The Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening is the prime recipient of the United States Agency for International Development’s Democratic Elections and Political Processes Leader with Associates Award. Under this award, our three core institutes (the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the International Republican Institute, and the National Democratic Institute) are joined by four senior technical partners (STP) which include: The American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, the Center for International Private Enterprise, Democracy Arch, and Internews. This is an introduction to D-Arch.
USAID/CEPPS DEPP Award Senior Technical Partner – D-Arch
Communicating research to policymakers and incorporating findings into policymaking has proven to be challenging for both academics and policymakers. Yet, the importance of strengthening the link between research and policymaking cannot be overstated. Thus, this CEPPS senior technical partner, D-Arch, effectively can do both.
Democracy Arch (D-Arch) bridges the gap between research and practice. Its goal is to offer academic expertise and evidence-based approaches for policymakers working in democracy promotion, human rights protection, and state building. D-Arch is a non-profit consultancy entity, based in Sweden and is part of the Varieties of Democracy Project (V-Dem), a well-established research institute that offers data on various dimensions of democracy for all countries in the world since 1900 until today.
D-Arch leverages the V-Dem global team of social scientists to support policy and development practitioners around the world who seek to inform their work with the latest research. It provides custom-designed and practice-oriented projects such as policy counseling, briefing papers and in-depth reports, custom indices using V-Dem data, capacity building, and much more. D-Arch collaborates with a number of international organizations, including CEPPS and its partners, that work in the sphere of democracy and development, creating a network of democracy experts from both academia and the policy world.
Under the DEPP Award, D-Arch contributes by delivering the latest research findings in democracy studies. Its work involves writing based on state-of-the-art research on democracy promotion and democratic backsliding, describing trends in democracy development on the global and country level, and helping achieve DEPP objectives in an evidence-based process.
For more information, visit the D-Arch website.
Graph comparing the levels of democracy worldwide between 2021 (y-axis) and 2011 (x-axis). Countries above the line, such as Armenia, have seen democratic improvement during this ten-year period. Conversely, the countries below the line such as Poland, Hungary, and Brazil have experienced democratic decline. Notably, a significantly higher number of countries see a recession in democracy rather than improvement. Source: V-Dem.
