As Iraqis work to create a new government, a group of young people is working to perfect the civic advocacy skills they need to influence how policy is made.
Members of Iraq's National Youth Caucus (NYC) came together recently to discuss their strategies for ongoing advocacy campaigns for improving high school and college education and combating the high rate of youth unemployment.
Togo’s March 2010 presidential election represented a positive step in the country’s democratic development. Violence surrounding flawed presidential elections in 2005 resulted in the deaths of hundreds of citizens, and the displacement of many more. In the run-up to the 2010 presidential poll, the country’s longstanding political and ethnic divides again heightened the potential for electoral violence. But while opposition parties alleged serious irregularities during the vote tabulation process, voting on election day proceeded peacefully.
As Egypt prepared for parliamentary elections last month, Partners in Change (PIC), a coalition of 27 grassroots organizations, conducted an innovative voter education and get-out-the-vote campaign.
NDI recently partnered with pop-music star Bobi Wine to record a song that sends a message against election violence in his native Uganda. The song, composed in Lugandan and entitled “A Serious Matter,” is a mix between reggae and local African music. It is part of a campaign to encourage Ugandans to use a new citizen hotline called “Uganda Watch 2011” to voice concerns about the integrity of the electoral process surrounding polls set for February 2011.
NDI’s newsletter, “NDI Reports,” carries stories about the Institute’s partners, programs and publications from around the world, in addition to highlighting the happenings within the Institute, from board and staff changes to the launch of a new website.
The importance of democracy support was the subject of a dynamic discussion this summer by a broad array of policymakers from both sides of the Atlantic who met in Washington, D.C., for the first installment of a dialogue aimed at bolstering cooperation on democracy and human rights between the European Union (EU), the United States and the broader transatlantic community. The dialogue took place as the administration seeks to recalibrate the U.S. approach to democracy support and as the EU seeks to build greater coherence on democracy assistance policy among its member states.
As Egypt prepares for legislative elections in November, one civic group is ramping up efforts to get citizens to the polls. One tactic is a new website, www.vote4egypt.com, which launched today to bolster an ongoing campaign to convey the importance of voting.
Public security is the number one issue for Central American countries, especially those in what is known as the Northern Triangle, which includes El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. More than three quarters of the population in Central America believes that insecurity is the greatest problem facing the region, according to a recent United Nations report.
At a recent forum, leaders from government, political parties, business, academia and civil society in the region gathered in El Salvador to get to the root of the problem by highlighting the link between security and transparency.
