New York, NY – Today President Obama renewed his call to promote transparent, effective and accountable government institutions to partner with civil society during a side event at the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.  The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is working to achieve this goal with Making All Voices Count: A Grand Challenge for Development.  

Through a joint partnership with the Department for International Development (DFID), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Omidyar Network (ON) and Open Society Foundations (OSF), Making All Voices Count aims to deepen the impact of existing innovations and help harness new technologies to enable citizen engagement and government responsiveness.

“Many emerging democracies struggle to meet the demands of their citizens,” said USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah. “Many citizens face unresponsive governments and don’t know how to have their voices heard. Making All Voices Count will focus global attention on creative and cutting-edge solutions that elevate citizens’ voices and give governments the capacity, as well as the incentive, to listen and respond.”

Innovators from around the globe are encouraged to apply for grants that will provide capacity building and financial support for: (1) innovation, both of new approaches and tech-infused solutions; (2) scaling up of existing successful initiatives and responses; and (3) research to build an evidence base on what works and why.

In order to build trusting relationships between citizens and government, Making All Voices Count will fund collaborative efforts rather than one-sided approaches. More information can be found online atwww.makingallvoicescount.org.

Making All Voices Count is implemented by Hivos, an international development organization, from its Johannesburg office; Ushahidi, a non-profit tech company based in Kenya; and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.