In times of crisis, partnerships matter more than ever. Groups and individuals must find ways to join forces to meet immediate challenges, while also building muscle memory to deal with future troubles. Many of NDI's civil society partners are at the forefront of the COVID pandemic response through sharing information, providing social services, monitoring government and influencing policy making. Other partners continue to demand democratic governance and fight for basic human rights under increasingly complex political circumstances. Along these lines, many groups continue to battle against governments who have used the crisis as a pretext to suppress rights in general, including freedom of peaceful assembly, expression and association in particular.

With all of these partners, NDI is providing a combination of technical and financial assistance along with other acts of solidarity. NDI's engagement strategy throughout COVID has relied on respect, empathy and humility, recognizing the acute need to be responsive to the particular challenges and lived experiences of partners. As NDI and its partners learned to overcome the operational difficulties created by the pandemic these last two years, a few lessons emerged reflecting different and improved ways of working together. 

Offer substantial flexibility. As the realities of COVID became apparent, NDI communicated with partners about accommodating changes in plans and approaches to keep their organizations operational. In some cases, this meant groups putting existing programs on hold, while concentrating on the health and safety of their teams. In other cases, it meant recalibrating their work to address the threats posed by the pandemic. To facilitate shifts, NDI worked with partners and donors to ensure resources matched the emerging needs, including the dramatic turn toward virtual engagement and the technology required.

Listen to those of the front lines. Those closest to a problem have a much better idea about what is needed in response. For this reason, NDI relied on partners to determine priorities, based on their local knowledge. In turn, NDI provided corresponding comparative perspectives and worked to complement a partner's existing assets (e.g., credibility, membership, network connections, geographic reach, etc.) with tailored assistance. By taking a back seat when defining problems and solutions, NDI helped put more power in a partner’s hands and then reinforced this dynamic by keeping lines of communication open to constantly assess opportunities and threats.

Find intersecting issues and interests. Crisis response requires collective and coordinated action. NDI presence in more than 60 countries, and its long-standing relations with civic and political actors, allowed the Institute to connect different partners into loose networks to address common concerns. This proved to be a critical dimension of NDI’s support to marginalized groups, like disabled person organizations, that faced intersecting challenges created by COVID. Likewise, to help bolster mutual aid efforts, NDI moved to support informal civic actors, such as emerging youth-led voluntary organizations working to share information in their communities.

Provide accessible and safe digital spaces. The pandemic drastically changed the ways that NDI could interact with partners and placed a greater emphasis on virtual engagements. This required a thoughtful approach to create accessible spaces where dialogue, training and decision making with partners could occur. Ensuring partners had access to the technology became a first step. Beyond that, NDI worked to integrate captions and subtitles, provide translation – including sign language – and conduct activities at times most convenient for participants. Additionally, NDI started providing cyber-security training to all partners, from instructing them on protecting data and communications to learning to combat online harassment and counter disinformation.

Support self-care and well-being. Among other challenges, the pandemic caused a range of well-being concerns across partners. Because resting is central to organizing and acting, NDI began to discuss issues of stress and burnout with partners. This included exploring ways to relieve certain pressures, such as cutting back on meetings and information requests, and creating space to share concerns about the stress they felt. Through initiatives like the ERA Fund, NDI also began to encourage partners to include the costs of well-being assistance when preparing program plans and budgets.

Public crises are all but guaranteed and the ability of groups and individuals to work together is a critical form of resilience. To this end, COVID has instilled some important lessons about partnership and collective action that should resonate in the future.

Authors:  Aaron Azelton, Director of NDI’s citizen participation, inclusion and security programs