Countries 39

for which we’ve located and standardised data such as legislative structures and electoral boundaries. We’ll contribute it to the Democratic Commons, so everyone can build tools for better democracy.

politicians 5,757

whose data we’ve added to the Democratic Commons.

Civic Tech Organisations 19

affiliated under the Code for All banner — now including mySociety!

“I’m proud of the amount of data on politicians we have supported being added to Wikidata — there is so much potential in this information to help and improve campaigning, transparency and advocacy across the world.” Georgie Community Manager

UK TV viewers 6.7 million

People tuned into the BBC’s new thriller Bodyguard and would have seen TheyWorkForYou playing a crucial role in the action. The programme will now have been seen by many more worldwide.

The year 1918

How far back the searchable, shareable, browseable parliamentary debates on TheyWorkForYou now go — so they include the maiden speech from Nancy Astor, the first woman to speak in Parliament (thanks Matthew!)

Interviewees 63

People Rebecca and Gemma interviewed for their research on digital democracy in sub-Saharan Africa.

“I’ve worked with people from all over the world this year - including Argentina, Brazil, India, Pakistan, South Africa and Taiwan. It’s been amazing to collaborate with partners from across the globe all working towards a common goal.” Owen Data Analyst

Emails 500,000+

sent to TheyWorkForYou subscribers every month, so they know when their MP has spoken or their chosen keyword has been mentioned in Parliament

Countries 12

Where we provided Facebook with elected representative data to help them show people how to connect with their politicians

Messages 142,813

sent by citizens to their representatives through WriteToThem this year

Views 2,306,735

of MPs’ pages on TheyWorkForYou

Visitors 750,000+

to the Parliamentary Monitoring sites we support in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya & Nigeria.

Pieces of data 3,000,000

on EveryPolitician

What was the best bit about working from home this year?

Dave Best moment? Receiving cake in the post from Matthew

A developer Random pets gatecrashing meetings is always good!

Myf As a break from the usual holding our pets up to the screen during team meetings, it was lovely to see Jen with baby Arthur for everyone to coo over.

Louise H Thanks to gifs and sarcasm on Slack, I often sit at my desk laughing to myself.

Emily Working from home has allowed me to reconnect with some of my oldest friends, who also work remotely. We can meet up to co-work or check-in with each other on breaks throughout the day. It’s a whole new community.

David I’ve just submitted a really complex application. Creating a really strong response and getting it submitted on time was a really collaborative approach and effort and it’s probably the first time I’ve really experienced this remotely

A researcher It was nice to be able to pick up a laptop and work from my parents for a few weeks while my Mum was ill. Remote working lets you be flexible to problems.

Show me the impact

The data we’ve been helping add to Wikidata is underpinning new research on whether occupation influences political leanings, amongst other things.

Every Politician data is helping Global Witness to spot potential corruption where politicians are also owners of companies.

We submitted evidence to Parliament’s inquiry on proxy voting for MPs on parental leave. While our points were noted by the subsequent report, actual change is still pending…

In an interview by Prospect magazine, Jacob Rees Mogg says TheyWorkForYou — and by extension, its publication of voting records so that everyone can hold MPs to account — is “one of the reasons why it was decided not to oppose opposition day debates in this Parliament”.

What we made

As part of our work in Democratic Commons, we’ve been collecting the electoral boundaries of countries and sharing them in a consistent, usable format. This provides one of the foundation stones that anyone making their own tech for democracy or parliamentary monitoring needs in place, and we believe it will be of enormous help to countless organisations across the world.

WriteInPublic is a bit like our UK site WriteToThem — except that when a citizen contacts their representative, the whole correspondence is published online. We set it up for our partners People’s Assembly in South Africa, where citizens can correspond with all 400 national and provincial representatives in the open.

Who we met

“Speaking at a youth activism conference in Skopje reminded me that there are so many driven and innovative people in the sector, doing remarkable things. Elton Baxhaku who made a film about the LGBT community in Albania was particularly memorable.” Myf Marketing & Communications Manager
“The Code for All summit was a chance to hear amazing speakers and meet people who are working so hard, often for free to bring about change within their country/ region.” Georgie Community Manager
“It was inspiring to meet g0v (pronounced ’Gov Zero’) from Taiwan who’re doing loads of Civic Tech work in Asia.” Will GIS developer
“I enjoyed visiting so many of our international partners on their own turf this year. We obviously know superficially what is going on with our colleagues in other organisations, as we communicate remotely but nothing compares to being able to sit down with them over a coffee and really have a chat about what’s going on. ” Bec Head of Research

What’s the research show?

Based on interviews with 65 politicians, civil servants and activists involved in democratic engagement across Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, our biggest piece of research was on the state of digital democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa and presents invaluable advice for anyone planning on building or funding new technology in the region.

We also published research into the use of Participatory Budgeting around the world.

A new mini-site, built by Research team member Alex, allows anyone to query the data to examine the representation of women around the world.

What are the factors that make a representative more likely to respond to a constituent? Our research looked at some possible causes.