Dr. Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob Speaks at the Athens Democracy Forum 2025
Rebuilding the Moral Infrastructure of Democracy
Dr. Jacob’s speech at the Athens Democracy Forum 2025.
Athens, Greece – October 2, 2025 — Dr. Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob, Founding Director of the Global Centre for Rehumanising Democracy (GCRD), delivered one of the four “Tools of Democracy Tutorials” at this year’s Athens Democracy Forum (ADF), organized under the theme “New Visions for Hard Realities.”
Dr. Jacob’s session, titled “Rebuilding a Moral Infrastructure,” was held on October 2, 2025, at the Athens Conservatoire and drew a packed audience of global thought leaders, journalists, policymakers, and civic innovators gathered from around the world to explore new pathways for democratic renewal.
Rebuilding the Moral Infrastructure
In his deeply personal and reflective address, Dr. Jacob argued that the crisis of democracy is not merely political or technological, but fundamentally moral and spiritual.
“The crisis of democracy is a crisis of trust, and distrust is a crisis of the human soul,” he said, drawing from his own childhood experience growing up under military dictatorship in Nigeria. “We cannot fix democracy with technical solutions alone. We must rebuild its moral infrastructure — the invisible foundation of trust, empathy, and integrity that sustains every free society.”
Dr. Jacob introduced GCRD’s pioneering initiatives, including:
Contemplative Leadership Formation – equipping leaders to align moral integrity with public service.
System Renewal and Moral Mediation – building civic spaces where power and empathy coexist.
The Democratic Discourse Index, developed in partnership with Sensika Technologies, using AI to monitor the moral and emotional tone of public discourse as an early-warning system for democratic trust.
His talk was one of the Forum’s most discussed sessions, resonating deeply with participants concerned about rising authoritarianism, disinformation, and civic fatigue.
A Forum of Global Voices and Democratic Imagination
The 2025 Athens Democracy Forum — convened by the Democracy & Culture Foundation in partnership with The New York Times — gathered presidents, ministers, journalists, philanthropists, academics, and youth leaders from across the world.
This year’s Democracy Tutorials featured four transformative sessions:
Civic Activation, led by Lindiwe Mazibuko and Shaunei Gerber of Futurelect.
Storytelling as a Vehicle for Change, with Anisa Draboo, Co-Founder of Confluence Media.
Beyond Scaling Up, with Yves Mathieu, Founder of Missions Publiques.
Rebuilding a Moral Infrastructure, by Dr. Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob, Global Centre for Rehumanising Democracy.
Together, the tutorials highlighted the multifaceted tools necessary for democratic renewal — from civic engagement and narrative power to participatory design and moral formation.
A Call to Rehumanise Democracy
In his remarks, Dr. Jacob called for the creation of a global movement for trust-based democratic renewal, insisting that institutions alone cannot sustain democracy without leaders and citizens formed in moral clarity.
“Rebuilding democracy means rebuilding the human heart,” he said. “It is the work of our time — to rehumanise democracy by addressing what we have neglected: the moral foundation, the spiritual dimension, the human soul.”
About the Global Centre for Rehumanising Democracy (GCRD)
The Global Centre for Rehumanising Democracy (GCRD) is an independent, international initiative headquartered in the United Kingdom. Its mission is to restore moral depth and human dignity to democratic life by integrating contemplative practice, civic ethics, and moral intelligence into leadership, governance, and technology. Through programs in moral formation, narrative healing, and ethical AI, GCRD is advancing a new moral movement for democracy worldwide.
Learn more at www.gcrd.org.uk
