The 15 countries that make up the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have been working since 2008 to achieve parity in women's political participation by 2015. It's a goal from the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, which sets out ways to achieve gender equality through legislation and affirmative action. Some countries have made great strides toward achieving equal numbers of elected men and women, one measure of parity, but Zambia and Lesotho are lagging far behind.

The Egyptian Association for the Support of Democracy (EASD) trained and deployed more than 5,000 observers to monitor last month's elections for Egypt's lower house of parliament. While noting improvements over the administration of the country's 2005 parliamentary and 2010 Shoura Council elections, EASD described the Nov. 28 poll as "one of the most controversial parliamentary elections ever held in Egypt." And it highlighted numerous violations that it said prevented voters from fully exercising their political rights.

Women candidates enjoyed record levels of success in Jordan's Nov. 9 parliamentary elections. The country's new election law doubled the women's quota from six to 12 seats, and for the first time, a woman candidate from Amman won her seat outside of the quota system by amassing the largest number of votes in her district.

There were other firsts as well. Six of Jordan's 12 governorates elected the first women representatives from their region, and Myassar Sardiyah became the first Bedouin woman ever to be elected to parliament in Jordan.

Nearly 70 percent of Nicaraguans are under the age of 30, but young people in the country remain disengaged from politics and government. They also are increasingly dissatisfied with political parties and government institutions, according to the findings of a recent NDI Democracy Survey.