Climate Resilience

Indigenous Women Strengthening their Climate Resilience and Livelihoods

This panel explored the challenges Indigenous women face amid climate change and structural barriers. Speakers shared participatory methods and dynamics to promote women’s empowerment, advance gender equity, and encourage dialogue on shared household responsibilities and equality. Speakers presented the Ixoquib Juyub (Women of the Mountain) project, which promotes women’s participation and human rights, shared domestic responsibilities, and comprehensive responses to violence. Panelists made a call for collaboration between institutions and communities to build equitable and sustainable development.

Central American Diaspora

Building Democracy Across Borders in a Time of Political Exile

This session explored the challenges and opportunities facing the Central American diaspora. Speakers highlighted the importance of building support networks that integrate social, political, and educational efforts, as well as creating practical guides to defend migrants during raids and arbitrary detentions. The discussion underscored the persistence of racial narratives and the erosion of due process. It also examined the forced displacement of journalists and the regional alliances that safeguard access to information amid censorship and economic hardship. The session called for strengthening networks, trusted spokespersons, and new democratic narratives, while emphasizing the need for sustainability through philanthropic and business partnerships.

Democracy

Protecting Democracy: Resist, Bridge & Rebuild

This session reflected on the critical moment democracy is facing amid the rise of authoritarian regimes that promise quick solutions at the cost of fundamental rights. It highlighted how these regimes divide societies and weaken citizens’ ability to act. Speakers stressed the need to build a new narrative centered on people and the importance of supporting everyday struggles. They called for civic unity to foster mutual support and collective action.

Collaborative Philanthropy

Collaborative Philanthropy: A Strategy for Socio-Environmental Impact Investing

This session used a fishbowl format, putting audience participation at the center. Attendees from different sectors took the stage to share their communities’ environmental experiences. Ancestral knowledge was valued, and the urgency of transforming power dynamics was emphasized. Participants shared successful stories of alliances that strengthen both the economy and the environment, and proposed a horizontal, collaborative approach to generate deep and lasting environmental impact.

Authoritarianism

Facing Authoritarianism, Central America Resists

In this session, speakers highlighted the state of emergency in El Salvador, which has been used to justify arbitrary detentions, torture, and criminalize dissent. Speakers discussed the capture of Guatemala’s judicial system, which obstructs anti-corruption efforts and targets justice operators and ancestral authorities, as well as the weakening of judicial independence and pressure on critical media in Costa Rica. Speakers also noted the forced displacement of over one million people in the region and presented resistance strategies among various sectors, such as journalistic networks that defend press freedom and protect reporters, exile organizations that preserve community memory, and Indigenous leadership initiatives.

Nicaraguans in Exile

Beyond the Border: Exile & Transnational Repression from Nicaragua

This panel of Nicaraguan women in exile shared that “exile is no longer a safe refuge” and described transnational repression as “the long arm of authoritarianism.” Speakers explained that persecution of Nicaraguans extends beyond borders, including digital surveillance, threats to relatives in Nicaragua, denial of passports, and the use of international institutions as tools of control. Panelists shared testimonies about the climate of fear among those in exile, particularly in Costa Rica, and issued an urgent call to the international community to recognize this form of violence, strengthen protection mechanisms, and act in solidarity.

Trust-based Philanthropy

Trusted Ecosystems: Collaborative Philanthropy & Community Resilience

This session shared the experience of RECARGA, an educational network created in response to the impact of COVID-19 on education. The project brings together 15 community organizations from Guatemala and Honduras and has become a model of trust-based collaborative philanthropy. It combines flexible funding with technical support and prioritizes organizational strengthening, autonomy, and collective care. The initiative promotes transparency, shared responsibility, and horizontal dialogue between donors and local actors, while emphasizing the importance of investing in organizations, supporting local research, and sustaining collaboration beyond funding cycles.

Local Power

Regenerating Power: Climate Justice, Local Power & Adaptive Futures in Honduras

This panel looked ahead to COP30 in Brazil, focusing on locally led climate adaptation and the challenge of getting international funds to frontline communities. Speakers highlighted direct impacts on rural communities in Honduras, such as water scarcity, deteriorating roads, rising costs, and uncertain harvests. The discussion showcased actions driven by rural women, including community organizing, savings cooperatives, grain reserves, and the recovery of ancestral knowledge. A local organization presented its model for municipal adaptation plans, participatory vulnerability assessments, climate-smart agriculture, and community climate monitoring networks.

El Salvador

How to Build a Democratic Future for El Salvador: The Short- and Long-Term

This panel identified a dual-action approach for rebuilding democracy in El Salvador, both in the short and long term. It emphasized the importance of using the remaining institutional spaces, such as the Legislative Assembly, to ensure representation and oversight. Speakers stressed the need to strengthen grassroots organizations and systematically document current realities. They highlighted that the present crisis is an opportunity to “rebuild everything” and move toward a new, more inclusive model centered on the real needs of the population. The panel also urged the international community to adopt cooperation mechanisms that prioritize sustainable processes over short-term interventions.

Accountability

Accountability & Humility in Philanthropy

Speakers in this session emphasized that accountability in philanthropy should not be treated as a mere formality, but as a political and ethical act that requires courage. Inspired by the “Failure Nights” held in Guatemala to share lessons learned in philanthropy, this panel highlighted that honest accountability is also about repairing with dignity, acknowledging mistakes, and learning from them. The speakers stressed that pointing out a failure is not a sign of weakness, but the first act of strength that enables transformation and growth.

SRHR

Equitable Access: Civil Society & Sexual & Reproductive Rights

The session focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights in Latin America and the challenges faced by youth, Indigenous peoples, and Afro-descendant communities, such as high rates of teenage pregnancy, insufficient budgets, weakened social movements, and widespread misinformation. The panel presented several proposals to ensure equitable access to sexual and reproductive health and achieve sustainable changes in public policy. It highlighted the Acceso program model, which is based on rights awareness, political advocacy, health system accountability, and community action. The discussion also underscored the importance of local capacity, strategic alliances, and citizen empowerment.

Civil Society

Voices at Risk: Protecting Civil Society Expression, Activism & Movement Building

This session addressed the democratic backsliding in Central America, which is restricting civic participation and the work of those defending human rights, press freedom, and social justice. Speakers stressed the need to rethink civil society organizations’ strategies through four key areas: diversifying funding sources; strengthening solidarity networks; innovating democratic narratives; and renewing leadership with greater youth and community involvement. Speakers also underscored the importance of transparency, technical training, comprehensive security, and regional collaboration as pillars to resist and adapt to the crisis.

Journalism

Reimagining the Model: Some Darwinian Ideas for Journalism’s Survival

This panel analyzed the sustainability of independent journalism in Central America amid a context of authoritarianism, censorship, and shrinking international aid. It outlined direct impacts such as the exile and persecution of journalists, loss of advertising revenue, high investigative costs, difficulties monetizing audiences, and precarious working conditions, as well as the urgent need to address mental health and ensure physical and digital security.

The group presented complementary strategies and proposed diversifying income through local philanthropy, flexible multi-year funding, shared services among media outlets, and improved financial and institutional management. It concluded with a call to audiences, the private sector, and donors to support journalism—the “last democratic stronghold.”

Guatemala

When Democracy Surrenders: Building a New Economic & Governance Path for Guatemala

This panel discussed the need to democratize Guatemala’s economy through comprehensive competition laws, institutional reforms, and macroeconomic policies focused on employment. Speakers highlighted how the country operates under an “oligarchic corporatist” model in which business groups concentrate political and economic power, influence public policy, and block reforms–a system that limits competition, stifles innovation, and keeps the economy dependent on remittances, which account for 23% of GDP. The discussion also included a proposal to create metropolitan regions to improve land planning, promote purpose-driven investment, and strengthen local governance.

Feminist Movements

Feminist Action and Funding in Times of Antidemocratic Threats

This panel discussed shrinking civic spaces, lack of funding, and the rise of anti-rights agendas in Central America, framing the financing of feminist movements as a political commitment to defend democracy. Panelists emphasized that feminist organizations sustain vital networks, community-based models, and transformative agendas, even though most lack funds for fair salaries and many have lost support due to their political positions. They called for redirecting resources through flexible, ethical, and intersectional approaches, urged a shift in dominant narratives, advocated for power-sharing in local territories, and promoted cooperation that listens rather than imposes.

LGBTIQ

The Democratic Thermometer: Lessons from the LGBT Resistance

This panel emphasized that LGBTQ rights are essential for building “authentic, equitable, and resilient” democracies and shared innovative strategies for resisting hate speech and regressive legislative proposals, which are often used as smokescreens to distract public attention. Speakers called for forming coalitions and leveraging art and communication to counter hate narratives, while reminding that the LGBTQ community has always been on the frontlines fighting for democracy, even when asked to hide its flag.

Education

Strengthening Collaboration to Sustain Civil Society in Education

This participatory workshop identified challenges, opportunities, and mechanisms for collaboration among NGOs, donors, and government entities in the current context of shrinking international aid and closing civic space in Central America. Participants analyzed cases, obstacles, and levers to strengthen partnerships, highlighting issues such as competition for funds, lack of trust, bureaucracy, leadership turnover, and rigid funding, as well as the importance of transparency, flexibility, and value alignment. Recommendations included fostering long-term collaborations, joint planning, and creating dialogue spaces between donors and organizations.

Guatemala Elections

The Importance of the 2026 Elections for Democracy in Guatemala

This panel discussed the importance of the 2026 selection processes for Guatemala’s top authorities in the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Constitutional Court, Supreme Electoral Tribunal, and General Comptroller’s Office, stressing that the country’s democratic future depends on the integrity of these processes. Key risks identified included the instrumentalization of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the influence of corruption networks in nomination commissions, and professionals’ fear of participating in these processes. The discussion called for overcoming fragmentation, strengthening citizen oversight, supporting honorable candidates, and using strategic communication.

Funding Models

New Perspectives to Confront the Funding Context for Civil Society

In this session, panelists discussed the need to rethink traditional funding models for civil society in Central America. They acknowledged the global contraction of funds and stressed the importance of channeling resources more directly, fostering partnerships with the private sector, and adopting strategies focused on rights, democracy, and environmental sustainability. The conversation examined the impact of funding withdrawals on small organizations and underscored the need to invest in local leadership and institutional strengthening. Panelists emphasized the urgency of flexible, multi-year funding to ensure long-term change processes and concluded with a call to build trust, promote regional collaboration, and keep hope as a driving force for transformation.