Designing Resilience Interventions

• Support parliamentary capacity to engage in robust policy dialogue and debate
• Encourage development of nomination processes and other procedures that preserve the autonomy of judicial bodies and independent agencies
• Sharpen the institutional reflexes of government agencies through scenario planning, crisis management, and strategic communications
• Formalize relationships (e.g., via memoranda of understanding) among independent agencies to enable collective resistance to political pressure
• Build relationships among public institutions and technology companies to help protect public institutions from attacks and optimize performance and service delivery
• Provide leadership skills training to sensitize public officials to their roles and responsibilities and help them identify, resist, and expose cooptation attempts
• Support reforms to emergency powers laws to align with international standards, including sunset clauses and reporting mandates
• Support judges to engage with peers in global or regional networks to share good practices and bolster support for their independence
• Train election officials to conduct audits of core electoral systems (e.g., results management systems)

• Build the capacity of EMBs to hold credible elections that lead to peaceful transfers of power
• Develop a legal framework conducive to holding competitive elections, including campaign finance regulations and robust guarantees of freedom of association
• Support local government officials to understand their roles and responsibilities, connect with their constituents, and deliver public services 
• Increase representation by supporting the inclusion of diverse groups, including frequently marginalized communities, in political processes
• Support the development of issue-based political party platforms that reflect constituents’ interests
• Enable the professionalization of political parties to create a healthy, competitive political environment
• Institutionalize inclusive post-election reviews to build resilience into the electoral process 
• Build the capacity of citizen election observation groups to oversee election processes impartially and accurately using systematic, tested methodologies

• Support legal reform to reduce ambiguity and prevent governments from attacking or limiting the ability of media and civil society to provide oversight
• Engage in educational and outreach efforts to build and cement a democratic culture and demand for democracy among the public
• Support the organization and professionalization of civil society groups that can help hold the government accountable
• Support the professionalization of independent media outlets committed to unbiased reporting
• Create space for active civil society engagement and media competition
• Build skills in grant writing, data analytics, and writing among civil society actors to better advocate for their causes
  
   

Horizontal Accountability 

• Support judiciaries to defend their independence against attacks from the executive, including through improved strategic communications and integrity training
• Defend the mandates of independent institutions in the face of proposed checks on their power, including through public campaigns, legal advocacy and court challenges, and activation of established relationships with other constitutionally independent institutions 
• Support consistent application of existing laws and timely sanctions against perpetrators of anti-democratic actions in public offices, including corruption and manipulation of the civil service
  
   

Vertical Accountability 

• Support political parties to develop strong, inclusive, issue-based platforms that reflect people’s needs and interests, increasing pluralism and reducing the appeal of populist narratives
• Provide leadership skills training for pro-democracy political leaders (e.g., in ethics, risk management, consensus building, dialogue and negotiations, mediation, inclusion, and crisis management)
  
   

Diagonal Accountability 

• Sponsor innovations in communication platforms, tools, and strategies to help civil society and the media share threat intelligence and monitor, uncover, and expose threats to democracy
• Provide legal defense resources for journalists and civil society targeted by SLAPPS to engage in strategic litigation
• Offer media training to build public understanding of the role and value of an independent court system
  
   

Horizontal Accountability

• Activate transnational judicial networks to support national responses to attacks on the judicial branch
• Seek to deploy full international election observation missions to the next scheduled national or key local election 
• Provide ongoing technical assistance to EMBs to overcome operational challenges and threats that could jeopardize the integrity of elections 
• Call for the activation of intergovernmental organizations’ suspension and other sanctioning mechanisms, particularly when there are high levels of malign foreign interference 
  
   

Vertical Accountability

• Directly aid pro-democracy movements, engaging marginalized voices in particular
• Support advocacy against laws and other measures designed to repress political opposition
• Support initiatives that reduce tensions between political parties and that could lead to violence (e.g., codes of conduct, dialogue, mediation teams, or committees)
• Enable the continuity of government service provision, including through direct aid
• Provide guidance for domestic observers in planning missions and crafting public statements that support accountability and transparency without exacerbating tensions
  
   

Diagonal Accountability 

• Support CSOs to coordinate and build regional networks to foster peer-to-peer exchange, elevate their voices, increase their mobilization strength, and build solidarity
• Provide digital security and/or cyber-hygiene training for civil society advocates and independent journalists
• Support the enfranchisement of out-of-country voters (including refugees and exiles) to maintain political engagement

Horizontal Accountability

• Identify potential champions in remaining institutions to build inter-institutional and possibly international coalitions that might foster democratic reforms
• Produce and disseminate compelling information campaigns to counter regime narratives that normalize unconstrained executive power
  
   

Vertical Accountability

• Support networks of individuals in the diaspora (“drained brains”) to stay engaged in their home countries’ political futures
• Ensure the availability of independent analysis on how elections are being subverted as a counterpoint to non-critical regime narratives and the reports of “zombie” observer missions
• Create opportunities for individuals in the diaspora to gain professional experience in election administration, building leadership capacity to support future transitions and maintain relevance and credibility with citizens still inside the country
  
   

Diagonal Accountability 

• Provide media literacy trainings and support to advocates in using digital techniques to counter disinformation and protect civil society, media, and the broader public from disinformation and manipulative narratives
• Collaborate with academic institutions that may be granted wider space for debate, dialogue, and research to impart information on democracy and critical thinking skills to youth
• Consult the diaspora community to identify immediate needs and raise awareness of and advocacy for international responses
  
   

Horizontal Accountability

• Support the creation of new institutions to fill oversight gaps, and reforms that bolster the autonomy and accountability of existing institutions 
• Develop clear regulations, laws, and sanctions against corruption in public offices 
• Equip civil servants, including judicial officers, to understand and implement legal, regulatory, and sanction measures to ensure consistency and avoid perceptions of bias
• Adopt new parliamentary structures, rules, and procedures that protect effective debate, enable passage of legislation and secure oversight functions 
• Revise politically compromised selection processes for independent institutions
• Establish internal mechanisms to improve judicial administration and address corruption in the judiciary (codes of conduct, training, and independent budgets)
  
   

Vertical Accountability

• Support advocacy to repeal repressive laws and other measures designed to censor or limit civil liberties 
• Address needed institutional reform and rebuild institutional credibility for EMBs 
• Collaborate with political parties to draft election codes of conduct to ensure buy-in at all levels
  
   

Diagonal Accountability 

• Support new research, civil society monitoring, and reporting initiatives in areas exploited by illiberal actors to heighten future detection capabilities
• Support civil society and media to identify and counter misinformation, including in ways that align with institutional communications strategies
  
   

Horizontal Accountability

• Socialize governing institutions to their requirements, rights, and avenues for action under international law commitments, and support their efforts to realign domestic laws and the constitution with such agreements
• Develop the capacities of sub-national tiers of institutions such as EMBs to safeguard electoral integrity throughout the institutional hierarchy
  
   

Vertical Accountability

• Support an inclusive legal reform process to unwind legal and extra-legal measures that damaged the party system and hindered competitive elections
• Encourage legislative reform to expand voting opportunities and enable broad participation
• Identify key service provision gaps during breakdown episodes and devise alternative delivery protocols for future crises
  
   

Diagonal Accountability 

• Support civil society and the media to build capacity to gather information, investigate and document abuses, and safely expose wrongdoing by anti-democratic actors to build demand for accountability
• Establish formal dialogues with civil society actors and government institutions in the building back process 
• Mediate conversations with fragmented segments of society to find common ground
  
   

Horizontal Accountability

• Gather lessons learned and, through strategic planning and institutional support, build on them to support stronger local detection and response mechanisms
• As appropriate, support the restoration of institutional mandates and autonomous functions of independent agencies
• Provide technical assistance for (special) elections to replace appointed seats in legislatures with elected seats, and for convening broader electoral system reform discussions
• Support courts to facilitate transitional justice and/or dismantle undemocratic legal structures put in place by the previous autocratic regime
  
   

Vertical Accountability

• Support broad-based, inclusive consultations on drafting or amending the constitution
• Sponsor initiatives to support youth to be positioned as political leaders in future democratic openings
• Provide guidance for redrawing and reapportioning electoral districts according to international best practices 
• Convene stakeholders to address unusual party registration or dissolution articles in the electoral legal framework

Diagonal Accountability

• Support the reintegration of the diaspora to build back a strong civil sector
• Promote new and re-emerging independent or opposition voices in local media 
• Establish academic opportunities through international networks that introduce students to alternative worldviews
• Partner with new or re-emerging CSOs for new on-the-ground activities