TICTeC: The People Crafting the Tech Infrastructure of Democracy

Posted by jfrant

In the heart of London, the TICTeC conference – held June 12 and 13 – was a rare opportunity to take a break from the grind and reflect on the amazing and inspiring work of civic technologists around the world. Hosted by MySociety and supported by the National Endowment for Democracy, this event was the first time the conference was held in-person since the COVID-19 pandemic forced most such convenings online. Representatives from the global civic technology community forged new relationships, shared tools for democratic engagement, and explored how emerging technologies are reshaping the civic technology landscape.

NDI’s participation reflects our commitment to a critical message: democracy doesn’t end at the ballot box. Civic technologists play a particularly important role in supporting government service delivery and reinforcing feedback loops between government and citizens. For example, Code for Pakistan’s use of Ushahidi to help the government more effectively allocate aid after floods was a critical and timely application of open-source technology that directly impacted people’s lives. Since Ushahidi is open-source, the Code for Pakistan team was also able to develop a connection to the popular WhatsApp messaging tool, broadening the reach of the initiative. In another example, Abdellatif Belmkadem of the National Institute of Innovation and Advanced Technology of Morocco explained how using Fix My Street in Casablanca is not just facilitating infrastructure repairs, but fundamentally reshaping the social contract between government and citizens. This project is also furthering the development of the Fix My Street open-source project by exploring machine-learning based approaches to categorizing issue reports. The session, co-led by NDI’s Maurice Sayinzoga, DemTech Program Director, underscored that technology alone will not “make democracy work” and shared practical steps for engaging government stakeholders, navigating bureaucratic hurdles, and demonstrating the tangible benefits of technology tools. These examples demonstrate how technology can connect citizens’ needs with government action, but in both cases government buy-in is essential to ensure the tools actually help solve real-world issues, rather than just contributing to a backlog of unresolved complaints.

NDI also showcased innovative approaches to civic tech in closed and conflict affected contexts. Sarah Moulton, NDI Deputy Director for Technology and Democracy, moderated a panel discussion with Jesper Frant, NDI Senior Technology Project Manager, and representatives from two of NDI’s civic technology partners, Pavel Liber and Isabel Hou. The discussion centered on how tech tools can help to build community around democratic principles, despite seemingly insurmountable headwinds. Pavel shared his experience building an innovative online platform, New Belarus, that enables Belarusians to build a free Belarusian community online. Isabel shared her decades-long experience growing an active civic technology community in Taiwan. g0v holds weekly hackathons and develops tools to, among other things, protect the integrity of online information, and visualize government budget data. They recently completed a “Civic Tech Project & Community Handbook” which describes their approach to building community around civic technology. Jesper shared lessons learned for working with civic technology in countries with weak digital infrastructure, low tech literacy, and high security risk, emphasizing a human-centered approach and a commitment to “do no harm.”

While the challenges in many of these contexts can often seem insurmountable, civic technology is about empowering citizens and enhancing the mechanisms of democracy. It’s about ensuring that every voice is heard and that governments are responsive to their citizens. NDI is committed to harnessing the potential of civic tech to make democracy more dynamic, participatory and effective.

This post was originally posted to the dem.tools blog.

Organizations/Networks Working To Resist Trump and/or Support American Democracy

Posted by jfrant

Here is a list of organizations/networks that are working resist Trump and support American democracy. If you know of others, please add them in the comments. And PLEASE sign up with your favorite(s) to get involved:

https://www.indivisibleguide.com/
http://actiongroups.net/
http://www.thedreamcorps.org/lovearmy_action
https://www.countable.us/
https://www.sisterdistrict.com/
https://swingleft.org/
https://www.wall-of-us.org/
http://jenniferhofmann.com/…/weekly-action-checklist-democ…/
https://www.womensmarch.com/100/
https://citizensclimatelobby.org/
https://350.org/
https://www.climaterealityproject.org/
http://blacklivesmatter.com/
http://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/
https://www.aclu.org/
https://sunlightfoundation.com/
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/

There’s No Sustainable Development Without Good Governance

Posted by jfrant

With the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set to expire this year, attention is turning to a new priority – Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which are being negotiated now and are scheduled to be adopted in late September.

As the world contemplates this new agenda, good governance needs to be a priority.

Sustainable development is often described as consisting of three pillars – social, environmental and economic – but this model lacks a key ingredient for sustainability: good governance. It has been widely recognized that the MDGs did not place enough focus on governance. They did not have a goal on governance, and the only goal that came close, MDG eight, made a vague pronouncement about creating a “global partnership for development.”

The SDGs will be far from sustainable without governments capable of implementing them. In fact, good governance – institutions that are responsive to the needs of citizens – is the foundation of sustainable development. Without a strong foundation the pillars of sustainable development will crumble.

Conflict or public health disasters can quickly erode development gains in the absence of good governance. As Foreign Policy noted in August, the Ebola epidemic is more than just a problem of health care, it’s a crisis of governance. And while international humanitarian relief efforts are necessary, there will be no long-term development without strong local institutions.

The SDGs have begun to take shape. An Open Working Group outcome document proposed 17 new goals in July, which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon endorsed in a Synthesis Report in December. Both reports contain strong language highlighting the importance of good governance.

The Open Working Group document states: “Good governance and the rule of law at the national and international levels are essential for sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth, sustainable development and the eradication of poverty and hunger.”

Moon’s Synthesis Report echoes the Open Working Group, stating that the member states will have to “fill key sustainable development gaps left by the MDGs,” including “strengthening effective, accountable, participatory and inclusive governance.”

But these statement may prove to be mere lip service against the backdrop of what Thomas Carothers, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment, describes as the “weakened commitment by the United States and other established democracies to making democracy support a foreign-policy priority.”

The international community must prioritize good governance as the foundation of the pillars of sustainable development. Goals 16 and 17 of the Open Working Group’s outcome document are a promising move in that direction, but governance is still at risk of being sidelined. The Sustainable Development Solutions Network has proposed a set of indicators to go along with the goals, but the indicators for governance could be strengthened.

As UN negotiators meet this year to finalize the SDGs, they should keep in mind three considerations to ensure that good governance is implemented as a core component of the goals:

Make governance a cross-cutting consideration for all goals
Employ a country-led approach to sustainable development
Help support strong democratic institutions through international assistance