Pulsante – 3 years
82 organizations and social movements reached
By Pulsante’s team
“Working for people shouldn’t be scary.”
Anonymous. Social movement member.
In three years (2020-2023) in which the world challenged us, we had to reinvent ourselves and understand that it is not possible to face social challenges without a collective perspective, that the time invested in inclusive and collective processes is worth for reaching long-term solutions.
Pulsante walked this process, through a number of events that were linked one to the other, the multiple connections between people from organizations, collectives, social movements, the Coordinating Team and the Steering Committee that made everything go ahead, had something in common; trust and the dream of a Latin America with a more opened civic space.
In mid-August 2020, Pulsante was ready to announce its launch in the middle of a context of social turmoil, and uncertainty: the global pandemic, protests, social outbreaks, and strong threats to democracy. There was a certainty both from the Pulsante team, as from the people who make up the civic space; it was urgent to act and it had to be fast. The idea was trying to support the field from another side, knowing that isolated long-term linear processes would not work.
The slogan was “We seek to expand civic space, through the consolidation of an active citizenry that can influence power structures, include traditionally excluded voices, and consequently, contribute to improving the democracies quality.” Working with tailor-made support and listening to the organizations and collectives in the region.
82 organizations and social movements reached in less than three years!
This work accumulation from so many committed people who acted urgently in six Latin American countries within 33 supported processes, has generated many lessons learned from the civic space through Pulsante’s three support lines; learnings from the Rapid Response Fund, learnings from the Civic Empowerment Organizations Fund, learnings from the Support for Social Movements, and transversally, communications’ learnings from organizations and social movements.
From Pulsante’s Steering Committee and coordination team, we are infinitely grateful for the work done by each organization, collective, and social movement that collaborated for months to improve democracies in their countries. For this reason, Pulsante systematized the findings and lessons learned, so that they can be returned to the civic space, and that they become a compass tool for future collective work.
Some learning from and for the civic space:
- It is not enough with a single advocacy and/or organization form to change democracy. Pulsante’s initial hypothesis of “advocacy” changed under the understanding that advocating is a non-linear process where different actors and processes are articulated and complement each other.
- Today, in the current society conditions, we must make our vision more flexible on what impact is and on what can affect our lives in the long term. More than ever, in these last three years of the pandemic we have learned that the mobilizing value of narratives, art and intervention in common spaces can trigger long-term changes.
- Trust, flexibility and collaboration are essential values to support processes that want to change our democracy in closed civic spaces.
- Finally, from Pulsante as a mechanism that supported civil society, the work evinced that it is not possible to have a single and general toolbox for accompanying organizations and movements.
All the achievements reached and the lessons learned in the face of the panorama that Pulsante has decided to face, were possible only through collective action, from different levels on the civic space groups, in different countries, and aiming at new advocacy forms. Thank you organizations, collectives and social movements for all your work, and thank you for all the trust placed in Pulsante.
