NDI recently published the El Salvador 2009 Benchmark Democracy Survey, which measures citizens’ democratic values and perceptions of democracy in their country. NDI also has administered similar surveys in Nicaragua and Guatemala.

With the goal of sustaining peace and encouraging cooperation to overcome the region’s past conflicts, more than 300 young political leaders from the Western Balkans and elsewhere, meeting in Serbia, issued “The Belgrade Declaration,” pledging to strengthen ties with their governments, promote new values and use new technologies to improve communication and understanding.

With parliamentary elections approaching, Iraqi women are looking for ways to ensure that their voices and concerns are not excluded from the political debate. For the past several years, the ability of Iraqi women to contribute to policy debates has been constrained by security concerns, political instability and corruption. Though Iraqi women are slowly increasing their involvement in government, political parties and civil society organizations, they are still largely absent from decision-making positions within those bodies.

Mayan women in Guatemala, who are estimated to be 20 percent of the population, are substantially underrepresented in Guatemalan politics. Despite 1996 UN-sponsored peace accords that called for increasing political involvement of the indigenous population, indigenous women were rarely included on candidate lists in the most recent election in 2007, and only two of the 158 deputies in Congress and one of 333 mayors across the country are Mayan women.

Following a devastating civil war, Liberians elected their first democratic government in 2005, hoping for peace and stability. Since then, NDI has been working with legislators to develop lasting institutions and practices that will improve the legislature's effectiveness. As part of the Institute's work to connect lawmakers with their constituents and foster an environment of open and substantive public policy debate, NDI has partnered with STAR radio to launch a weekly radio program: The Legislative Spotlight.

In preparation for elections in southern Sudan next April, the Sudanese Network for Democratic Elections (SuNDE) has concluded a successful two-week voter education campaign, conducting 375 events in 37 counties in all 10 states of southern Sudan.