The future of democracy in Africa and the broader Global South is increasingly shaped by forces beyond traditional electoral politics. Climate change, digital innovation and natural resource governance have emerged as defining arenas where democratic principles are being tested, renegotiated and potentially redefined. These overlapping domains demand a rethinking of democracy—not only as a system of voting and representation but as a dynamic process of inclusion, justice and responsive governance.

International IDEA together with the South Africa Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (Switzerland), the African Union (AU) and the European Union convened a High-Level Dialogue under the theme ‘Reimagining Democracy in Africa: Comparative Experiences from the Global South’, at the DIRCO Headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa, on 19–20 June 2025. This event report is a summary of deliberations from the two-day event that culminated in the Pretoria Consensus. The event brought together esteemed democracy and governance experts from the AU, senior government officials, think tanks, International IDEA Member States, representatives from regional economic commissions, electoral management body networks, parliaments, judiciary, civil society and social movements across the Global South.