Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander civil society organisations: This term is intended to cover a broad range of CSOs and forms of community activities, including but not limited to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs). It also captures non-incorporated forms of organisations, informal groups, community-led initiatives and other types of collective civic engagement undertaken by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs): In accordance with the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, an ACCO is defined as:
a. incorporated under relevant legislation and not-for-profit
b. controlled and operated by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people
c. connected to the community, or communities, in which they deliver the services
d. governed by a majority Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander governing body.
ACCOs deliver services, including land and resource management, that build the strength and empowerment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and people.
Civic engagement: refers to the different ways individuals and groups participate in and contribute to public and democratic life. It encompasses the full spectrum of interactions between people and public institutions, ranging from participation in elections and political parties to social movements, civic activism and traditional public participation (both online and offline) in policy making and service design and delivery.
Civic engagement includes the following forms of institutionalised and non-institutionalised participation:
Institutionalised participation: Forms of civic engagement that are formally recognised and structured within the institutional framework of democratic governance. They generally include three categories:
Participation in representative democracy, through which citizens select and authorise political leadership (e.g. voting, standing for office, joining political parties, engaging with elected representatives).
Institutionalised participation in policymaking outside the electoral cycle, where governments create structured opportunities to inform or influence public decisions (e.g. direct democracy, public consultations, deliberative processes such as citizens’ assemblies, advisory bodies).
Institutional civic service and volunteering programmes, through which governments enable citizens to contribute directly to public or community goals (e.g. civic service schemes or state-supported volunteering platforms).
Non-institutionalised participation: Forms of civic engagement that occur outside formal government-designed participation channels and are typically initiated by citizens, civil society organisations or social movements. These activities allow individuals and groups to express views, mobilise support or advocate for change through informal individual or collective action. Examples include social movements, civic and community-led activism, volunteering, and informal digital participation such as posting or forwarding political content.
Civic space: defined as the set of legal, policy, institutional, and practical conditions non-governmental actors need to access information, express themselves, associate, organise and participate in public life. As such, civic space is a prerequisite for civic engagement, as well as responsive, democratic and effective governance for all segments of the population. When civic space is protected, individuals and civil society feel safer and more empowered to participate in public life, voice their concerns, and advocate for change without fear of retribution. A protected civic space encourages a diversity of voices to engage in democratic processes, strengthening the quality of the public’s involvement.
Citizen Participation: The OECD Recommendation of the Council on Open Government defines citizen participation as “all the ways in which (citizens and) stakeholders can be involved in the policy cycle and in service design and delivery”. The Recommendation acknowledges that participation includes a wide range of methods and degrees of expected involvement from citizens and impact on decisions, ranging from sharing information, consulting, and engaging stakeholders. The OECD also understands the following definitions:
Citizens: individuals, and in the larger sense ‘an inhabitant of a particular place’, which can be in reference to a village, town, city, region, state, or country depending on the context. This place-based understanding of citizenship is used throughout the review to encompass all inhabitants regardless of immigration status.
Stakeholders: any interested and/or affected party, including non-government institutions and organisations from civil society, academia, the media or the private sector. This review focuses on the engagement of citizens and civil society organisations (CSOs).
Civil society organisation (CSO): An organisational representation of civil society, including all not-for-profit, non-state, non-partisan, non-violent, and self-governing organisations outside of the family in which people come together to pursue shared needs, ideas, interests, values, faith and beliefs, including formal, legally registered organisations as well as informal associations without legal status but with a structure and activities [OECD/LEGAL/5021].
Digital Ecosystem: The interconnected network of digital tools, platforms, infrastructure, and actors (government, civil society, private sector, citizens) that shape online interactions between governments and citizens, including public service delivery and opportunities for citizen participation in public policy making. In the context of citizen participation, it can also refer to the combination of digital participation platforms, data systems, and the conditions for digital inclusion, such as connectivity, affordability, accessibility, digital skills and online safety, that determine whether and how citizens can take part in engagement processes through digital channels.
Digital Environment: The set of legal, regulatory, institutional and technological conditions that shape how actors can interact online, including citizens, civil society, private actors and government institutions. Unlike the digital ecosystem, which encompasses the actors, platforms, tools and infrastructures involved in these interactions, the digital environment is narrower and refers more specifically to the conditions and rules under which those interactions can take place.
Seldom heard (or underheard) groups: Individuals or community groups who are less likely to take part in participation processes. This can be due to practical, institutional, or cultural barriers that may limit their access or voice.
Meaningful participation: Citizen and stakeholder participation that provides a genuine opportunity to influence public decisions, as opposed to purely informative or symbolic engagement. It typically involves identifying the right time for participation across the policy cycle (e.g. before key decisions are made), providing transparent feedback on how input was used, and ensuring processes are accessible and representative of those affected by the decision.