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 Digital Democracy Initiative is implemented through nine projects led by trustedpartners: CIVICUS, Global Focus, Digital Defenders Partnership, Access Now, WITNESS, Fondo de Mujeres del Sur, IWGIA, European Partnership for Democracy, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
News from the DDI
The DDI Global Digital Knowledge Hub is now live!
As part of the DDI programme, Global Focus and CIVICUS have collaborated on building an online global digital knowledge hub curating information and knowledge products to enable peer-learning within and across borders and organisations about the challenges, potentials, and impacts of digital technologies on civic engagement and inclusive democracy. The Knowledge Hub consists of a curated online library, as well as a global peer learning community sharing knowledge in regular Community Calls featuring presentations and knowledge sharing from across the DDI partner projects as well as the Advisory Board for the DDI, and beyond. The first version of the platform can be accessed here: Connecting Current
