Seven experts attending Davos share what’s on the horizon for 2024
Iqbal Dhaliwal, global executive director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), is one of seven experts attending the 54th World Economic Forum in Davos who will share their horizon scans on the threats, challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in 2024. In his predictions, Iqbal places emphasis on the importance of proven interventions to promote election integrity, fight misinformation and strengthen democracy.
“2024 will be a record year in terms of the number of people going to the polls around the world, including in the US, India, South Africa and Indonesia. These elections must be fair and inclusive, and voters should be able to make informed choices. There is rigorous evidence available to guide this process. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have found that increasing transparency, including via technologies used for election monitoring, can improve perceptions of an election’s legitimacy," he said.
Proven interventions can improve election integrity, fight misinformation and strengthen democracy.
“2024 will be a record year in terms of the number of people going to the polls around the world, including in the US, India, South Africa and Indonesia. These elections must be fair and inclusive, and voters should be able to make informed choices. There is rigorous evidence available to guide this process. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have found that increasing transparency, including via technologies used for election monitoring, can improve perceptions of an election’s legitimacy.
Traditionally marginalized groups must be brought into the political process as full participants; civic education programmes, women’s self-help groups, gender quotas and social protection programmes can help achieve this. Providing people with access to information about candidates’ policy positions and politicians’ past performance can increase turnout for less corrupt, more qualified and better-performing officials. Voters must be able to weed out competing misinformation.
Researchers are using RCTs to test a range of approaches – from fact checking to media literacy training, to adjusting online algorithms. Emerging evidence, combined with what we know from RCTs of voter education programmes, suggests that prior beliefs and social identities make it challenging to correct misinformation — but that accurate information can be impactful when widely disseminated from a credible source.”