In 2020, the initiative launched a yearly civic innovation and governance training to empower community champions to become lifelong changemakers by developing and scaling solutions for disrupting civic participation and improving governance and social justice in their communities.

• Fellowships

This portal makes it easier for citizens to find information on government services and measure service levels in Nigeria.

• Watchdogging and transparency
• Government transparency

Highlighting modernization initiatives from legislatures around the world

• Learn about civic tech
• Parliamentary and Legislative Tech
• Newsletters

CivicSpace focuses on building better feedback loops between residents and policymakers to build policies that improve racial and economic equity in Illinois.

• User research
• User research groups

Online course offered through Georgetown University’s Initiative on Technology and Society, the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation and the McCourt School of Public Policy: a continuing education course to help participants rapidly grasp digital fundamentals in a way that is practical and relevant to their work.

• Govtech
• Learn about civic tech
• Online courses

Eyebeam artists fellowship

• Fellowships
• Artistic interventions

The DPG Charter is a multi-stakeholder campaign to align and mobilize diverse stakeholders and initiatives around a compelling shared vision for digital public goods (open-source technologies designed for the public good) and their role in driving safe, trusted and inclusive digital public infrastructure at scale.

• Digital transformation
• Economic development

MDS standardizes communication and data-sharing between cities and private mobility providers, such as e-scooter and bike-share companies.

• mobility
• cities

• Civic data
• Data schemas and standards

An app for tracking political advertisements on Meta-owned advertising platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

• Civic data
• Watchdogging and transparency
• Voting and elections

This initiative aims to empower individuals, informal groups, and entities to effectively counter digital rights threats and violations online.

• Get funding
• Funders & donors
• Digital rights

Official channel for citizens initiatives in Portugal, with a minimum threshold of 20,000 registered voters

• Engagement tech
• Participatory democracy
• Parliamentary and Legislative Tech

A texting hotline promoting education for peace

• Peace, justice, and strong institutions
• Israel Palestine

• Pro bono and volunteer
• Help out
• Peer to peer SMS

Whether it’s hate speech in our social media or bringing together diverse groups for online training, digital tools can harm and help our peacebuilding initiatives.

• Peace, justice, and strong institutions

• Civic tech catalogs

2020 UNDP initiative to assist the Republic of Vanuatu in the supervision of registration of electors and the planning and implementation of democratic elections for parliament, province, and municipal councils.

• Emerging tech
• Voting and elections
• Satellites

14 renowned European research and computing centers have joined forces to develop an open European infrastructure for web search. The initiative will be contributing to Europe’s digital sovereignty as well as promoting an open human-centered search engine market.

• Ethical tech and responsible tech

The Next Generation Internet (NGI) is a European Commission (EC) initiative that aims to shape the development and evolution of the Internet into an Internet of Trust.

• Get funding
• Funders & donors
• Ethical tech and responsible tech

Its goal is to promote research and disseminate best practice in the ethical application of artificial intelligence in cities.

• cities

• Artificial Intelligence
• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Research and policy centers

The Nordic Smart City Network is a collaboration initiative joining five Nordic countries, and currently 20 Nordic cities with a common goal: to explore the Nordic way to create livable and sustainable cities.

• cities
• Sustainable cities and communities

• Partner networks and coalitions
• Smart Cities and sensors

Our expansive 1.5 km2 industrial area, frequented by over 10,000 daily users, functions as a vibrant physical testing space of smart city environments – now also offering a real-world platform with a digital twin for urban innovation at a 1:1 scale.

• cities

• Smart Cities and sensors
• Hubs
• Innovation teams and labs

The initiative seeks to be a centralized repository for information about government commitments and the progress it has made toward achieving them.

• Promise trackers

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

Evidence House is a Downing Street-led initiative, working with collaborators including ONS Data Science Campus, Evaluation Task Force, Modernisation and Reform Unit, Go Science and National Situation Centre.

• Govtech
• Innovation teams and labs
• Economic development

The Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency (RLTL) is an initiative for linking, communication and collaboration between civil society organizations that promote the opening of congresses in the region, seeking to raise the standards of transparency, access to information, citizen participation, accountability and responsibility in the legislative powers.

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
• Tech or Digital Policy

Talk to the City is an open-source LLM interface for improving collective deliberation and decision-making by analyzing detailed, qualitative data. It aggregates responses and arranges similar arguments into clusters.

• Engagement tech
• Artificial Intelligence
• Emerging tech

Twelve like-minded European and global organizations committed to advancing democratic innovation and participation are coming together in the new Horizon project Nets4Dem.

• Participatory democracy
• Partner networks and coalitions

Design of digital services for public administration with people and data at the center

• Govtech
• Build something
• Govtech vendors

Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, is providing $15M to The Asia Foundation to launch the APAC Cybersecurity Fund in partnership with CyberPeace Institute and Global Cyber Alliance to bolster cyber capabilities of 300,000 underserved micro and small businesses, nonprofits, and social enterprises.

• Get funding
• Funders & donors
• Digital security and privacy

The Statewide News Collective is a community for news organizations serving statewide audiences launched by The Lenfest Institute, RevLab at The Texas Tribune, and Spotlight PA.

• state

• Media
• Peer networks
• Journalism

The objective of the UnderServed Project is to develop a platform for reporting and analysing threats, intended for sectors that are vulnerable to cyberattacks yet lack the resources to mitigate them effectively.

• Cybersecurity
• Threat reporting

Public Sector Network’s second Government Innovation California in-person event will bring together public sector leaders across all levels of government from across the State and region to share their innovative ideas and cutting-edge initiatives and projects.

• state

• Govtech
• Conferences

Transforming Narratives of Gun Violence (TNGV) is a collaborative initiative which seeks to understand the impact of dominant narratives of gun violence on individuals, families, and communities most impacted, and aims to co-create interventions to change these narratives.

• gun safety

• Media
• Narrative tech
• Academic programs

An opportunity for every conscious member of society to contribute to the elimination of the shadow economy.

• taxes
• illicit goods
• corruption

• Watchdogging and transparency
• Civic maps

"S.T.I.R.NA" is an initiative aimed at providing information about media owners and ad spending in a simple and convenient manner.

• private data public good

• Watchdogging and transparency
• Advertising
• Media literacy

The World Atlas of Participatory Budgeting represents the widest compilation of data, to date, on the situation of these processes on the planet.

• Participatory democracy
• Participatory budgeting

The Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy is the largest gathering devoted to direct democracy worldwide. It favours a multidisciplinary approach, welcoming participants from academic, political and civil society perspectives.

• Participatory democracy
• Conferences
• Democratic Innovations

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today that it has established a permanent Customer Experience (CX) office to help deliver services that are simple to use, accessible, equitable, protective, transparent, and responsive for all DHS customers.

• Govtech
• Service delivery

Digital Rights Nepal is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to the protection and promotion of digital rights in Nepal. It focuses on digital rights issues such as right to online freedom of expression and association, online privacy, access to information, internet governance, cyber laws/policies and cyber securities.

• Adjacent Fields
• Digital rights

"The Center for AI and Digital Policy aims to promote a better society, more fair, more just — a world where technology promotes broad social inclusion based on fundamental rights, democratic institutions, and the rule of law."

• Artificial Intelligence
• Research and policy centers
• Civil society research outfits

Building on years of work and investments, a growing group of national, regional, and local funders have come forward to invest in local news and information.

• Media
• Journalism
• Foundation initiatives

PwO is a technical consultancy that specializes in 0->1 product development and technology enablement in complex stakeholder environments, frequently touching government or the built environment, and often related to innovation and/or user experience-first initiatives.

• Build something
• Govtech vendors
• Building in the private sector

The Journalists in Distress (JiD) Network is an informal forum for sharing information on journalists in distress and developing joint initiatives for emergency response.

• Media
• Solidarity networks
• Journalism

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

• reports

• Govtech
• Artificial Intelligence
• Government AI strategies

The European Democracy Hub acts as a hub for expertise on European democracy support, bringing together analysts and policymakers. 

• Participatory democracy
• Foundation initiatives

NoKunda was a pioneering civic tech initiative designed to catalyze a civic movement in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, enabling citizens to report instances of electricity theft to the relevant authorities.

• electricity

• Watchdogging and transparency
• Crowdsourcing
• Issue reporting

We are an initiative that serves as a crucial building block in strengthening the Kenyan media ecosystem, working to rebuild trust amongst the key players in the ecosystem and the public, and putting in place resources that will help address challenges being faced in terms of business models.

• Media
• Journalism
• Newsroom partnership networks

Civitates provides funding for civil society actors to come together, revitalise public discourse, and ensure that all voices are heard. Because we need a strong civil society to shape vibrant and open European democracies that work for all.

• Get funding
• Funders & donors
• Foundation initiatives

Nesta and Newspeak House announce the Civic AI Observatory (civicai.uk), an initiative to support civic organisations plan and adapt to the rapidly evolving field of Generative AI.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Emerging tech

Paper by Paolo Cardullo, Ramon Ribera-Fumaz, and Paco González Gil. "In this paper we focus on the platform’s ‘soft infrastructure’ – the network of developers, ethical hackers, academics, maintainers, advocates and activists, and city administrators but also the agreements with the city and the documentation produced – on its internal governance arrangements and the provincialising relationships these might entail."

• Decidim

• Academia
• Peer-reviewed research

Though Black women are at the forefront of some of the most important social justice movements of our time, leading extraordinary initiatives with commitment and creativity, most of the time they are doing so with limited funding.  Recognizing this, we are extending a targeted offer of free tech and data support to Black feminist organizers.

• racial equity
• Gender Equality

• Build something
• Pro bono and volunteer