NDI Honors Civic Innovation at 30th Anniversary Dinner

In celebration of its 30 years of strengthening democracy around the world, NDI honored a group of civic innovators at a Dec. 10 dinner and awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. The 21 government officials, political leaders, entrepreneurs and civic activists from 13 countries are at the forefront of efforts to use technology to expand opportunities for citizen participation and to make governments more transparent and accountable.

Jack Dorsey, chairman of Twitter and CEO of Square, who delivered the keynote address, described himself as “a man of very, very few characters.” He urged people to de-mystify technology and acknowledge that it is just a tool. “We shape the world we live in every single day through the tools that we create and we use. We paint that picture every day with the brush of technology.” He asked people to use technology not only to ask questions but to do the hard work of answering them. Watch Dorsey's remarks»

Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, spoke about the importance of democracy in fostering global peace and stability. Addressing critics who believe that democracy in the Arab world may lead to instability or bad foreign policy for the U.S., she said that instead it was support for autocrats that lead to these outcomes. “The truth is that what we are witnessing in the Middle East actually strengthens -- rather than weakens -- the case for more open government,“ she said. “Authoritarian rulers offer the counterfeit of stability...what they actually produce is that structural instability that we have been witnessing when -- as inevitably happens -- their iron grip is loosened and long-suppressed desires and resentments are unleashed.” Watch Power's remarks»

Addressing the importance of the influence of technology on governments, NDI Chairman Madeleine Albright said, “These days, citizens are demanding to have a say in their self-government more often than every two or four years at election time. They expect their local and national governments to listen and respond to them at the speed of the Internet.” Watch Albright's remarks» | Read Albright's remarks»

Five of the honorees participated in a panel discussion during the dinner highlighting their different projects and explaining how they are using technology tools to spread the values of open and responsive governance. “Institutions cannot be imposed on people from the top,” said Jorge Soto of Mexico, co-founder of Citivox. “Institutions are built from the bottom up, one interaction at a time.” Soto; Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code for America; January Makamba, Tanzanian MP; Swati Ramanathan, co-founder of the Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy; and Belabbes Benkredda, founding director of the Munathara Initiative all participated on the panel, moderated by Katty Kay of the BBC. Watch the panel discussion»

The president of Estonia, Toomas Ilves, another honoree for his work in civic innovation, delivered remarks that addressed both the potential and pitfalls of using technology in a democracy. “If you can enforce the rule of law in the digital world, there is no end of possibilities. We can do amazing things...if we sort out these things that have to do with privacy, data integrity and rule of law.” Watch Ilves' remarks»

Announcing the launch of the Thomas Daschle Leadership Initiative at NDI, Senator Daschle also stressed the importance of good governance in fostering democracy. “We [at NDI] have had one focus now for three decades, and that is to empower people to govern themselves more effectively,” he said. “Leadership in democracy is not easy these days, but we saw reflections of tolerance, and respect for the rule of law, participation and leadership, here tonight.” Watch Daschle's remarks»

Through means as disparate as improving constituent relations through SMS, creating an online debating platform for young Arabic speakers, and placing computer programmers in municipal offices to improve local government service delivery, the 2013 Democracy Award recipients are changing the ways citizens interact with their governments. In addition to Soto, Pahlka, Makamba, Ramanathan and Benkredda, the honorees include: María Baron, executive director of La Fundación Directorio Legislativo of Argentina; Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas and Ginny Hunt, strategy principal for Google’s Civics Team in the U.S.; Vukosava Crnjanski Sabovic, founder and director of the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability in Serbia; Gregor Hackmack, co-founder of Parliament Watch in Germany; Ellen Miller, co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation in the U.S.; Beth Noveck, founder of the Governance Lab in the U.S.; Rufus Pollock, founder and CEO of the global Open Knowledge Foundation; Tom Steinberg, founder and director of mySociety in the U.K.; Oras Tynkkynen, vice chair of the Parliament of Finland's Committee for the Future; Rakesh Rajani, lead civil society chair and Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, lead government chair for the global Open Government Partnership; and The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails). Read about all the 2013 honorees»

Watch the full dinner program: