What is the Monitor?

The Global Centre for Pluralism’s work over the past decade and around the world often led to conversations with partners about wanting to better understand the state of pluralism in a country or a given context. Those discussions prompted the development of the Global Pluralism Monitor, a tool that assesses the state of pluralism in countries around the world.

The Monitor’s ability to shed light on the multiple threats to pluralism assists in recognizing the opportunities to overcome those challenges.

Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, a team of experts produces a country report on the state of pluralism in their society. The reports are grounded in local realities, putting communities’ lived experience at the centre of the analysis.

These can include cases where the interactions of political parties, the media, legislative frameworks, the courts, and intergroup trust converge to escalate the likelihood of intergroup violence. Conversely, it can reveal the ways in which civil society actors instrumentalize opportunities through the justice system to uphold constitutional commitments, affecting a government’s behaviour, and enhancing recognition and belonging. Each report surfaces a range of findings to improve understanding of highly complicated societal dynamics.

The Monitor’s ability to shed light on the multiple threats to pluralism assists in recognizing the opportunities to overcome those challenges. In this way, a Monitor report acts as a roadmap on the journey toward strengthening pluralism. For the Centre, the Monitor begins with a finalized report that is followed by deliberations with people and organizations working to advance pluralistic policies and practices. Those deliberations are led by in-country champions of pluralism whose agency and expertise are necessary for making progress. Engagement with in-country actors is central to the Monitor with the aim of putting the reports into practice and spurring positive change.