Civilisation coalition - common campaign

In past years, civic space has been shrinking rapidly, independent civil society organisations (CSOs) were stimagised and harrassed. Following elections in April 2026 and a change in government, there is an opportunity to rebuild democratic guarantees, restore checks and balances and strengthen the rule of law. 

Civil society has a crucial role in this task, but the sector has been financially starved, and many organisations lack the necessary capacities, especially in rural areas. In order to fulfill its democratic function, civil society needs an enabling legal and financial environment after years of pressure. 

Established in 2017, the Civilisation Coalition has been working ever since to counter democratic backsliding and strengthen civic space. The Coalition is an extensive network of CSOs, currently uniting 53 organisations (including other networks) from various fields cooperating along these horizontal issues.

Civilizáció’s primary objective is to cultivate a resilient, active, and highly collaborative civic ecosystem in Hungary by promoting civic self-organisation, supporting know-how transfer and networking, fostering public solidarity, and actively defending the civic space against systemic restrictions. 

In order to achieve that, the Coalition engages in the following activities:

• Capacity building: The Coalition has a growing membership and capacities need to be strengthened to continue to function as a hub for starting joint initiatives, co-planning strategies and advocacy, sharing know-how and expertise, and to engage a broad variety of CSOs within the sector. The Coalition also supports its member's organisational wellbeing, security and operation.
• Communication campaigns: Each year the Coalition implements awareness raising campaigns, such as the annual 1% tax donation campaigns or the “With a Civic Heart” Award, to cultivate a positive image of civil society and active citizenship.
• Advocacy: The Coalition develops proposals and alternatives for (re)creating an enabling environment (depending on political context), engages in dialogue for their implementation, and provides input to relevant European level policy processes.
• Research: The Coalition conducts representative surveys on a regular basis on the perception of civil society and other civic space issues to aid data driven approaches in the daily work of CSOs.
• International exchange: The Coalition and its members aim to strengthen relationships with other international and European-level actors, and facilitate know-how exchange on issues of civic space.

The main goal of the Coalition is to help create an enabling and democratic environment where civil society organisations can operate freely without fear and restrictions. 

Expected outputs:

• proposals for an enabling legal and financial environment
• engagement in dialogue with stakeholders (civil society, state bodies etc.)
• contributions to joint European-level advocacy on civic space
• communication campaigns with positive narratives about civil society
• events for members of civil society (i.e. networking, meetups, conferences)

Expected outcomes:

• maintained capacities in watchdog roles (i.e. monitoring)
• a more enabling legal and financial environment for civil society
• increasing domestic legitimacy and constituency of civil society
• stronger civil society coalitions and networks