Information and communication technologies enable democratic processes to be mediated by digital infrastructure. This results in new forms of participation and novelty to the democratic order. In its development, digital democracy is not only characterized by the digital mediation of democratic processes and practices, but also the centrality of digital governance issues in democratic life.

Research initiated by Tifa Foundation in 2022 found that digital divide between Western, Central, and Eastern Indonesia, especially the uneven development of telecommunications infrastructure, is a major factor in the digital divide. the gap in digital activism activism gap between regions in Indonesia. In addition, socioeconomic factors also influence the gap in access and capacity to utilize digital activism repertoires/methods and to resist digital forms of repression. Thus, the digital divide not only causes an information gap, but also has the potential to cause a gaps in participation in democracy. In fact, the active and effective participation of the public in democracy is key to putting pressure on the state to be accountable for public service delivery and deliver social justice, especially when the digital divide is not properly addressed. The digital divide is not well addressed while public service delivery is increasingly digitized and relies on good data governance.

On the other hand, the rapid development of discourse on digital transformation in Indonesia is still centered in urban areas, even though the impact of digital transformation is felt by all levels of society. As a result, discourse at the national level on the latest developments in digital technology and communication, including artificial intelligence (AI), fake media (deepfakes), coordinated information operations (coordinated information operations), and autonomous systems, as well as the digitization of public services and corporate accountability. platform digital platform companies, are less informed by the realities outside urban areas and the perspectives of people outside Java Island. Perspective gaps These gaps in perspective can result in the creation of digital policies that do not address the needs and realities of certain groups.

In the midst of the above conditions, the Tifa Foundation considers that:

• FirstIn the current state of Indonesia's democracy, expanding participation space for as many and as diverse people as possible in social movements, and increasing the effectiveness of social movements and community advocacy is crucial and urgent;
• Secondlycreating spaces for local communities to discuss contemporary issues and realities related to the latest digital developments in Indonesia, defining them with local perspectives, and determining positions or views on these issues is important; and
• Thirdamid the narrowing of civic spaces in Indonesia and the current information climate, the localization of spaces for deliberation and dialogue is important to spark meaningful and effective political participation.

Outcome targets and scope

In order to encourage local community participation in digital democracy, the Tifa Foundation invites proposals for activities that aim to:

• Improving accountability and quality of digital governance for public services
• Enhance the capacity of local communities to participate effectively in dialog, policy-making, and advocacy on digital governance issues
• Encourage the creation of a healthy information ecosystem
• Improving political literacy and information literacy of local communities

Activities undertaken through this funding support may include (but, are not limited to):

• Advocacy to provincial, district/city, sub-district, village, kelurahan, desa governments or facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes for digital public service delivery
• Strengthening the capacity of local communities to actively and effectively participate in digital democracy, including through political literacy education and information literacy of local communities

• Media production to popularize issues related to digital governance to audiences
• Strategic litigation
• Facilitate exploration of the relevance and impact of recent digital developments and the changing digital ecosystem landscape for local contexts

Tifa's strategic outcomes

Project activities are expected to contribute to the strategic outcomes of the Tifa Foundation, in particular:

• Strengthening social accountability and meaningful public participation in the institutionalization of democracy
• Enhanced effective digital governance practices

The output targets expected to support the Strategic Outcomes are:

• Target Outputs in support of Strengthening social accountability and meaningful public participation in the institutionalization of democracy are: 
  1. Improving the quality of spaces for community participation (civil society, indigenous, local and youth groups) in inclusive political and development processes.
  2. Strengthened consolidation of inclusive multi-stakeholder democracy
  3. Increased innovation in maintaining good governance and inclusive development processes
• Target Outputs in support of Improving effective Digital Governance Practices are: 
  1. Increased efforts to protect personal data by various stakeholders (government, civil society organizations, private sector)
  2. The existence of digital platform governance policies that fulfill human rights principles
  3. Improving data governance in the public sector to support effective public services