Online course: Cooperation under pressure

This course is aimed at individuals, organizations and institutions linked to international cooperation who seek to act with greater ethical and political coherence in the face of the closing of civic space and the repression of civil society in different regions of the world.
It is specially designed for:

• Donors, philanthropic foundations, and international cooperation agencies that wish to review their frameworks for action in contexts of high conflict.
• International NGOs and transnational networks that support social processes and seek alternatives to forced departures or risky contexts.
• Technical teams, program managers and decision-makers within cooperation institutions who want to strengthen their capacity to respond to political crises and democratic shutdowns.
• Allied organizations, consultants and researchers interested in critical, feminist, anti-racist and decolonial cooperation approaches.

No specific prior experience is required, but a willingness to question conventional models, listen to social organizations, and commit to bolder, more useful, and more sustainable forms of cooperation is essential.

The main objective of this course is to reimagine international cooperation in contexts marked by structural violence, political repression, the criminalization of human rights defenders, and the systematic exclusion of peoples.
It is not just about resisting, but about making cooperation useful, lasting, and accompanied by ethical and political meaning.
With a critical, feminist, anti-racist and decolonial approach, this course proposes to think about and design viable strategies so that international cooperation does not surrender to cruelty, but confronts it with radical solidarity, political imagination and co-responsibility.

This course is not only a learning space, but also a political commitment to rethinking and transforming international cooperation in contexts of repression and the closure of civic space. Therefore, its methodology is based on principles of horizontality, co-responsibility, collective production and ethical care.

Methodological approach

•  Critical and situated pedagogy: We start from the real experiences of those who participate, especially from the South, recognizing their knowledge as a legitimate source of knowledge.
• Facilitation rather than teaching: Teachers are not there to "teach" from a position of technical authority, but to to facilitate political, ethical and strategic dialogue from their experiences.
• Mixed spaces: We will combine synchronous (virtual) sessions with asynchronous spaces for reflection, writing, and shared systematization.

• Workshop approach: Permanent interaction, the use of open questions, collective exercises, and co-writing practices will be encouraged.
• Interregional dialogues and dialogues between situated experiences: People from different backgrounds (Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, etc.) will be invited to share from their lived experience, not from theory.
• Collective mapping of resistances and strategies: Throughout the course, a mapping of learning, tensions, and proposals will be constructed, which will feed into the final systematization.
• Progressive systematization: Each session will leave written or visual inputs (key phrases, proposals, stories), which will be retrieved towards the end.

Session 1: Naming What Hurts: Introductory Webinar

Teachers: Pablo Vommaro, Mariam Ikermawi and Damaris Ruiz (facilitated by Asier Hernando Malax-Echevarria)

This first session opens the course with an introduction that aims to critically frame the central themes that will be developed throughout the program. Drawing on diverse readings and territorial perspectives, the session analyzes global patterns of repression and the rise of authoritarianism, as well as the multiple ways in which collective action is restricted in increasingly closed contexts. The session offers an introductory overview from pluralistic and geopolitically situated perspectives.

Session 2: Cruelty and repression as a global framework

Teacher: Rosa María Cañete 

This course delves into the understanding of cruelty and structural repression as systemic phenomena affecting bodies, territories, and organizations, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. It analyzes how these patterns shape the closure of civic space, the criminalization of civil society, and the consolidation of authoritarian, racist, and patriarchal systems. Furthermore, it reflects on global repressive strategies and the ethical and political dilemmas that international cooperation faces in these contexts.

Session 3: Ethical cooperation in the face of repressive regimes

Teacher: Rafael Henríquez García and Nicaragua Never Again

This session critically analyzes the role of cooperation in contexts of total closure of civic space, repression, and criminalization. It addresses the ethical dilemmas faced by NGOs in the face of the instrumentalization and normalization of authoritarianism. The real risks to international organizations are examined, and minimum commitments such as political coherence and accompaniment are discussed to sustain cooperation that does not abandon those who resist. Furthermore, the session delves into the experience of a Nicaraguan organization that, despite closure and criminalization, has managed to maintain active ties with international cooperation networks and transnational alliances.

Session 4: Having an impact amidst the siege: political strategies from cooperation

Teachers: María Cristina Perceval

This course focuses on how international cooperation organizations can exert political influence from the Global North without compromising the security of their allies in repressive contexts. Through ethical strategies and context-specific working methods, it explores tools for engaging with authoritarian regimes without resorting to paternalistic or substitution approaches. It fosters critical reflection on possible forms of advocacy from safe environments, enabling action with a short-, medium-, and long-term vision.

Session 5: Resistances that sustain life: defending civic space from the territories

Teachers: Ana Silvia Monzón and María Josefa Macz

This session highlights strategies of territorial resistance against criminalization and state control. It emphasizes local knowledge and organizational practices that sustain community fabric and spaces for collective action without relying on frameworks imposed by international cooperation. Through concrete examples of resistance, the session examines the role of NGOs in these contexts, exploring when to provide support, when to withdraw, and when to remain silent in order to protect.

Session 6: Feminisms in resistance: sustaining life in times of repression

Teachers: Damaris Ruiz and Luciana Peker

This class addresses how feminist movements and organizations respond to repressive contexts through collective, territorial, and ethical strategies. It analyzes the ways in which gender, ethnicity, class, and territory intertwine within repressive systems, and how feminisms sustain life, confront power, and organize resistance. Furthermore, it examines the role of international cooperation in supporting these struggles, avoiding extractive, instrumentalizing, or depoliticized approaches.

Session 7: Futures for a cooperation that does not abandon

Teachers: Renata Oliveira and Carlos Bedoya

This closing session proposes a reflection on the transformative role that international cooperation should assume in the face of rising authoritarianism and the shrinking of civic space. Alternative models of accompaniment based on ethical commitment and care are explored. Drawing on shared learning, participants envision how to build a transformative, committed, non-extractive cooperation that is politically aligned with the struggles for a dignified life. Key lessons are identified, along with pathways for creating a common agenda toward a cooperation that does not abandon its people.