Amid multifaceted crises and global threats to democracy spanning Europe and beyond, prioritising marginalised groups, including women, girls and gender-diverse individuals, has never been more critical.

Gender equality sits at the centre of intensifying political and cultural tensions. Progress continues, yet it unfolds alongside active resistance, public contestation, and policy reversals.

Futures work in philanthropy is allowing us to expand our horizon and move from mere reaction to anticipation – also in times of intersecting crises. However, our approach to foresight needs to be informed by a critical lens that centres community governance, non-extractive relationships building, peripheral knowledge and honours plural realities.

Pro-democracy organisations share a blind spot: They assume agreement on what democracy means, but it is contested. Mapping the terrain of disagreements is essential to know what we are defending without becoming exclusionary.