Although official statistics on emigration do not exist, anecdotal evidence suggests that Bosnia-Herzegovina’s (BiH) population of roughly four million is plummeting, as thousands of citizens head elsewhere, with 64 percent citing the economy as the primary driver and 61 percent of people under 30 indicating that they have personally considered leaving BiH for better opportunities. 

Today marks International Democracy Day 2019. 

From the world’s oldest to youngest democracies, this is a day to celebrate the promise and resilience of democracy around the world. Despite real headwinds that have dominated the headlines, political participation in fact is up, reflecting the continued potency of the democratic idea. From Managua to Moscow, Algiers to Istanbul, and Khartoum to Hong Kong, people of all races, religions, cultures, and backgrounds are demanding their voices be heard, their rights and dignity be protected, and that justice prevail.  

At a critical time in Sri Lanka’s history, youth engagement has become a priority for impactful development in the country. In Sri Lanka, youth make up almost a quarter of the population, a number which is expected to increase. To bolster youth political participation, NDI partnered with Sarvodaya, a longstanding civic society organization in Sri Lanka, and their ‘Deshodaya (good governance)’ program to encourage youth to play an active role in the democratic development of the country. 

Last month, parliamentary leaders from across the globe visited Washington, D.C., to contribute to the first ever House Democracy Partnership (HDP) Leadership Forum, where they participated in peer-to-peer discussions on some of the most urgent threats to democracy around the world—rising authoritarianism, anti-democratic propaganda, political polarization—and discussed how legislative bodies can best respond. The Forum, held July 16-18, was the first of its kind in the fourteen-year history of the HDP, a bipartisan commission of the U.S.