The Digital Democracy Initiative
The Digital Democracy Initiative (DDI) is a programme aimed at safeguarding inclusive democracy and human rights in the digital age. The DDI focuses on support to local civil society in the Global South, particularly in countries undergoing democratic regression and where civic space is under pressure.
Digital space has become a central arena in the efforts to expand and protect democratic rights. Digital technologies hold great potential for strengthening pluralist democracy, encouraging civic participation, and for giving a voice to marginalised groups. At the same time, digitalisation exposes human rights and democratic processes to new risks, including censorship, digital surveillance, mis- and disinformation, cyper-attacks, persecution, and harassment.
The Digital Democracy Initiative was launched during the 2023 Summit for Democracy by the Danish Government and the EU Commission as a TeamEurope initiative, with the aim of supporting local organisations and activists in the Global South in their fight for democracy and human rights in the digital age. The programme focuses on organisations representing women, youth, and marginalised groups as well as informal actors and social movements with limited access to funding and other resources.
The DDI works closely with trusted civil society partners CIVICUS, Global Focus, Digital Defenders Partnership, and Access Now.
Call for Proposals
The DDI programme is designed to facilitate scalability, both in terms of attracting additional donors and increasing the number of implementing partners during the implementation period 2023 to 2026. Through a Call for Proposals, the DDI will expand its support to Human Right Defenders and civil society activists in the Global South under three thematic lots:
- Lot 1: Combatting technology facilitated gender-based violence
- Lot 2: Leveraging digital technologies for climate activism
- Lot 3: Strengthening youth engagement in the digital democratic space
Kindly read the Information Note before applying. The process for the Call for Proposals will be conducted in two steps: A preliminary phase, where concept notes are submitted, evaluated, and pre-selected; followed by an invitation to selected applicants to submit their full proposals.
The deadline for the submission of concept notes is 17 June 2024 at 16h00 CET. Please use the Concept Note Template when applying. The concept notes must be submitted via email to [email protected]. Kindly specify in the subject line “DDI Call for concept notes 2024”, and the name of the lead applicant.
An information meeting was held online on 8 May. Additional questions could be sent via email until 24 May. Questions sent in after this deadline will not be answered. All questions and answers can be found here: Q&A Regarding the DDI Call for Proposals
Please find all relevant information in the documents listed below:
- Information Note
- Annex 1 – Concept Note Template
- Annex 2 – Scoring Sheet for Evaluation Criteria
- DDI Programme Document
- DDI Programme level results framework
See the Consortium Facilitation document for organisations looking for consortiums or consortiums looking for additional partner organisations. To be added to the list, please see the instructions within the document: