Closing civic space around the world is undermining the ability of citizens to effectively advance human rights, hold their governments accountable, and serve marginalized communities. Counterpart supports organizations and people around the world in creating secure online environments for all citizens to connect, collaborate, and create a more inclusive and safe community.
More than 3 billion people live in countries where freedom of expression, online communication and civic activism are closed or restricted. The people and organizations who advocate for an open and inclusive society in those countries are often risking their personal safety.
We work in some of the most challenging environments to provide demand-driven, customized support to civil society organizations, human rights activists and independent media to secure their digital presence. By partnering with technology experts worldwide, Counterpart has integrated advanced technical and country-specific knowledge into our global digital security work.
With widespread and worsening trends impacting civil society, innovative solutions – bred from a diversity of ideas – are needed to address these challenges. Innovation for Change (I4C) is a global network of people and organizations who want to connect, partner and learn together to defend and strengthen civic space and overcome restrictions to basic freedoms of assembly, association, and speech.
Our six connected regional hubs are growing in both physical and online spaces across:
For more than 60 countries with shrinking civic space, the internet is the only space where civic activism, independent journalism and the free flow of ideas can occur within and across borders. Counterpart’s Internet Governance and Internet Freedom Project (IGIF) works to address policy norms which restrict space for the exercise of fundamental rights online.
IGIF builds the technical capacity of local leaders and organizations to create local solutions that will improve internet governance and freedom, initially focusing efforts in four key countries:
Together with our local partners, we are improving health and nutrition, expanding access to education, strengthening climate resiliency, enhancing people’s livelihoods, and ensuring communities are governed more inclusively. In each project, we track our goals, monitor the progress, and evaluate impact.