DEMOS aims to build local democracy by encouraging citizens to participate in municipal processes. 

We do this by sponsoring civil society organisations to encourage citizens in two key areas:

• How to speak to municipalities about using the budget to invest in projects that people believe to be important.
• Helping citizens to examine projects implemented by the municipalities to see if everything worked out okay, we call this ‘social audit’.

We give special emphasis to involving sectors of the population who are potentially marginalised from official processes: women, young people, people from minority communities and people with disabilities.

At the same time, we work with municipal elected officials and civil servants to help them to make municipal services more open and more attractive. This can be through knowledge and experience sharing, through debating new ideas, or providing coaching when requested.