By Pablo Águila Abarca, Acción, Forus member in Chile.

With the support of Forus, the French Development Agency and the European Union, Acción, held a webinar series within the framework of the “Tejiendo Redes” project throughout March and April. Representatives from various organisations of the network held discussions with candidates throughout this series in order to write the new Chilean Constitution that will revoke the one drawn up during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship and then reformed during the government of President Ricardo Lagos. 

The issues discussed in these 8 meetings included childhood, housing, water, territories, sustainable development goals, gender, the rights of nature and the right to communication. The meetings were moderated by representatives of various Acción partner organisations working in each of the areas under discussion, and guests and moderators discussed how to include these issues in the next Constitution.

Representatives from various territories who have different views on the issues analysed participated in each webinar, in order to reflect the many voices of those who ran in Chile’s constitutional convention election. 

For Ximena Salinas, the vice president of Acción, this series “made an open dialogue between partner organisations and those aiming to write the new Chilean constitution possible. Also, several interesting proposals arose during this discussion that are to be brought into the Constitutional Convention”. 

Cristina Dorador, the constitutional convention candidate for District 3 who participated in the rights of nature discussion group,  says: “for me it was very important to participate because of the panellists and moderators’ past experience, which significantly enriched the discussion. It was also very interesting to address the different environmental issues within the various districts”. The candidate for District 8, Camila Cáceres, highlights the intergenerational approach of the meetings. “I am extremely honoured that they considered me to be on this panel with these speakers. I practically grew up hearing their names, especially Verónica Matus, which is why I’m extremely grateful that they invited me to participate”. 

Cristina Dorador and Fernando Salinas were amongst the panellists who were at this series and who were elected in the convention election. Both of them are connected to the socio-environmental movements that seek to write an ecological constitution for Chile. For Ximena Salinas, the election of these constituents “opens a hopeful path for civil society organisations, given that the members of social movements will be able to write the future Chilean Constitution. The contribution that will be made within the constituent body will be significant, by putting the requests of citizens and those of us working in the NGO sector in this new Constitution”. 

The webinar series is available on Acción' Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/asociaciondeongs.