At today's closing session of the World Forum for Democracy, the Council of Europe announced that the winner of the 2025 Democracy Innovation Award is the MyPolis Citizenship Agents initiative from Portugal, an educational project aimed at fostering civic engagement through a virtual-reality game.
Congratulating the winner of this year's Democracy Innovation Award, Deputy Secretary General Bjørn Berge extended his congratulations to the three finalists and to all who presented their ideas in Strasbourg. "To me, you are all winners!" he said.
Virtual-reality to real civic participation
The MyPolis Citizenship Agents project, funded by the European Commission under the Citizens, equality, rights and values programme (CERV), aims to empower children and young people across Europe to identify challenges in their local communities, propose meaningful solutions, and actively participate in democratic life. Through interactive tools - including a motivational board game and a structured methodology - students explore key citizenship themes.
The project promotes democratic engagement and tackles issues such as climate change, sustainability, solidarity, media literacy and misinformation. Using the Citizenship Agents board game, students and teachers take on the role of citizenship agents, addressing threats and developing civic proposals to improve their community, thereby taking ownership and responsibility for it.
Recently, MyPolis has expanded its mission and experience, challenging other countries to make democracy more engaging and fun.
By translating the game into multiple languages and collaborating with 11 partners to culturally adapt and implement it, the project empowers students, teachers, and political representatives across Spain, Italy, Hungary, Poland, and Belgium. The ultimate goal is to enhance their ability to run participatory sessions ("assemblies") within their own communities, ensuring a participatory democracy and better integration within society.
Runners-up
Of the 21 ideas discussed at the forum three were shortlisted for the final vote:
- VoiceYouthFem, Cameroon (session 2 : Local initiatives to revitalise democracy)
- parlament.fyi (for your information), Austria (session 3 : AI and democracy)
- MyPolis Citizenship Agents, Portugal (session 6 : Learn, play, deliberate - preparing young people for participatory democracy).
"While at this 13th World Forum for Democracy, we have asked: 'how can we revive democracy?'. I say, 'the answer is right here in this room'. As it is only by listening to each other, we can better understand what we must do together, to help strengthening and revitalise democracy," said Bjørn Berge who also delivered the closing remarks.
The forum in Strasbourg brought together 1,200 participants from 80 countries worldwide.
New Democratic Pact for Europe
