Last year’s presidential elections in Côte d’Ivoire ended in a violent standoff between the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, and the internationally recognized winner of the vote, Alassane Ouattara. During the five-month crisis, which ended with Gbagbo’s arrest and Ouattara’s inauguration, more than 3,000 Ivorians died. We spoke with Charles Djrekpo, NDI resident director, about NDI efforts to help the reconciliation process, and how women and youth leaders are the key to a more a peaceful future for Côte d’Ivoire.

More than 300 Armenian women from different political parties, civic organizations, government agencies and geographic regions came together for a two-day conference in Yerevan last month to discuss policy solutions to the challenges they all face. Together, they called for increasing women’s political and economic participation, better access to health care and a reduction in domestic violence.

In Turkey, both policymakers and civil society groups are striving to give citizens more say in how public policy is made, but it is rare for the two groups to actually come together.