By Kibo Ngowi

Supporting accountable institutions in all the places we work across the globe is a central aspect of Accountability Lab’s mission. It’s work that has become more critical as democracy and human rights continue to come under threat in multiple regions. For a translocal network like the Lab, this is ultimately a question of sustainability, so we are doing all we can to understand how to proactively manage responses to these challenges. At the ecosystem level, this often means collectively organizing to shift political narratives, and increasing the space to push for more fair, equal and accountable societies.

One valuable forum to do this work has been the Summit for Democracy process introduced by US President Joe Biden in December 2021. The United States and and over 100 partner governments are actively engaged in implementing over 750 commitments made at the first Summit aimed at making democracies more responsive and resilient, and to build a broader community of partners committed to global democratic renewal. 

The process is a timely opportunity to meaningfully influence policy and democratic practices globally. Last year the Lab developed a new website and newsletter which have provided vital transparency with a consistent flow of information on the S4D process and progress over the past year. Our work was focused on centralizing information related to the summit and bolstering accountability during the second Year of Action (YoA).

As the Biden administration prepares to co-host the second Summit for Democracy with the leaders of Costa Rica, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, and the Republic of Zambia in March 2023 we reflect on four things we’ve learned from the first year of this process.

1. Grow the Ecosystem

Firstly, we realized very early on ahead of the first S4D that we in civil society collectively needed  a platform to ensure more cohesive engagement in the process. That is where this work originated and why developing the S4D website and newsletter was an essential step. 

The website has served as a repository for news and events related to the Summit. It is currently second in terms of SEO for the “Summit for Democracy” search term (after the State Department), and has more than 1,000 monthly unique visitors. The newsletter now reaches almost all civil society organizations that have been part of the process. These resources have been used extensively by civil society, government agencies and other partners to understand some of the trends emerging out of the S4D process.

2. Transparency and Inclusivity are Critical

Secondly, processes such as the S4D should be transparent from the outset and bring in as many voices as possible.  The US Government has got creative in this respect through co-hosting the second Summit with partner governments in each region, for example. And we hope that our efforts have helped to provide the information that many different kinds of organizations have needed to engage too. 

We’ve hosted a series of S4D related events, discussions and Tweet chats. We have also engaged in advocacy efforts in four S4D cohorts in particular (Financial Transparency and Integrity; Technology for Democracy; Youth Participation; and Civic Space). 

With our partners like International IDEA and the Open Government Partnership, we have also led the development and coordination of various working groups including one related to tracking of S4D commitments which has now evolved into a collaborative effort to put in place a template and methodology for doing so ahead of the second YoA. International IDEA has also built an impressive group of democratically minded organizations called the Global Democracy Coalition, of which we are a part, that is working hard to drive forward ideas around the S4D process. 

Crucially, we have also helped drive advocacy around the S4D process within specific country contexts, and made efforts to bring more and diverse civil society organizations into the S4D YoA. This has included large-scale surveys in Nepal, DRC and Nigeria (blogs on these results here and here). In Nepal we gathered responses via University events (#DemocracyCollegeSeries), an online survey and report and also published op-ed here. 

3. Local Needs Should Inform Larger Policy

Our work in this area has shown how critical it is for civil society around the world to engage in these kinds of multilateral processes. Importantly, we’ve challenged ourselves to use language that resonates with our diverse audiences and also makes the incentives of engagement clear. 

In the kind of contexts in which we work there are ongoing governance challenges, whether conflict, non-democratic elections, or corruption. A process that does not engage with these everyday realities can suffer from lack of engagement. Building within specific contexts is key, which is why the regional S4D events this year are important. They will bring important contextual nuances to conversations and allow for these realities to be the basis for larger policy shifts. 

4. Sustainability is a Design Issue 

We will see whether S4D2 is the last Summit for Democracy or whether the process continues. The Global Democracy Coalition is hosting a 2 day pre-Summit Forum at the end of February in Brussels and Washington, DC to build out ideas to inform the upcoming S4D2 and the process going forwards as a whole – sign up for the Forum here. 

As part of potential follow-up, the Lab is developing a stream of work to inform other initiatives in the future in terms of what has worked and coordinating the collection of data from global civil society as to what should change. We did elements of this after the first Summit here and here are some stats which we intend to replicate on a larger scale as part of an advocacy effort after S4D2.

As we prepare for the second Summit for Democracy in March, if we genuinely want to make democracies across the globe more responsive and resilient, it will require open, structured and honest collaboration between people, civil society and governments. The Lab will be here to do our part.

Kibo Ngowi is the Marketing & Communications Officer for Accountability Lab

Kibo Ngowi