Supporting inclusive and transparent governance around the world requires a coordinated response and sharing of experiences. In the global context, it is crucial to re-assert that improving democracy is not peripheral to alleviating poverty – it is central. COVID-19 has exacerbated the current challenges and made a European initiative even more urgent.

Three priority clusters of focus were identified:
Accountability and Rule of Law;
Anti-corruption, rule of law, access to justice, support to initiatives to increase transparency of government data
Political and Civic Participation;
Women’s political participation, youth political participation and youth civil society activism, political party systems, parliamentary support, electoral integrity, local democratic governance;
Media and Digital
Protecting safety and security of journalists; enhancing professional skills; assisting media to transition to digital; promoting and respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms in cyberspace.

There are several components in this project. The first component (knowledge, research) is being implemented by international democracy foundations (IDEA) and has already started in the run-up to the Biden Summit on Democracy which takes place on December 9-10, 2021.

The second component (establishing and strengthening networks) and the third component (making expertise available for Team Europe initiatives) are the ones which would be managed by European Development Agencies (GIZ and Enabel). A pilot Secretariat would be established in Europe to manage components 2 & 3. It would aim at sharing best practices and European guidelines on issues related to the promotion of human rights and democratic governance in developing countries’ contexts. It would help and ensure that evidence-based analysis drives support, taking full account of country-context.