About us

We are a not-for-profit organisation with a global remit to support democracy, that brings together a network of 18 organisations specialising in the different parts of a democratic system. We are the only democracy support organisation covering such a wide variety of specialisations anywhere in the world. We work inside and outside Europe because we recognise that democracy is a universal aspiration and that the contemporary challenges and opportunities for democracy are global in scope. Our mission is to make a contribution to, and reinforce the impact of European endeavours in democracy assistance across the world.

Our activities

EPD’s uniqueness as an organisation is our horizontal and vertical coverage of the key players within a democratic system and our ability to straddle the academic, policy and practitioner worlds. Our ability to innovate and adapt, means that we are ideally placed to make a difference in a changing, dynamic and unpredictable world. Our toolkit for working on our multi-annual priorities is based on the three pillars constituting the core of the EPD approach: knowledge, advocacy and programmes.

ADVOCACY

We actively work towards improving democracy support policies and advising on foreign policies that can reinforce democracy in the face of global challenges. Through our head office in Brussels, we play a key role in contributing to improving democracy support policies, working closely with EU institutions, European governments, and building civil society coalitions together with our partners.

PROGRAMMES

We bring together the expertise of specialists from various sectors of democracy support (parliaments, parties, elections, human rights, media, executive leadership, ICT etc.) on joint programmes in which we apply our in-house methods for creating political dialogue and behavioural changes. EPD and its members’ programmes focus on Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

KNOWLEDGE

We push the boundaries of democratic thinking and facilitate the exchange of experiences and lessons learned amongst practitioners from different sectors of the democracy support community. Our research investigates gaps in the democracy field and helps us inform our advocacy work.

Our priorities

Our overarching objective as EPD is to contribute to setting a comprehensive and effective agenda for democracy support around the world. For the 2020-2023 period, we identified four priorities to this end. Within each of these four priority areas, we work on advocacy, programme and knowledge. Find the full strategy here.

Democratic innovation and inclusion

We support the innovation of institutions, democratic actors and participatory mechanisms for the inclusion of different groups in political life.

Safeguarding democracy

We defend and proactively strengthen democratic space – including civic space – where it is under threat from domestic or foreign attacks.

European policies for democracy

We contribute to stronger European policies to support democracy in Europe and worldwide.

Democratic principles in the digital sphere

We promote and advocate for democratic principles in the digital sphere, including in the rules that govern the online public sphere.

Find out more

For more information on EPD, please find our strategy for 2020-2023 here. If that doesn’t answer your questions, please don’t hesitate to write an email to in[email protected]. To find out about our sources of funding, please see here. For your FAQs, see here.