"Georgian women cannot wait another century for equal participation in the governance of our country," said Leila Aptsiauri, a member of a local city council in Georgia. She was speaking at a conference in Tbilisi, the capital, where representatives from 11 political parties discussed with civil society leaders the benefits to including more women on candidate lists and in political party leadership structures.

For young people in East Africa seeking to have a political voice, the two-year-old Regional Youth Leadership Academy (RYPLA) has helped show the way. One of its graduates, Daniel Taabu, has become executive director of the National Rainbow Coalition-Kenya (NARC-K), a political party with a seat in parliament. In Uganda, 14 graduates started Uganda Youth Stand Up, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to increase civic participation by registering one million young Ugandans to vote ahead of the February 2011 elections.

Ben Fuller of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) went to Rwanda as a trainer for NDI to work with young political leaders from all 10 Rwandan political parties. He recounts his experience in this piece that originally appeared on the SEIU blog.

Democratic activists worldwide are most successful when they share skills and learn from each other across ideologies and cultures. The World Movement for Democracy (WMD) provided such a global forum in Jakarta, Indonesia, where activists, practitioners, academics and policy makers generated ideas for promoting and strengthening democracy.

As ethnic divisions ease in the Balkans, political parties across the spectrum are finding the need for new approaches that focus on thoughtful policy debate rather than personality and ethnicity. Young leaders in particular will play an important role in these changes.

In anticipation of national elections on March 7, Iraqi civil society activists held 16 candidate forums throughout the country to engage voters in the political process, improve the dialogue with candidates and focus attention on priority issues for voters, such as water, electricity and education.

Thirteen political parties in Georgia have signed an agreement setting the format for a nationwide public television channel, called the Second Channel, that will broadcast the activities of the Georgian parliament and opposition parties.