Pre-Summit Survey: Vision 2035, Global Civic Space

The Ottawa Civic Space Summit brings together civil society leaders, funders, policymakers, and researchers to examine the future of civic space and identify strategic responses to emerging global challenges.

As part of this process, Vision 2035 is being developed as a forward-looking roadmap to help shape how the global civic space community anticipates risk, adapts strategies, and coordinates action over the next decade.

There are no right answers here. This short survey is designed to surface what is not yet on the agenda; your experience and perspective are the point. Responses will directly inform the scenario-based methodology underpinning Vision 2035 and the design of plenary sessions at the Ottawa Summit and beyond.

Who this is for: Individuals working on or engaged with civic space issues globally
Time to complete: ~12–15 minutes

Confidentiality: Responses will be synthesized and used in aggregate. No individual responses will be attributed without consent.

Your name* This field is required.

First Name

Last Name

Your email* This field is required.

example@example.com

For the purposes of this survey, we define civic space as:

“The essential physical, digital, and legal environment that enables individuals and civil society groups to organize, participate, and communicate freely without fear of reprisal. It is anchored in freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, and expression, acting as a cornerstone of functioning democracy and public accountability.”

Q1a. What forces will most shape civic space in the next 10 years? (Select or describe up to three)* This field is required.

Expansion of digital surveillance and monitoring

AI-driven misinformation and disinformation

Rise of authoritarian practices

Armed conflict and political instability

Resource scarcity (e.g., climate, land, water)

Declining or shifting funding for civil society

Public distrust or changing perceptions of civil society

Corporate influence on civic space (e.g., legal, financial pressure)

Other

Other (please describe)

Q1b. Which of these are currently under-discussed or underestimated? (Check all that apply from your previous responses)* This field is required.

Expansion of digital surveillance and monitoring

AI-driven misinformation and disinformation

Rise of authoritarian practices

Armed conflict and political instability

Resource scarcity (e.g., climate, land, water)

Declining or shifting funding for civil society

Public distrust or changing perceptions of civil society

Corporate influence on civic space (e.g., legal, financial pressure)

Other

Q2. Which actor (state or non-state) poses a significant emerging threat to civic space that is not receiving enough attention from the global civil society networks?* This field is required.

Q3. How uncertain or volatile do you expect the following trends to be over the next 10 years?* This field is required.Scale for all questions: 1 (Very Low) to 5 (Very High)

Q4.How significant could the impact of the following dynamics be on civic space over the next 10 years?* This field is required.Scale: 1 (Very Low) to 5 (Very High)

Q5. At what point does the erosion of public trust in civil society actors become irreversible? What prompts citizens to disengage from collective action?* This field is required.

Q6. In your experience, what allows people and communities to stay active even when governments or other actors try to stop them? Name up to three things that make the biggest difference.* This field is required.

Q7. If one thing changed, a policy, a norm, a technology, a coalition, that would most improve the odds for civic space by 2035, what would it be?* This field is required.

Q8. What motivates people to participate in collective action today?* This field is required.

Q9. In your context, how has the public perception of civil society actors changed over the past five years?* This field is required.

Q10a. If you have worked with or as a civic actor in exile*, what has made that work effective or ineffective in keeping pressure on the situation back home?" and "In your experience, how does the arrival of exiled civic actors change the civic environment in the country that receives them- for better or worse?*we define civic actor in exile as anyone who has had to leave their country, temporarily or permanently, because of their activism, journalism, organizing, or civic work, and who continues that work from abroad. This includes diaspora activists, exiled journalists, human rights defenders who relocated for safety, and community organizers working across borders.

Q10b. In your experience, how does the arrival of exiled civic actors change the civic environment in the country that receives them - for better or worse?*we define civic actor in exile as anyone who has had to leave their country, temporarily or permanently, because of their activism, journalism, organizing, or civic work, and who continues that work from abroad. This includes diaspora activists, exiled journalists, human rights defenders who relocated for safety, and community organizers working across borders.

Q11. How quickly do you expect the overall global civic space environment to change over the next 10 years?* This field is required.

Gradual and incremental- existing trends continue at roughly the current pace

Moderate acceleration- current trends intensify but remain recognizable

Significant disruption- the environment looks fundamentally different by 2030

Rapid discontinuity- major breaks from current patterns, direction hard to predict

Other

Q12. What would signal to you that global civic space had reached a tipping point, in either direction? What would you be watching for ?* This field is required.

Q13. Where should civil society actors focus more effort in the next 10 years? We understand that this question is context-specific and encourage you to respond based on your personal experience.* This field is required.

Strengthening defensive systems: protecting activists, documenting abuses, challenging restrictive laws

Building offensive pressure: raising the costs for repressive actors, contesting their legitimacy, exploiting their weaknesses

Rebuilding public trust: investing in relationships with communities, unlikely allies, and sectors not yet targeted by delegitimization campaigns

Equal effort across all three

Other

Q14. What would a genuinely proactive or offensive civic space strategy require that the current ecosystem, funders, INGOs, and multilateral institutions are structurally unwilling or unable to provide?* This field is required.

Q15. What would make Vision 2035 useful to you or your work? What conditions would need to be true for a global civic space roadmap to matter?* This field is required.

Q16. Would you be interested in participating in a Vision 2035 co-design session during the Ottawa Civic Space Summit? one of the lunch breaks?* This field is required.

If yes, please specify which of the Summit Days you will be attending* This field is required.

Day 1-3 (April 21-23)

Day 2-3 (April 22-23)

Day 1 only (April 21)

Day 2 only (April 22)

Day 3 only (April 23)

Not attending the summit

Other