News from NDI: Open Data Initiative Makes Election Information More Accessible

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June 2015

NDI launched a global initiative this month to ensure that voters and citizen groups have access to detailed election data that will give a true picture of an entire election process. That includes how candidates are certified, how and which voters are registered, what happens on election day and how complaints are resolved.

Not only does access to election data and information vary widely from country to country, it is frequently released in formats that make it difficult to use.

The Open Election Data Initiative, openelectiondata.net, supported by Google, adapts open data principles that were designed to enhance government transparency in other areas, such as service delivery, to elections. The initiative encourages governments to be more accountable and citizens to take a more participatory role. Read more »

NDI Releases White Paper on Women and Urbanization

Two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities by 2050. This demographic shift provides new social, political and economic opportunities for migrants - and women are the largest group.

But the benefits have not been evenly distributed and if the growing inequality of urban environments - which particularly impacts women and historically marginalized groups - is to be reversed, urban governance will have to adapt.

In recognition of the impact of cities, NDI, with funding from the Kate Spade Foundation, commissioned the Institute for Women’s Policy Research to develop a White Paper on Gender, Urbanization and Democratic Governance. Read more »

NDI Partners with African Union to Increase Youth Political Involvement

NDI and the African Union (AU) Commission, the executive branch of the African Union, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this month to increase youth involvement in democratic processes on the continent.

The MOU builds on an existing partnership between NDI and the AU. Since 2013, NDI has partnered with the AU’s Department of Political Affairs (DPA), responsible for democracy and governance initiatives, to create opportunities to engage young leaders in ongoing regional dialogues on democracy, elections and governance. Read more »

Guatemalan Groups Launch Election Observations Amid Political Crisis

Guatemalan citizens will go to the polls on Sept. 6 amid a deepening political crisis that has seen the vice president and other key administration officials resign after being accused of corruption.

To help safeguard the integrity of the elections, two electoral observation coalitions, with NDI support, will monitor the pre-election environment as well as the voting and tabulation of results. Read more »

Momentum Builds for Women in Georgia Politics

Georgia lags behind many countries when it comes to women’s political participation.

But developments and growing support among elected officials, political parties and Georgian citizens over the last year have put women in politics at the top of the issues list.

NDI’s recent Win with Women conference in Tbilisi built on this momentum by bringing together Georgian political parties, government institutions and citizen groups to identify ways for women to get more involved in politics. Read more »

NDI's Rinor Beka on Democratic Progress in Kosovo

Since 2006, NDI’s Rinor Beka of Kosovo has been at the center of his country’s democratic transition.

In an interview with NDI, Beka talks about working with elected officials to advance transparency and accountability in Kosovo’s parliament, getting more women and youth involved in the political process and the progress that has been made to overcome a history of inter-ethnic conflict in the region. Watch the interview »

Newly Elected Officials Bridge Gap Between Government and Citizens in Georgia

In Georgia, communication between elected officials and their constituents is often weak. But recent steps taken by local elected officials, in partnership with NDI, are offering new opportunities for interaction between leaders and the public.

“We are going to stay on this path and make public participation more intense and our work more transparent,” said Merab Kvaraia, local council chair in the municipality of Zugdidi on its recent push for more government transparency and accountability. Read more »

Pakistani Women Inspired to be Policy Makers

Historically, women in Pakistan have been involved in election campaigns, but few have taken part in their political party’s policy making process.

That is changing through the Political Party Development Program that over the last four years has included 16,609 grassroots party members, of which 44 percent have been women.

The program has given women a chance to participate fully in the policy development process and improve both policy making and leadership skills. Read more »

Advancing Women's Leadership in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia

“Every day I struggle against stereotypes. We need to take steps to dismantle these stereotypes about women’s participation in politics," said Zorana Mihajlovic, deputy prime minister of the Republic of Serbia, at NDI’s Regional Forum on Women’s Leadership held recently in Belgrade.

Mihajlovic and others are leading the conversation on advancing women’s political leadership in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Read more »

NDI’s Peter Manikas Testifies on Democracy in Asia

NDI's regional director for Asia programs, Peter Manikas, provided an overview of recent political developments in Hong Kong, Myanmar/Burma and Thailand in congressional testimony earlier this month.

Manikas concluded that recent developments "are pivotal in the sense that they will largely determine the trajectory of democratic development in these countries in the months, and perhaps years ahead. The course of democracy in these countries also may affect the advance of democracy in the region as a whole." Read more »

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DemocracyWorks is a blog written by staff members of the National Democratic Institute.