Days after Haitians went to the polls to vote on November 20, more than 130 members of the Haitian Parliament and staff met to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the institution and lay out a roadmap for moving forward.

Leaders from across West Africa met in Cabo Verde last month to discuss regional guidelines for democratic handovers of power after democratic elections. The November 21-22 gathering represented a significant and timely effort to begin developing international norms and standards around executive branch transitions.

Yesterday marked a global day of recognition of the challenges faced by migrants around the world -- International Migrants Day. This year, Syrian refugees and mass migration in Central America has made migration a constant feature on the front pages of the world's newspapers. Facing increased pressure from migration, some countries have sought to close their borders or brand migrants as criminals. In September 2016, after nearly two months of debate, the Guatemalan Congress approved a new Migrant Code for the country.

Macedonia’s voters came out in large numbers in parliamentary elections on December 11 in a bid to stem a prolonged political crisis that has effectively stopped the political process and upended the country’s bid to join the European Union and NATO. With turnout at approximately 70 percent, citizens voted in six election districts and for 120 members of parliament in what domestic and international observers, including NDI’s Macedonian citizen observation partner, MOST, described as an orderly voting process, albeit not problem-free.

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On November 29th, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) co-hosted a bipartisan event to explore the challenges to international democracy and U.S. foreign policy. Entitled a Bipartisan Celebration of Democracy, the discussion was particularly well-timed in the wake of one of the most divisive U.S. elections in recent memory, and with forces pushing back against democracy around the world.

Elections in the United States are unique -- not only due to the decentralized election framework and history of campaigning, but also for the impact that presidential results in particular have around the world. This year Americans cast their votes for 469 members of Congress and 6,064 state-level elected leaders, in addition to dozens of ballot measures in individual states.

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) is proud to announce a partnership with Code for All, a global network of civic technology organizations, to support the network in sharing their learning and experiences and bringing the Code for All model to additional parts of the globe.

“This battle will liberate us; we want to be involved in the decision making process. Women will not continue to be used as fillers,” declared Socorro Torres, coordinator of the Honduras Interparty Women’s Network (Red de Mujeres Interpartidarias de Honduras, or the Network). Torres’s comments were in response to the historic ratification of a pact between members of Honduras’s leading political parties, affirming women’s equality in political participation.