn, and find inspiration, from the work on democracy education in the newer democracies.
• Organizations that evaluate the status of democracy in various countries are urged to include the progress in democracy education in their evaluations.
• The Council for a Community of Democracies should coordinate an advocacy network of NGOs to promote democracy education among governments, international institutions, and non-government organizations.

The Convening Group of the Community of Democracies should, in partnership with civil society, assist the implementation of this plan in order to achieve their objectives as set out in the Warsaw Declaration and Seoul Plan of Action.