Deadline: 23-Apr-25
The Digital Democracy Initiative (DDI) at CIVICUS accepting applications from organisations to host regional hackathons in three regions: East Asia, South Asia, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
This program aims to support local CSOs in developing digital solutions, tools and advocacy campaigns through hackathons or collaborative design spaces, fostering intra and cross – regional collaboration and piloting interventions to expand civic space.
Objectives
- Promote Digital Innovation and Democracy: Enable local CSOs to develop digital solutions and advocacy campaigns tailored to specific challenges.
- Facilitate Cross-Regional Collaboration: Encourage the exchange of best practices and ideas among different CSOs from various regions.
- Pilot and Test Interventions: Implement and assess the effectiveness of solutions developed, ensuring scalability and replicability.
Duration
- The maximum duration for each grant, including pre-event preparation, on-site implementation, and post-event follow-up, is six (6) months. The on-site event at ICSW will span 4 days, with pre-event planning and post-event evaluation as part of the grant scope.
Location
- Thailand – The hackathons will be held in person on the sidelines of the International Civil Society Week holding in Bangkok, Thailand from the 1st to the 5th of November 2025. Participants will represent the targeted regions, fostering collaboration, exchange, and capacity-building in a shared physical space. Aside from this, further implementation will continue from the selected partner’s base.
Expected Results
- Enhanced digital civic engagement: Increased development and deployment of innovative digital tools, solutions and advocacy campaigns that promote civic space and democratic participation.
- Strengthened digital capacities of CSOs: Improved ability of local CSOs to design, implement, and scale effective digital solutions & advocacy initiatives.
- Scalable digital solutions: Identification and refinement of successful digital interventions that can be replicated in other regions.
Key Activities
- In close collaboration with the CIVICUS DDI Team & the Membership and Network’s team, facilitate a holistic engagement process to ensure effective participation of CIVICUS members in the regional hackathon exercises.
- In close collaboration with the DDI team, identify themes for the regional hackathon exercises in line with the broader thematic focus of DDI.
- Facilitate & host innovative hackathons, in specific regions to develop and pilot local innovations that expand civic space and inclusive democracy.
- Provide technical accompaniment & mentorship to run pilot initiatives and test the proposed.
- Facilitate collaboration and idea exchange among participants.
- Provide small grants to support the development and implementation of the designed solutions.
- Monitor and evaluate the progress of grant recipients to ensure successful implementation and scaling of their solutions.
- Establish clear metrics for success and impact assessment.
For more information, visit CIVICUS.