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Young People Work To Strengthen Democracy, Promote Nonviolence and Responsive Governance
Young Kenyans sign a pledge of nonviolence and peace.
A new generation of citizen activists and political party leaders is taking the reins across Africa to promote democracy, pluralism and nonviolence. From Morocco to Kenya, young people want their voices to count.
Kenya's Inter-Party Youth Forum (IPYF) brought together more than 950 young people who signed a pledge of nonviolence and peace as they prepare for general elections scheduled for March 4. With assistance from NDI, the forum has been working with young people across the country to ensure that they know their political rights under a newly-adopted constitution. One-third of Kenyans are under the age of 35, and the IPYF seeks to promote political participation among young people. The pledge aims to avoid the violence that swept the country and left more than 1,000 dead after the last general elections in 2007. Read more»
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 Youth from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia observe voting at a polling station in Northern Virginia.
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A delegation of young political party members from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia had the chance to observe the final week of an American political campaign when they visited the U.S. last month. They met with civic organizations, pollsters and campaign groups, witnessed phone banks and campaign rallies, and had a firsthand look at candidates on the stump. In the wake of the Arab Spring, the young people on the NDI study mission were hoping to bring home ideas on, among other things, how to improve the participation of young people in their evolving political systems. Read more»
Liberian youth are also turning to the political process to deal with such issues as poverty, unemployment, poor educational opportunities and crime. Young people came together with lawmakers recently to educate them on the specific hurdles youth face and to suggest legislation that could help overcome those challenges. Among Liberia's unemployed, 58 percent are young people as are 68 percent of those living below the poverty line. Read more»
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Tech@State Explores How Technology Can Boost Confidence in Elections Worldwide
On the heels of the tech-focused U.S. presidential election, the recent Tech@State conference explored how technology is used in domestic and international elections. NDI has pioneered a number of new uses for technology around the world to promote better elections, and worked closely with the U.S. State Department to organize the conference at The George Washington University. The Institute also hosted an "unconference," where participants were able to explore in more depth and collaborate on issues raised at the conference. Read more»
Evening at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Celebrates Freedom and Creativity
"I have been learning what freedom and human rights are," said the artist and dissident Song Byeok who escaped from North Korea and has been creating artwork satirizing the regime. He spoke at an evening of theater and art at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C., where his art was on display. It accompanied a performance of Mia Chung's You for Me for You, a play about sisters attempting to escape from North Korea. Organized in part by NDI, the event celebrated "the kind of creativity that only democracy supports," in the words of former U.S. Ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens. Read more»
NDI Director Testifies on Mali before U.S. Senate Africa Subcommittee
NDI's regional director for Central and West Africa, Christopher Fomunyoh, outlined political and technical challenges facing Mali after last March's military coup at a Dec. 5 hearing of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs. "Despite the numerous challenges confronting Malian democrats today, I am optimistic," he said. Read more»
Upcoming Jordanian Elections Marked by Widespread Apathy, NDI Delegation Finds
While the organizational structure for elections has improved in Jordan, voter apathy remains widespread in advance of Jan. 23 legislative polls, according to an NDI pre-election assessment. Although it may be too late for authorities to make major fixes before the vote, the assessment makes a number of recommendations that could improve transparency for the upcoming polls and set the stage for deeper reforms for future elections. Read more»
NDI has conducted international election observation missions in more than 60 countries since 1986. See the complete archive of delegations' pre-election, preliminary and final statements»
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Making All Voices Count: New Fund Aims to Support Open Government around the World
Making All Voices Count is a four-year partnership of the Swedish, U.K. and U.S. development agencies and the Omidyar Network to support Internet and mobile technology innovations. The goal is to help new democracies become more transparent and accountable, empowering citizens to better advocate for change. "Democracy thrives on diversity and becomes stronger through vigorous debate," said NDI Chairman Madeleine Albright at the initiative's unveiling. Read more»
DRC Political Parties Training Members Despite Distance
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is two-thirds the size of Western Europe, political parties are overcoming the challenges of vast distances, poor transportation and unreliable Internet by creating new ways to communicate with their branch offices. After days of training sessions in the capital with political party leaders on topics such as understanding public opinion, creating policy and constituent outreach, the parties created DVDs for distribution to their party locals to help them master the same skills. Read more»
New Public Opinion Research from Libya, Tunisia, Papua New Guinea, Georgia
Following July's congressional elections in Libya – the first democratic elections there in more than 40 years – citizens believe the country is headed in the right direction but would like to see faster progress. They are also concerned by persistent security challenges and disappointed in their new leadership. Read more»
One year after Tunisia's historic constituent assembly elections, citizens are frustrated by political infighting and a lack of improvement on economic issues such as unemployment and cost of living. Read more»
In Papua New Guinea, citizens endorse the ideas of democracy and elections, but the political reality falls far short of their expectations. Read more»
Seventy-nine percent of Georgians think the Oct. 1 parliamentary elections were well run compared to 12 percent who thought there was some level of falsification. Fifty-eight percent think the country is headed in the right direction. Read more»
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