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Mexican Women's Group Receives 2013 Madeleine K. Albright Award
A local women's group in Mexico has been awarded NDI's 2013 Madeleine K. Albright Grant for its efforts to increase women's representation in local and national politics.
The Network of Support for Women Municipal Leaders (REAMM) was created in 2009 and works to get more women into political leadership positions in Mexico. REAMM was recently part of a successful campaign, "2% and More Women in Politics," to improve enforcement of a provision in Mexico's federal election code that designates 2 percent of federal political party funding for women's leadership training.
The Albright grant carries a $25,000 stipend that REAMM will use to build on the success of the 2 percent campaign to help establish and enforce similar regulations for women's funding at the state level, where women make up only 6.1 percent of Mexico’s 2,400 municipal presidents.
The award will be presented to Laura Inés López Padilla, president of the board of REAMM, on May 29 at an awards ceremony and luncheon at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The Madeleine K. Albright Grant was established in 2005 to support grassroots organizations around the world that work to support women's political participation. The grant is made possible through the generosity of the Melvin and Bren Simon Foundation.
Andi Parhamovich Fellowship
Last month NDI welcomed Somalia staff member Hodan Ahmed to Washington. She is the latest recipient of NDI's Andi Parhamovich Fellowship, which is awarded to a young woman from an NDI field office or partner organization who is deeply involved in supporting democracy in her own country by advancing the political participation of women. For three months, Ahmed will conduct research and meet with individuals and organizations to develop a program that strengthens the skills of Somali women parliamentarians and helps them work with civil society to advocate for women's issues more effectively. Ahmed is the fifth recipient of the fellowship, established in 2008 in honor of Andi Parhamovich, an NDI staff member who was killed while working in Iraq.
To stay up to date on the Institute's work around the world, visit www.ndi.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube or Flickr.
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Official Kenya Election Results Considered Generally Credible but Flawed
In testimony April 16 before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Keith Jennings, NDI regional director for Southern and East Africa programs, said "Kenya's [March 4] presidential election results were credible, though the process included important flaws.” Read more»
Kenya's Election Observation Group (ELOG), an NDI partner, expressed confidence that the elections were generally credible though not without problems. ELOG conducted long-term observation of the election process and deployed 7,000 trained monitors. Its parallel vote tabulation (PVT) independently verified that the official election results were consistent with its statistical projections. ELOG's activities helped to confirm public confidence and reduce potentials for violence. ELOG called on Kenya's election commission to publicly release any information relevant to the election results, urged any person or party in disagreement with the outcome to voice its opposition through the courts, and called on the courts to act expeditiously and fairly to ensure equal protection of the law. These were the first elections since 2007, when post-election violence swept the country, and they followed Kenya's 2010 constitutional referendum, which also was monitored by ELOG. Read more»
NDI’s work with political party liaison committees (PPLC) and the Inter-Party Youth Forum (IPYF) has also helped bring Kenyans together across party lines to foster peaceful political dialogue.
Yemenis Flood Final Town Hall Meeting Ahead of National Dialogue
Five days before Yemen's National Dialogue began on March 18, 340 Yemenis turned out for NDI's sixth and final televised town hall meeting to hear from experts about how the dialogue would work and discuss their concerns about the process. The 565-member dialogue will play an integral role in the country's two-year transition process, as delegates from Yemen's different political factions talk about how they can put differences aside, heal grievances and work together to develop a new government. Read more»
Majority of Yemenis Think Country is Headed in Right Direction
Ahead of the dialogue, a group of experts met at NDI to discuss what average Yemeni citizens think about the country's progress. According to a public opinion poll released at the event, the majority of Yemenis think the country is headed in the right direction. Read more»
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Experts Revisit the Lessons from Chile's "NO" Campaign
NDI recently co-hosted a screening of the Oscar-nominated film "NO," about Chile's 1988 plebiscite, at the Motion Picture Association of America. During a pre-screening panel, experts from the campaign discussed what it was really like working on the "No" campaign for the referendum that ousted General Augusto Pinochet. Read more»
Central American Governments Work Together to Increase Citizen Security
Disparities in the way El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras approach citizen security make the problem difficult to tackle regionally. To consolidate their efforts, congressional representatives from all three countries recently met in Guatemala City to decide how they can address such issues as human trafficking, regulating private security companies, police reform, drug trafficking and organized crime. Read more»
Local Women's Group Advocates to Protect Iraqi Women from Violence
In Iraq, violence against women is a widespread problem. To help raise awareness and give women more legal protection, a local civil society group conducted a public campaign and drafted a successful law that will establish community centers for women who are victims of violence. Read more»
In Guinea, Political Parties Commit to Pursue More Transparent Elections
To limit violence and build trust among political party leaders ahead of Guinea's first competitive legislative elections, NDI launched a political party pollwatching program to enhance confidence in the electoral process. NDI will train nearly 20,000 pollwatchers who will be deployed to more than 6,000 polling stations to deter fraud and irregularities, and allow parties to document and address irregularities through peaceful, legal means. Read more»
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