Building Resilient Democracies in Southern Africa

In an era defined by division, building bridges across political, generational, and ideological lines is critical. Democracy Works Foundation (DWF) is responding to this challenge through its Polarisation Project. The project is grounded in the belief that inclusive, evidence-based, and participatory approaches are essential to countering the fragmentation threatening equitable democratic participation and consensus building across the region. The project targets select countries of the SADC region including South Africa.

The Project’s Vision and Objectives

DWF’s Polarisation Project seeks to build resilient democracies in the Southern African region by strengthening responses to political and social polarisation. The project aims to:

• Deepen understanding of country-specific and regional polarisation dynamics.
• Create platforms for inclusive multi-stakeholder dialogue.
• Produce and disseminate research and tools to counter political polarisation.
• Build networks of engaged actors across sectors and countries.

The project is particularly focused on ensuring diverse citizen voices, especially those of young people, are heard, understood, and translated into collective strategies for social cohesion and democracy-building.

Project Components

The project has three components, namely:

• Political Economy Analysis (PEA)
• Polarity Barometer
• Intergenerational Dialogues: State of Democracy Briefings and the Cool Politics Café Series
• Linguistic Project

The Polarisation Project will contribute to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the drivers of polarisation across different contexts in Southern Africa. By unpacking and interrogating existing fragmentation, the project hopes to support shared civic responsibility and participation through dialogue. By listening to one another, learning across divides, and co-creating solutions, we can build more robust democracies, where people feel and experience more unity than division.