The HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA Governance Platform promotes democratic processes and thought-through governance strategies in Germany, Europe and worldwide. The cornerstone for us here is to strengthen the legitimacy and sustainability of democratic procedures and decisions to contribute to finding solutions for societal challenges. They are convinced that decisions that are relevant for society can only be strong and legitimate, if the discourse between politics, business and civil society is improved.

Based on this conviction they develop governance concepts and projects for sustainable solutions that are guided towards the common good and include as many perspectives as possible.

The HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA Governance Platform focuses on the two good governance principles of transparency and participation. Both principles play a prominent role as identity-building, trust-building and community-promoting elements. They influence the interaction of all actors.

Only when all stakeholders and those affected can disclose their interests (transparency) and participate in a deliberative decision-making process for a particular social problem (participation), is it at all possible to identify a sustainable consensus between these interests.

With innovative participatory methods, such as the Trialogs developed by us or multi-stakeholder partnerships, they do not, however, create a transparency of the arguments through the exchange of different perspectives; participation also requires transparency. Without access to relevant and necessary information for decision-making, the actors cannot participate efficiently in the participatory processes. This is not an easy task, especially due to the often high complexity of social challenges. However, it is a clear prerequisite to enable a cooperation between politics, business and civil society guided towards the common good.

Participation and transparency are therefore interrelated and are a prerequisite for the sustainable solution of societal challenges.

Their activities are therefore based on the approach of actively bringing together politics, business, civil society, science and the media in different formats, with the aim of raising awareness, presenting relevant information transparently, identifying consensus and developing creative solutions together.

The HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA Governance Platform is committed to the promotion of good governance. The cornerstone for us is strengthening the legitimacy and sustainability of democratic procedures and decisions.

It is on this basis that they develop concepts and projects in line with their conviction that processes that promote democracy need to be based on multiple perspectives and partnerships on equal footing. Sustainable solutions guided towards the common good must be found in cooperation with a multitude of stakeholders.