A message to each and every one of us from Davos: Be accountable. Be transparent. Create change.

The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos came to a close last week, and while the majority of coverage focused on world leaders’ plans for the future, one of the strongest messages came from outside of the spotlight: it’s time to take ownership, and for citizens to lead political rejuvenation.

During her speech, Angela Merkel made an apology. Germany is behind the digital curve. She noted that delaying digitalisation, simply because older politicians aren’t comfortable with it, is a disservice to younger generations. And yet, despite this acknowledgement, little is being done within parliament to challenge this.

This isn’t surprising. Frequently leaders — in big corporations, political institutions and the media — talk about the need to improve, become more sustainable, and serve the new global trends. Yet so often they fail to back up their actions with the resources to help implement appropriate technology and infrastructure. Politicians call on corporations to be more responsible. Corporates blame government for slow progress. Ultimately, people are simply being told what institutions think they want to hear, and then continue to follow their own agenda regardless.

Yes, this is a trend that is as old as our institutions are, but now we, the people, are armed with technology. People can monitor what is promised, and track its delivery. Today we can be more aware than ever of the failure to keep promises, as well as the mis- (or lack of) information we’re fed. This has fed the level of global distrust we’re now experiencing.

Why would our organisations change if people don’t make them? They hold a large part of the governing power, and yet lack authority due to a total distrust of their core values.

“There is a trust deficit between powerful institutions, whether they are in government or the private sector. You build trust by addressing the needs of the people.”

Iqbal Survé, Executive Chairman of Sekunjalo Investment Holdings

This is seen in the ways country leadership flip flops between the same political parties from term to term. We see this because of the way media outlets have produced content that is based on opinion purely to stir emotion. We see this because corporations own our data and use it to drive their own agendas and increase their own profits.

So if institutions won’t change by themselves, we need to force change.

People are beginning to understand and accept this, and in a quiet corner of Davos a number of panel discussions took place calling on us as citizens to take responsibility for the required transformation that will ensure the creation of a political system that best serves us all.

Two panels in particular stood out for these reasons: Rejuvenating European Democracy and Democracy in a Post-truth era.

Rejuvenating European Democracy focused on the ways in that, within politics, we need to find a way to bring more young people to the table (with a focus on the European landscape).

While Democracy in a Post-truth era was centred on the phenomenon of digital misinformation and micro-targeting which have an unprecedented impact on political opinions and election campaigns.

From both panels, three keys elements on how to solve these issues can be drawn:

• Accountability
• Transparency
• Ownership

These three words need to be applied across the media, politicians, and corporations. But most importantly, as citizens we need to take on a shared responsibility to apply these notions to the aforementioned institutions, because if we don’t, nothing will change — there’s simply no motivation on their part to do so.

The political space is the one which should have the greatest pressure applied. Why? Firstly because businesses and the media already have a base level of accountability put upon them by the government, but also as once governments start implementing progressive and responsible policies, corporations and the press will have to adapt to stay alive.

Citizen appetite for change works, and has real transformative impact. Look at France. Until the last election, the country had two main parties, Le Parti Socialiste and Les Républicains. There was national discontent, and far left and right wing parties were threatening to gain control. The country was calling for change, and this call was answered by Macron. His ability to listen to what the French people wanted, and form a party and policies based on this, saw a huge shift in the way the country voted.

While in Lithuania, following the fall of the soviet rule in 1991, the political system was subject to electoral corruption. Dissatisfaction and frustration lead to the creation of a movement called the “White Gloves” in 2012. This politically independent civic engagement movement has supported the Lithuanian civic society to fight political corruption nationally through independent electoral monitoring and reporting of unlawful practices, amongst other things. Since their creation, corruption has taken a nosedive, and citizens can feel contented that they can trust the outcome of elections.

So how can citizens be empowered to take responsibility for the positive development of society?

Education

One of the most important ways we can achieve civic responsibility is through political education. Young people need to have a say in their futures, and once they understand the landscape and ecosystem they can define innovative and progressive solutions, much in the same way start-ups are disrupting business. Learning debate and critical thinking is key.

Technology

Technology is impactful. Education on the topic could help empower those who decide to utilise its potential, and highlight that they are therefore responsible for harnessing its power in a positive and constructive manner, rather than using it to spread fake news for example. CivicTech tools, such as Civocracy, are being created to offer a neutral space for government, corporations and citizens to interact, where agendas can be shared, priorities set, and decisions taken collaboratively. There needs to be a push for the use of progressive technology.

Co-creation

By calling for the co-creation of projects and policy, citizens can enforce accountability and transparency by taking ownership. This process additionally allows people to see the challenges governments face in creating successful policy, and be more understanding of the process, therefore rebuilding trust. Government should favour this method, and be more communicative with each other on a local, regional, national and international level, share best practises, and work together to solve large-scale problems rather than recreating solutions to similar issues.

In making the decision to take ownership of our futures, we can feel empowered to hold institutions accountable for their actions and demand transparency from them, as well as driving agendas.

Democracy isn’t dead, it’s just distrusted. And it’s time for us to fix it.