Building Digital Democracy
5 ways USAID is using technology to strengthen democracy around the world
Today, two in three people around the world now have access to the internet — driving massive transformations in our daily lives.
Much of this change has been positive for society, enabling new connections with government, improving transparency, and turbocharging civic activism.
However, this new technology also has a dark side — it has disrupted our global democracies in dangerous ways. This has inspired USAID to mobilize to ensure that technologies, including AI, work for — not against — democratic principles, institutions, and societies.
“Authoritarians only own the future if we let them. Just as vast majorities around the world prefer democracy to repression, or free speech to censorship, the vast majority want to see technology used to improve our health, raise our standards of living, and make our voices heard,” said USAID Administrator Samantha Power at the first Summit for Democracy in December 2021. “Our task is to work together to infuse democratic principles — transparency, accountability, privacy, and equity — across all digital technologies.”
This complicated context is why technology and democracy have been one of the core themes throughout each of the Summits for Democracy. It is also why USAID is heavily investing in supporting democracy and human rights in the digital age.
In advance of the third Summit for Democracy, hosted by the Republic of Korea in March 2024, learn more about five USAID-supported initiatives that aim to infuse democratic principles into digital technologies around the world.
Advancing Digital Democracy
1.The rapid pace of innovation sometimes moves faster than our ability to predict and prevent harm to human rights. USAID’s Advancing Digital Democracy Initiative (ADD) tackles this challenge by partnering with government, the private sector, and civil society to foster open, secure, and inclusive digital ecosystems that advance, rather than undermine, democratic values and respect for human rights.
In the AI space, the ADD mechanism will be able to support local actors in developing or strengthening rights-respecting AI governance frameworks that enable partners to identify and manage potential AI risks. ADD investments will also encourage companies at the global and local levels to build AI systems and technologies that respect and protect human rights “by default and design.”
In the ADD initiative’s first year, USAID supported projects to strengthen digital democracy in Zambia, The Gambia, Kenya, Indonesia, North Macedonia, and Serbia. In Zambia, this included support for a multi stakeholder platform hosted by the government’s Public-Private Dialogue Forum, bringing together government, civil society, and the private sector in discussions highlighting concerns about digital development and digital repression.
Promoting Access to Accurate Information
2.Access to factual, trustworthy information is essential to the health of a democracy. However, bad actors around the world are using technology, including AI generated, to manipulate information in their efforts to sow division, achieve their own goals, and undermine democratic processes.
USAID’s Promoting Information Integrity and Resilience Initiative (Pro-Info) aims to help address information manipulation through diplomatic engagement, donor coordination, and capacity building efforts — working to ensure that everyone has access to trusted information.
USAID will provide up to $16 million to support Pro-Info’s goals of enhancing technical assistance to local civil society, governments, and media outlets.
Safeguarding Women’s Participation in Public Life
3.New technologies can amplify women’s voices. However, they also enable the spread of manipulated information and gender-based violence at greater scale, speed, and reach.
Public figures — including women politicians, activists, and journalists — are particularly affected by technology-facilitated gender-based violence, a threat or act of violence committed using technology or digital media against a person based on their gender.
These attacks weaken democratic processes by misleading and manipulating voters and discouraging women, including younger generations, from freely and equally participating in politics.
USAID’s Transform Digital Spaces program supports the implementation of practical solutions to these attacks around the world by building bridges among women’s rights activists and survivors and other key stakeholders necessary to address this issue, including male-led civic technology organizations.
In 2024, USAID is launching pilot activities in Kenya, Georgia, and Guatemala to help create a world in which women, in all their diversity, can engage at all levels of public life.
Aligning Development Investments with Human Rights
4.At last year’s UN Internet Governance Forum, USAID launched the Donor Principles for Human Rights in the Digital Age in partnership with Canada’s International Development Research Centre. The Donor Principles establish an international framework to support donor governments to adopt a “do no harm” approach to digital development, including when it comes to AI. So far, 38 governments have endorsed the Donor Principles, and they have received widespread support from civil society.
“Digital transformation does not have to come at the expense of digital rights,” USAID Chief Digital Democracy and Rights Officer Vera Zakem said at the Donor Principles launch event. “As donor governments, we can best fulfill our mandate when we put safety and security — and the values of democracy, respect for human rights, transparency, and accountability — at the heart and the center of our work.”
Preventing and Responding to Digital Repression
5.Digital authoritarians have demonstrated their effectiveness at using the power of technology to repress their people. Both governments and non-state actors target civic activists, independent journalists, and human rights defenders with digital repression. While examples of digital repression of civil society can be found in nearly every country, including developed democracies, it’s at its worst in the most repressive contexts.
Building on more than a decade of experience supporting citizens in combating digital threats, USAID is launching Civic DEFENDERS, a new global program aimed at countering digital repression. The activity will build the long-term resilience of civic activists, with a particular emphasis on the needs of women and other marginalized groups.
Looking Forward
The internet has created an increasingly destabilizing impact on society. However, when the design, development, and deployment of new digital technologies are gender-sensitive, include human rights by design, and provide opportunities to support civil society and government, technology can be a way to strengthen democracies in our connected age.
To that end, USAID is also supporting the Biden Administration’s efforts to promote safe, secure and trustworthy AI under the recent Executive Order by working with the State Department to develop an AI and Global Development Playbook that will outline actions development actors can take to support responsible, rights-respecting AI ecosystems.
USAID’s work on technology, as highlighted at the Summit, is engaging in this effort to advance digital democracy and fight digital repression around the world.
About the Authors
Kayla Goodson is a Digital Democracy Specialist in USAID’s Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Bureau and Special Advisor to the Chief Digital Democracy and Rights Officer. Chris Doten is a Digital Democracy Advisor in USAID’s Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Bureau.
