The US Agency for International Development, Bureau for Management, Office of Acquisition and Assistance (M/OAA) has a requirement for the Advancing Digital Democracy activity.

Over the past 30 years, digital technologies have fostered tremendous economic growth, increased commerce, accelerated the development of new industries, and connected and amplified the voices of activists and marginalized communities. These technologies have facilitated the flow of information, created jobs and entire industries, enabled citizen education and political participation, enhanced the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and accountability of government systems and service delivery, and assisted with organizing and advocacy, all of which has helped to strengthen democratic institutions, processes, and values. Yet all these benefits have failed to outweigh a persistent fact: technological innovation has steadily outpaced our ability to identify, avoid and/or mitigate potential harms.

Indeed, the global economic and political landscape has radically changed over the past 20 years due to new forms of digital innovation, including the steady integration of social media platforms, big data, cloud computing, 5G technology, the internet of things, biometrics (including facial recognition technologies), digital identification, spyware, digital surveillance tools, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into our lives and governments. The expanded de facto role of technology companies across all facets of daily life, combined with the fact that some governments misuse technology and data to control and repress their populations, has intensified and accelerated global democratic decline, given rise to new forms of violence – including technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV ) – and 1 eroded respect for human rights . Governments across the ideological spectrum have weaponized 2 technology and data in what some experts refer to as “digital repression,” or the intentional use of digital tools and technology to suppress or violate human rights .

This support will be achieved through the following objectives:

• Objective I – Governments implement legal and regulatory frameworks related to technology, data, and information that align with and fulfill their international human rights and democratic commitments
• Objective 2- Respect for human rights and democratic values are embedded in the development and design of digital technology and data management
• Objective 3 – Civil Society and citizens more effectively engage in democracy and human rights issues involving technology