At the closing session of the 9th World Forum for Democracy, the Council of Europe announced that the winner of its 2021 Democracy Innovation Award was the Green Blue Deal for the Middle East, an initiative by EcoPeace Middle East which brings together Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian environmentalists.
EcoPeace Middle East was founded in 1994 to advance sustainable regional development and the conditions for peace by promoting co-operation, across conflict lines, around shared environmental challenges, especially the need for water.
Three initiatives out of the thirty or so discussed at the Forum were shortlisted for the final vote:
- XR GS Participative Democracy (Germany)- presented at the workshop “More heads are better than one: Citizens’ Assemblies on climate”;
- Burren Programme (Ireland) – presented at the workshop “Better together: Engaging communities for nature conservation and protection”;
- A Green Blue Deal for the Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Jordan – presented at the workshop “Scarcity and sources of conflict: Managing natural resources to prevent conflict”.
The Forum brought together in Strasbourg 300 participants from 38 countries across the world to answer the question “Can Democracy save the environment?”.*