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This policy paper focuses on the role that legislatures play in mitigating the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially through their budget oversight roles, and ensuring responses are effective and consistent with democratic norms. It also looks at how increasing the resilience of legislatures builds resilience to future crises, not least through the role they can play in safeguarding constitutional checks and balances.
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The cohort is led by Moldova, Transparency International, and Basel Institute.
Contact the following for more information: valeriu.cupcea@cna.md, jonathan.spicer@
Anticorruption Policies as a Guarantee for National Security, Stability, and Sovereign Policy. The cohort is hosted by Bulgaria, the Center for Study of Democracy, and the Basel Institute.
Contact the following for more information: renne.traicova@
The Media Freedom Cohort is led by Canada, the Netherlands, and Internews. The cohort is further organized into three work streams:
For more information or to join the cohort, contact Internews: media-freedom-cohort@
The Election Integrity Cohort is led by India with co-leads Greece, Mauritius and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. The cohort undertakes collaborative activities to enhance understanding of election integrity with due regard to national, social and cultural contexts. Credible elections are an essential building block of democracy and one of its most visible processes. They require strong democratic institutions and effective, professional, and impartial administration and must be built upon the principles of transparency, accountable governance, respect for human rights, inclusiveness, rule of law and an independent judiciary, lack of corruption, and a safe environment for all electoral stakeholders. In the lead-up to the second Summit for Democracy, the cohort is focused on three themes:
For more information, please contact electionintegritycohortS4D@ifes.org.
Norway, the Czech Republic, and the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) will jointly lead a democracy cohort on Civic Space under the Summit for Democracy Year of Action. The purpose of the cohort is to identify common commitments to strengthen support to and protection of civil society actors and civic space for democracy. The co-leads suggest to organize discussions and recommendations in working streams under the leadership of different countries, depending on interest and capacity.
Contact adeblock@icnl.org for more information.
The cohort is led by Lithuania, Freedom House, and Alliance of Democracies.
The cohort has four areas of focus:
Contact Katie LaRoque (laroque@freedomhouse.org) for more information. Read the concept note here
The overarching aim of the Technology for Democracy Cohort, as part of the overall ‘Year of Action’ to support the Summit for Democracy (S4D2) process, is:
‘to promote the use of technologies and digital connectivity to strengthen democracies and enhance the enjoyment of democratic freedoms, and ensure technologies are deployed in a free, responsible, secure, resilient way.’
The cohort is hosted by UK, Estonia, and Access Now
Contact Jennifer Brody (jennifer@accessnow.org) or Peter Micek (peter@accessnow.org) for more information.
The cohort is hosted by Latvia, Canada, and Alliance for Securing Democracy
Contact Laura Thornton (lthornton@securingdemocracy.org) for more information.
The Elections Integrity cohort is run by India, Greece, and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems.
Contact Vasu Mohan and Chad Vickery for more information.
The Youth Participation Cohort of the Summit for Democracy is devised as an inclusive platform to take meaningful action toward implementing Summit for Democracy commitments on youth political and civic engagement through resources, expertise, research, activities, and achievements.
The cohort is hosted by European Commission, European Partnership for Democracy, Ghana, Nepal, European Democracy Youth Network, and Africtivistes.
Contact Anne-Simone Badji (annesimonebadji@epd.eu) for more information.
The Rule of Law and People-Centered Justice Cohort is hosted by the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Kosovo, together with Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just, and Inclusive Societies, American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, World Justice Project, and Transparency International.
With the goal of reaching the Sustainable Development Goal 16.3 “equal access to justice for all”, the Cohort seeks to transform justice systems by putting people at the center. People-centered justice focuses on understanding and solving people’s unmet legal needs and lowering the barriers people find when they seek justice. To realize people-centered justice, the Cohort aims to tie the themes of the Summit for Democracy with a call to action articulated in The Hague Declaration.
The Cohort invites interested governments, organizations, private sector actors, and donors to participate in its activities, to maintain engaged collaboration around people-centered justice beyond the Summit for Democracy 2023 through the Justice Action Coalition, and to consider a potential membership in the Justice Action Coalition.
For more information, contact Themba Mahleka, Senior Program Officer, Justice for All, Pathfinders, themba.mahleka@nyu.edu
This cohort is run by the United States and AFL-CIO.
The Inclusive Democracy cohort is run by Spain, CERMI, and Fundación Triángulo.
The cohort on Gender Equality as a prerequisite for Democracy is jointly led by Sweden, Romania, Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace & Security (GIWPS) and International IDEA.
The purpose of the cohort is to highlight and promote the connection between gender equality and democracy and to develop policy recommendations to bolster women’s participation in and contribution to democracy. In particular, the recommendation will look at the issues of Inclusion (economic, social, political), justice (formal laws and informal discrimination) and Security (at individual, community, and societal levels). In addition, the Cohort will serve as a global platform to call attention to the need to address harmful and rigid gender norms that hinder women’s full participation and representation in democracy and emphasize the importance of gender equality in rebuilding societies after crisis and conflict.
Contact r.kandawasvika-nhundu@idea.int for more information. Learn more here
The United States government, Open Government Partnership, and the Brookings Institution jointly launched the financial transparency and integrity democracy cohort on July 21. The event provided an opportunity for civil society and government representatives to share initial reactions, recommendations, and questions regarding the cohort’s high-level objectives and activities. The cohort’s co-leads encouraged attendees to provide feedback on priority themes and suggested cohort participants by Friday, August 12. Feedback and any questions can be directed toward: democracysummit@state.gov, rlewis@brookings.edu, and aidan.harris@
The Disability Rights Cohort is led by the Government of Australia and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). One out of every seven people in the world has a disability, yet persons with disabilities remain under-represented in political and public life. Participation of persons with disabilities in government institutions, public policy and legislation provides the basis for promoting equality in all aspects of society by breaking down social stigmas and increasing accountability. With the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and economic instability all disproportionately impacting persons with disabilities, having a voice in governance is crucial.
The cohort’s objectives are to:
Initial model commitments states can make to promote disability rights can be found here.
Please contact DisabilityCohortS4D@ifes.org for more information.
The Deliberative Democracy and Citizens’ Assemblies Cohort is sponsored by the Government of Ireland and supported by the European Commission.
Citizens’ Assemblies aim to give everyday citizens a much more meaningful role in public decisions by bringing together a random sample of the community with a wide range of views and giving them access to a diversity of sources as well as ample time to discuss questions and concerns.
With their use at the most senior levels of government growing rapidly, the commitments offer a way for governments to get started with a key technique for a better democracy.
For any inquiries please contact the NGO sponsor, the newDemocracy Foundation (Australia) – iain.walker@newdemocracy.com.au
