Globally, illiberal actors are exploiting vulnerabilities during Covid-19, such as political polarization, populism, and severe economic downturn, in order to expand their global influence and pose challenges to democratic institutions. Research has shown that policies that promote transparency can build democratic resilience against illiberal influence operations (specifically related to political party financing, disinformation, and opaque debt). In this session, organized by the National Democratic Institute and the Open Government Partnership as part of the AGORA Parliamentary Development Community of Practice, experts convened to discuss trends, indicators, and policy measures in leveraging transparency as a tool for increasing national resilience to foreign illiberal influence.

The challenges of and responses to illiberal influence operations that will be explored in this session include:

- Legislative measures to promote transparency in the information ecosystem

- Combatting opaque debt through transparency and oversight

- Exposing and addressing foreign financing of political parties