About LogoLink

LogoLink is a global network of practitioners from civil society organisations, research institutions and governments. The network aims to deepen democracy through greater citizen participation in local governance. LogoLink encourages learning from field-based innovations and expressions of democracy which contribute to social justice.

Purposes and values

To a large extent strengthening local governance is about improving relationships between those who govern and those who are governed. LogoLink is interested in making these relationships more participatory and inclusive so that governments can become more responsive and accountable towards the needs and concerns of citizens.

Principal aims

The principal aims of the LogoLink learning network are to:

• Create spaces for reflection, learning and exchange among and between partners.
• Focus on field-based innovations and expressions of democracy which contribute to social justice.
• Contribute to making relationships between citizens and governments more participatory and inclusive.

Funding and partnerships

LogoLink receives its core funding and support from the Ford Foundation. The LogoLink Coordination Unit is based at the Pólis Institute in São Paulo, Brazil.

LogoLink's Coordination Unit works closely with partners in different regions of the world, including the Instituto Pólis in Brazil; Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (IEP) in Peru; Centro de Servicios Municipales Heriberto Jara (CESEM) in Mexico; the Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD) in the Philippines; the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) in India; Development Network of Indigenous Voluntary Associations (DENIVA) in Uganda; the Foundation for Contemporary Research (FCR) in South Africa; the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC) in the USA; and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in UK.

Moving to the Global South

LogoLink is a global learning network of practitioners principally drawn from civil society organizations working to promote citizen participation and engagement in local governance, for the purposes of deepening democracy and social justice. In June 2005, LogoLink partners unanimously decided to move the coordination unit of LogoLink from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in the UK to one of the current partners in the South. Not only was this decision consistent with the fact that LogoLink has remained a largely Southern network, it was also in recognition of the rich and varied innovations and experiences in citizen engagements in local governance that have and continue to come out of Southern contexts. The partners were convinced that moving to the South would be LogoLink's symbolic contribution to strengthening Southern capacity to lead and coordinate global networks.

The Pólis Institute has been selected to serve as the new coordinating partner of the LogoLink network and fully assumed this role in April 2007.

An Executive Committee for LogoLink was created as a governance resource with the aim of supporting the decisions of the new coordination and an Internal Advisory Council inside Pólis has also been constituted to support the coordination unit within the organisation. However, the partners' meeting (composed by all regional partners) remains the most important governance structure for LogoLink decisions.