The keynote speaker was Professor Marjorie Castle - a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah, specialising in the European Union, Ukrainian and Russian politics, international security and democratisation, and author of two books on Polish politics. The event was attended by representatives of NGOs and members of the MISO community.

In the first part of the meeting, Professor Castle outlined the challenges facing civil societies in pursuing democracy and consolidating democratic values. She mentioned a trend of rising populist governments across the world, including Europe. The problem is not only populists who spread a false picture of reality, but also the decline of social media, which do not yet have too many tools to verify the information they present - the speaker said. Indeed, they are a key tool to ensure a direct contact between politicians and voters - the speaker continued.

At a later stage of the meeting the participants discussed the problems faced by NGOs today. These included the lack of funding and cooperation partners on the part of government institutions. This problem largely affects organisations working on women's rights, the LGBTQ+ community and other minorities. According to Prof. Castle, civil societies fulfil the roles that governments are not able to fulfil, i.e., for example, helping the aforementioned organisations, but they do not have a control function vis-à-vis the government (gatekeeping).

The meeting ended with a discussion among the participants. As the participants stressed, a positive signal for NGOs is the visible growth of civil society activity and activism of all kinds. At the same time, it was stated that the upcoming parliamentary elections would provide an opportunity to improve the situation of NGOs in Poland.

The event was held as part of the “Polish-U.S. Civil Society Roundtables” project, implemented by the International Institute of Civil Society and the US Embassy in Poland. These recurring meetings with the participation of American experts focus on the development of civil society in selected thematic areas. The aim of the project is to exchange Polish and American experiences in a roundtable format on fostering civic competences and the development of civil society, with a particular focus on human rights, disinformation, media freedom, the rule of law and diversity and tolerance - depending on the topic of a given meeting.