Invitation for Online Civil Society Consultation Regarding the Call for Proposals under the Digital Democracy Initiative

The Digital Democracy Initiative (DDI) is a global flagship programme for safeguarding democracy and human rights in the Global South and responding to democratic challenges caused by the use of digital technology. The DDI programme focuses on support to local civil society in the Global South, particularly in countries undergoing democratic regression and where civic space is under pressure. The programme prioritises assistance and support to local civil society organisations to strengthen use and awareness of digital technologies in their work to promote and protect inclusive democracy, including organisations representing women, youth, and marginalised groups as well as informal actors and social movements, often challenged in accessing funding and other resources.

In 2023 at the Summit for Democracy, the DDI was launched jointly by the EU Commission and the Danish Government with a total commitment of EUR 51 million. Recently, the Norwegian Government has joined the programme with a commitment of EUR 0.9 million.

The overall objective of the DDI is to support the promotion and protection of inclusive democracy in the digital age. The DDI provides a strategic and consolidated funding framework for new and existing civil society partnerships.

The programme comprises four implementing partner organisations, who were selected at the beginning of the program and started their DDI-funded projects in Q2 of 2023. These four partners contribute to the DDI through dedicated projects supporting, i.a.1) sub-granting to local civil society actors; 2) rapid response mechanism to provide digital assistance to human rights defenders in acute need; 3) advocacy campaigning toward Governments; private sector and tech companies and 4) building a global digital knowledge hub that provides tools and knowledge products in localised and accessible formats.

The programme is designed to facilitate scalability, both in terms of adding donors and increasing the number of implementing partners during the implementation period 2023 to 2026.

Through a restricted Call for Proposals (CfP), the DDI aims to expand its activities to focus on important and at risk target groups in the Global South to ensure that individual Human Right Defenders (HRDs) and activists in civil society have the ability to access digital space while ensuring their protection from digital threats.

Areas of interests under the CfP should reflect the DDI programme principles of Localisation and local leadership; working with informal actors; youth inclusion; gender equality; learning, knowledge and convening and a Human Rights-based approach, and complement the current projects under implementation. New activities could revolve around: Protection against Technology-Facilitated Gender-based Violence (TFGBV); Digital technologies and Climate Action, and Digital Technology for Youth inclusion and engagement.

Interested organisations and actors from civil society are invited to provide input to inform the call during the online consultation. The focus of this consultation will be on the overall themes for the call, as the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs invites civil society organisations to pass on their expertise, to ensure the call addresses the most relevant and pressing challenges and opportunities in civil society at this moment. And to ensure, that the geographic focus and strategy to reach the local level is sound.

Input to the questions below would be highly appreciated:

• Which main challenges and opportunities can you identify in the work with: Protection Against Technology-Facilitated Gender-based Violence (TFGBV); Digital technologies and Climate Action; and Digital Technology for Youth inclusion and engagement?

   

• Which relevant regions/countries would profit the most from strengthened support under each of the mentioned activity areas? And why would these be more relevant than others?

   

• What would be the most appropriate and successful partner set-up to reach the local level?

Organisations interested in participating in this meeting should ensure they register by noon CET, 8^th of March 2024. This is done by email to: [email protected].