Globally, social justice movements and narrative workers find themselves fragmented and isolated in the fight against shrinking civic spaces, increasing restrictions on funding for human rights work, and the growing persecution of human rights activists. Addressing these challenges requires the development and sustained amplification of shared public narratives that resist democratic erosion, strengthen civic participation, and enable collective action across movements and communities.
About the Convening
Meet the Asia cohort of the Communicators for Civic Action
‘Building Pro-Civic Space Narratives Through Collective Action’ was a 4-day convening co-organised by CIVICUS and Asia Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, from 21 to 24 April 2026. This was the introductory in-person convening for the newly formed Asia cohort of the Communicators for Civic Action Network. One Future Collective was represented here by Karishma Shafi (Senior Manager, Advocacy). Similar cohorts exist for Communicators in Latin America and Africa. Each cohort includes independent activists and narrative workers as well as representatives of small grassroots organisations, regional organisations, and international teams. This Convening was funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Affairs.
Hosted in Khlong San, Bangkok, the Convening was facilitated by Abracademy. The facilitators included Rubens Filho, CEO, and Upekkha Liu. The facilitation embedded a practice of magic, embodied curiosity, reflective meditation, and ritual. It encouraged members to get to know each other deeply, reflect on their unique stories and find common ground or convergence within their varied experiences, including the experience of grief around the work they do. It offered many opportunities for quiet listening meant to absorb and understand each other’s perspectives and ideas. This was different from the more traditional active listening model – there is no reacting or clarifying, only gentle eye contact and ‘receiving’ of each other’s reflections.
The Convening introduced the cohort to CIVICUS’s narrative-building work. It also offered learnings and critical insights on audience motivations, divergent and convergent thinking, and cognitive bias. It also made space for facilitated discussions, encouraging participants to step into the mind of the storyteller and learn from crucial strategies applied on the ground (like engaging young first-time parents in anti-air pollution work, using short-form video, etc.).
Adding strengths and superpowers to each other’s capes!
The longest and most rigorous exercise at the Convening was the development of four different communications campaigns, on such themes as intergenerational digital rights, workplace safety for gender minorities, citizen press freedom, environmental preservation, etc. This campaign building process included a strong emphasis on persona building for target audience identification, roadblocks and enablers, reflections on campaign sustainability, etc. It concluded with short presentations from each group, and had many points of feedback in between, such as through collective reflection and the world cafe method. The event closed with a shared commitment to continued connection and regular exchange of ideas and successes across the region.
A glimpse into the campaign-building process!
Going forward: Key insights from the Convening
- Staying rooted in our communities: As communicators, it is important to root ourselves in the people whose realities we aim to represent in our narrative exercises – their motivations, behaviours, needs, and pushes-and-pulls. We should regularly revisit the question of how our target audience absorbs information, how they need to feel, and what changes for them through our campaigns.
- Opening up avenues for collaboration: Inter-movement collaboration and solidarity is an act of deep political courage. To facilitate it, it is critical to exercise openness and empathy in trying to understand the field, scope, strengths, and restrictions of different actors. It is also useful to explore and question the invisible hierarchies and possibilities within different movements. Communicators doing the work of consolidating divergent groups must strategically bring these nuances into relief and build meaningful linkages.
- Venturing into the new: For communicators operating in low-resource environments, it can be useful to examine whether they are returning to familiar formats because they are effective or because they are easy to replicate without very intensive inquiry or investment. Low-resource does not mean low-innovation! Thinking creatively and empathetically about our target audience can direct us to problems (even before we think of solutions) that we had not previously considered. With a robust understanding of our questions, our answers are likely to become simpler, more responsive, and more innovative.
- Stating the obvious and the unsaid: When thinking about the sustainability of public narrative work, we need to clearly and honestly articulate our vision and the conditions that propel us forward and hold us back. Most importantly, we need to understand the fears and apprehensions that may spill into the work and prevent us from ideating freely and executing consistently. It is this emphasis on sustainability that leads us to ask ourselves – how do we know in the future that we have succeeded?
On what stays with us, and what surprises us
This Convening marked the inspiring beginning of One Future Collective’s participation in a network of communicators – journalists, artists, creatives – from across Asia and other regions globally who are invested in developing people-centric, creative, and emotionally resonant public narratives to address their shared and unique challenges like rising authoritarianism, climate change, restricted press freedom, and gender inequality. We look forward to our continued engagement and collaboration with the cohort.