Over the next two decades, environmental, technological, and demographic trends will dramatically change how we live our lives. A vibrant civic space is essential to ensure everyone can fully participate in shaping this future.

Civic Space 2040 is a futurist initiative to craft a positive vision for civic space and map strategies to make it a reality. The initiative explores trends that will radically transform the world and discusses how they will impact civic space.

ICNL launched the initiative in 2019 with a meeting at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy. Participants included civil society leaders from around the world, along with experts on technology, climate change, democracy, conflict and crisis, and philanthropy. Together they sought to envision the civic freedoms we will need two decades from now, key questions that must be addressed, and steps to guarantee these freedoms in the future. The meeting outcome report summarizes the discussion and potential ways forward.

ICNL also commissioned a series of trend reports to inform civic space advocates about the opportunities and challenges ahead. The trend reports and resources on this page aim to help understand critical future trends from a civic space perspective.