5 success stories from European civil society in 2025

EASTERN EUROPE

Supporting civil society across the region, including in repressive environments

In 2025, ForumCiv’s Regional Office for Eastern Europe significantly expanded its reach, engaging human rights defenders, activists, and civic initiatives across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Working in countries such as Ukraine, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan, the programme brought together diverse actors around a shared vision of building more just, inclusive, and sustainable societies that uphold human rights, promote gender equality, and strengthen resilience in the face of climate change and conflict. As part of this effort, ForumCiv also connected experts from across the region to support a dozen young people living under authoritarian regimes, providing tailored training and mentorship that enabled them to launch their own initiatives, advance social research, and navigate personal challenges, including mental health crises. Across the region, where civil society actors continue to operate under increasingly complex and restrictive conditions, ForumCiv’s expanded scope and emphasis on collaboration, innovation, and local leadership are helping to sustain civic space and empower communities to drive change even in the most challenging environments. 

Contributing to integration of internally displaced people into host communities in Ukraine

ForumCiv facilitator Wilson James hands over a certificate of completion for the Rights Way Forward training module to a participant from Neo-Eco Ukraine, April 2025.

As part of this expansion, ForumCiv piloted its Right(s) Way Forward methodology in Ukraine, focusing on a frontline city in the south of the country. The initiative empowered local communities to respond to one of the challenges of war, precisely, the integration of internally displaced people and the restoration of basic services. Through this approach, 12 community-led initiatives were developed, addressing urgent needs such as helping children catch up on disrupted education, supporting individuals in reclaiming their land and property, and re-establishing essential communal services like public laundry facilities.

Tailored trainings and mentorship that ForumCiv and its partners Neo Eco Ukraine provided also enabled grassroots actors to develop innovative social solutions. In one example, wives of war veterans received support to advance a project providing equine therapy for people affected by war trauma. Through facilitated local fundraising efforts, the community initiative secured resources to partially renovate stables and expand their services to additional families, demonstrating the power of community-driven recovery initiatives.

Furthermore, by providing space for facilitated discussion on the commonly experienced problems, and possible solutions that require engagement of decision-makers – ForumCiv is rebuilding war-torn social fabric of Ukrainian communities. These spaces have become the basis of rebuilding trust and common humanity, beating isolation and loneliness among those who fled the war.  

An innovative, people-driven way to create change 

To strengthen connections between experienced civil society actors and grassroots activists from Belarus, both inside the country and in exile, ForumCiv and Belarusian partners brought together nearly a hundred activists, entrepreneurs and IT specialists for a three-day civic hackathon. 

Inspired by the fast-paced collaboration often seen in the tech world, the event created space for new ideas, shared learning and collective problem-solving around the social challenges many Belarusians face today. 

The hackathon sparked new partnerships and initiatives, from campaigns against gender-based violence and political repression to a support network for parents of children with disabilities – families who too often face isolation and barriers to information and support. 

When people come together across experiences and sectors, new solutions become possible. 

Fighting the backsliding of women’s rights in Belarus 

ForumCiv’s Regional Office supports the resilience and continuity of the Belarusian equal rights movement in an environment marked by repression, restricted civic space, and limited funding opportunities. Through flexible funding, networking activities, and capacity development, the programme strengthens feminist and LGBTQI+ leadership, sustains essential services for survivors of gender-based violence, and fosters collaboration across fragmented civil society actors both inside Belarus and in exile.  

Recognizing the importance of solidarity and knowledge exchange, ForumCiv supported the first intergenerational meeting of gender equality advocates and activists working in repressive contexts across Eastern Europe. The gathering created a rare space for dialogue, mentorship, and strategy development, leading to strengthened advocacy efforts and new collaborative initiatives across borders. 

SWEDEN

Advocacy in Sweden

Throughout 2025, ForumCiv remained a recurring voice in Swedish media, particularly in coverage of the government’s sweeping changes to development cooperation and the far-reaching consequences for civil society. Our Secretary General, who serves as the organisation’s spokesperson, appeared regularly in national media, while ForumCiv also contributed actively to public debate through ten joint opinion pieces with other organisations and actors focusing on aid policy. 

ForumCiv also continued to grow its presence on LinkedIn and Instagram. The work was guided by the organisation’s social media strategy, with ongoing monitoring of reach and engagement to strengthen and refine content over time. 

The strongest engagement came from posts addressing the government’s aid and migration policies, as well as moments when ForumCiv took a clear stand on pressing political issues. Through the interview series Aid Quarter and the new initiative Aid News, ForumCiv contributed facts and perspectives that helped bring nuance to the public debate, generating strong engagement across social media platforms. 

Globalportalen, which targets globally engaged young people between the ages of 18 and 35, saw particularly strong growth on LinkedIn while also increasing traffic to the website. 

Anna Stenvinkel (former Secretary General ForumCiv), Magdalena Thuresson (M), Annika Strandhäll (S), Anna Lasses (C), Lotta Johnsson Fornarve (V) and Gudrun Brunegård (KD),

In September, the civil society festival People and Power was organised for the third consecutive year. This year’s theme focused on freedom of expression, featuring discussions on the shrinking space for journalists and civil society, artivism, and a closing political debate on Swedish development cooperation policy with representatives from five parliamentary parties.