- Date
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1:50 pm—2:10 pm · June 10, 2025
- Room
- Dijlezaal (this won't be livestreamed)
Examining the "Empower, Innovate, Connect" framework through user stories and impact data from OpenUp's grants management system.
Concrete evidence and learnings from a novel digital democracy support mechanism across Sub-Saharan Africa, demonstrating how targeted support can strengthen local pro-democracy innovation, whilst dealing with digital inequality and civic restrictions.
Concrete evidence and learnings from the first six months of implementing a novel digital democracy support mechanism across Sub-Saharan Africa, demonstrating how targeted financial and non-financial support can strengthen local pro-democracy innovation, whilst dealing with digital inequality and civic restrictions that mar the Sub-Saharan African context.
Drawing from quantitative and qualitative data tracking 40 supported grassroots organisations and digital democracy defenders, evidence will show how the mechanism has:
- Enhanced organisational resilience: Data showing how emergency response funding and cybersecurity support helped (or didn’t help) organisations maintain operations during digital threats or civic space restrictions, with specific case studies from high-risk contexts
- Strengthened technical capacity: Impact metrics demonstrating how the innovation support desk resolved (or didn’t) technical challenges, enabling organisations to deploy tools for citizens.
- Built sustainable networks: Network analysis revealing how a community-building approach fostered collaborative relationships between grassroots and established organisations.
The “Empower, Innovate, Connect” framework is examined through real user stories and impact data from OpenUp’s grants management system. Hear specific examples of how supported organisations leveraged both financial resources and technical assistance to enhance democratic participation in their communities, and what this may mean for support democracy enhancing technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa.