After a beautiful sunset walk in an idyllic Old City, it’s easy to forget just how far Tallinn, Estonia has come since their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. As pioneers of the power of parliaments over authoritarian rule and e-governance, this is the perfect backdrop for hosting the Global Summit of the Open Government Partnership and the Tallinn Digital Summit this week.

In the wake of the Summit for Democracy 2021, a fundamental part of the conversation to revitalize the democracy agenda involved recognizing the critical challenge that the global spread of a digital authoritarian model of governance is posing to democracy around the world. The first step in addressing this challenge is to build and invest in an equally innovative and compelling long-term vision of technology-empowered democratic governance, centered around the collective values and perspectives of people around the world.