This paper offers a comprehensive examination of the role emerging digital technologies can play in improving citizen participation.

• reports

• Engagement tech
• Participatory democracy
• Emerging tech

From Taiwan’s g0v Community to the World: The Collaborative Wisdom of Digital Citizens

• reports
• g0v

• Meet the others
• Learn about civic tech
• Reports

A $9.8 Trillion Opportunity. World Economic Forum report (2025)

• reports

• Govtech
• Learn about civic tech
• Reports

a comprehensive analysis of the digital democracy ecosystem across six regions: East Asia, Eastern Europe & Central Asia, Latin America & the Caribbean, the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.

• reports

• Participatory democracy

The Civic Information Index uses data to map drivers of engaged, informed, equitable, and healthy communities nationwide.

• census
• reports

• Civic data
• Indicators
• Report cards and audits

The report serves as an entry point to this ‘forecasting’ stream of work that organizations working in the digital rights ecosystem often overlook, especially when resources are scarce, and they are focused on current challenges and ongoing projects.

• reports

• Advocacy tech
• Emerging tech
• Learn about civic tech

Ranking Digital Rights's inaugural Telco Giants Scorecard reveals that telecom companies, despite being gatekeepers of the internet for most of the world, are less transparent overall and more susceptible to government demands than their Big Tech peers.

• reports

• Connectivity
• Evaluate impact
• Digital rights

Ever wonder, “How can civic tech help improve government service delivery?” If so, check out this new research from the Canadian Digital Service! It includes 5 case studies of partnerships between the Canadian government and civic tech groups, plus tools to assess if civic tech might be a good partner for a government initiative. Find it here: https://digital.canada.ca/2025/01/23/how-can-civic-tech-help-improve-government-service-delivery/

• reports

• Learn about civic tech
• Reports
• Fieldwide resources

A report by the Royal Society on the impact of the internet on our information environment, and on misinformation relating to scientific issues

• reports

• Fight disinformation

How can we ensure more inclusive and responsible AI so that diverse harms can be foreseen and mitigated, and its benefits equitably enjoyed around the world?

• reports

• Artificial Intelligence
• Governance of AI

Using our AI-assisted research methodologies we examined more than 30,000 videos relating to mainstream political discourse in the UK

• TikTok
• reports

• Advocacy tech
• Media and social media analysis
• Evidence-driven campaigning

Employing a broad definition of AI, this report represents the first known effort to comprehensively explain and quantify the reach of AI-based decision-making among low-income people in the United States.

• reports
• Reduced inequalities
• Good health and well-being

• Artificial Intelligence
• Advocacy tech
• Access social benefits

By Jennifer Pahlka and Andrew Greenway for the Niskanen Center

• reports

• Govtech
• Reports
• Internal government tech capacity

A survey composed of 21 questions designed to collect qualitative and quantitative data on influencers' experiences working with PGP and their respective influencer-led programs.

• Good health and well-being
• reports

• Fight disinformation
• Creators and Influencers

Paper by Joy Aceron, 2019. This paper explains why and how a reform program that opened up spaces for participatory budgeting was ultimately unable to result in pro-citizen power shifts that transformed governance.

• reports

• Reports
• Evaluate impact
• Participatory budgeting

3 essays by Beth Kerley, Carl Miller, and Fernanda Campagnucci outline possible paths toward a prodemocratic vision for AI

• reports

• Artificial Intelligence
• Participatory democracy
• Reports

Eticas Foundation's adversarial audit of an AI-powered criminal justice tool, RisCanvi, that has been used in Catalonia since 2009 finds it "does not meet the required standards of reliability and fairness."

• recidivism
• reports
• criminal justice

• Artificial Intelligence
• Justice tech
• AI Auditing

An OECD global assessment of countries' implementation of its 2017 Recommendation on Open Government

• reports

• Govtech
• Learn about civic tech
• Evaluate impact

The EU’s Digital Services Act mandates greater researcher data access from platforms; Mozilla and the National Conference on Citizenship investigated 19 platforms’ responses

• reports

• Media and social media analysis
• Report cards and audits
• Research tools

En los últimos quince años, los peruanos hemos renunciado a muchos aspectos de nuestra privacidad en nombre de la seguridad. ¿Ha valido la pena?

• reports

• Digital security and privacy

In the period between the beginning of 2021 and the middle of 2022, we investigated open-source digital infrastructures used by communities that are under the constant threat of violation of civil and environmental rights.

• Sustainable cities and communities
• Climate action
• reports

• Advocacy tech
• Environmental data

Delete Nothing aims to document technology-related gender-based violence in Sri Lanka, particularly but not limited to the experiences of girls, women, and queer and trans people in Sri Lanka.

• anti-harassment
• anti-trafficking
• Online Gender-Based Violence (OGBV)

• Digital security and privacy
• Digital rights
• Tech for public challenges

Guidance for Policymakers, Civil Society, and Development Cooperation

• reports

• Media
• Fight disinformation
• Advertising

Our report, “A Fourth Wave of Open Data? Exploring the Spectrum of Scenarios for Open Data and Generative AI,” (May 2024) provides a new framework and recommendations to support open data providers and other interested parties in making open data “ready” for generative AI.

• reports

• Artificial Intelligence
• Civic data
• Open civic data

[W]e explore c.125 companies operating in the Responsible AI space

• reports

• Artificial Intelligence
• Ethical tech and responsible tech

Sets out best practices and actions online platforms can take to implement more robust support for Human Rights Defenders under threat

• human rights
• reports
• United States (federal government)

• Digital security and privacy
• Foundational layers

PRL’s Path to 2024 report series is a new monthly chronicle covering partisan attitudes of Americans in the lead-up to the November 2024 presidential election. Each month, we focus on a different salient issue affecting voters and analyze public attitudes from our weekly public opinion poll.

• reports

• Polarization

Scrutinizing what steps platforms have taken to protect election integrity globally

• reports
• 2024 elections

• Voting and elections

A ten-year anniversary retrospective on the Humanitarian Data Exchange, which was accessed by 1.4 million people in 230 countries to download 2.7 million open humanitarian datasets in 2023.

• reports
• United Nations

• Civic data
• Disaster response and humanitarian tech

Exposing protection gaps in digital transformation programmes

• reports

• Digital security and privacy
• Disaster response and humanitarian tech

This year we assess the AI readiness of 193 governments across the world. We are also introducing an interactive map to make our data more accessible!

• reports

• Artificial Intelligence
• Govtech
• Indicators

2019 report by Richard Pope

• reports

• Govtech
• Digital transformation

The 2019 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) data and publication "Illuminating Inequalities" released on 11 July 2019 shed light on the number of people experiencing poverty at regional, national and subnational levels, and reveal inequalities across countries and among the poor themselves.

• No poverty
• reports
• Reduced inequalities

• Reports
• Economic development

In Fall 2023, the Digital Service Network kicked off its digital transformation policy scan by documenting executive orders (EO) enacted since 2013 that shape the digital transformation of government across states and territories.

• reports

• Govtech
• Civic data
• Digital transformation

Relevant section: Politics: Regulation of AI, its economic implications and the evolving geopolitics of AI.

• reports

• Artificial Intelligence
• Reports

Including key indicators of online violence escalation and how to systematically record digital threats

• anti-harassment
• Gender Equality
• reports

• Journalism

This publication showcases how governments and civic tech communities around the world can work together to build digital services and projects.

• reports

• Govtech
• Participatory democracy
• Learn about civic tech

Herramientas para la democracia local

• reports

• Participatory democracy

A critical review of the accuracy of countries' submissions to the OECD's AI Policy Observatory site, tracking national government AI programs

• reports

• Artificial Intelligence
• Govtech
• Government AI strategies

This report provides an overview of how various EMAs work, a review of popular EMAs and their notable features (LINE, Signal, Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp, and WeChat), and examples of how EMAs have been used for political manipulation

• reports

• Media
• Fight disinformation
• Reports

Brasil: Investigação transnacional revela empresas de marketing político ligadas à extrema direita

• reports

• Media
• Fight disinformation
• Newsroom partnership networks

A publicação visa colaborar na construção de estratégias de proteção, fomentando oficinas coletivas com defensoras e defensores de direitos humanos (DDHs), movimentos sociais e organizações da sociedade civil.

• reports

• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Digital security and privacy
• Cybersecurity

The [Human Rights Watch] report finds that data collected by the state for administering public services, such as registering for the Covid vaccine, administering tax benefits, and mandatory membership in professional associations, was repurposed to spread Fidesz’s campaign messages.

• reports

• Organize campaigns
• Digital security and privacy
• Reports

How do you measure gifts of time, expertise and leadership? What indicators can you use to assess grassroots power building, organising and volunteer initiatives?

• reports

• Advocacy tech
• Organize campaigns
• Evaluate impact

Report by the British Red Cross on aid groups' rush to use chatbots, from a skeptical perspective

• reports

• Bots
• Reports
• Disaster response and humanitarian tech

Diagnosing perceived and actual risks impeding responsible AI acquisition in government

• reports

• Artificial Intelligence
• Govtech
• Procurement

2017 OECD report

• reports

• Govtech
• Behavioral economics programs

A report for lawmakers, governments and policymakers at national and European level, 2023

• reports

• Engagement tech
• Participatory democracy
• Deliberation

The report is based on a survey of 7,500+ civil society organizations (CSOs) from 136 countries who answered questions about the barriers that they, and the communities they serve, face when it comes to digital equity.

• reports
• Reduced inequalities

• Adjacent Fields
• Connectivity

This [Canadian] report includes the following: Importance of ethics in AI and government, Understanding the impacts of AI on society, Balancing AI-driven efficiency with privacy and security concerns, and Cyber-security and digital trust.

• reports

• Artificial Intelligence
• Govtech
• Ethical tech and responsible tech