On November 12, 2015, the Malian National Assembly adopted a historic gender quota bill. The new law, which requires that at least 30 percent of elected or appointed officials be women, is a result of concerted action to reverse several years of negative trends in women’s   representation in positions of power.

Georgia witnessed a chilling bout of violence against women and domestic violence in 2014. Almost every month, at least one woman was murdered by her partner, husband or ex-boyfriend. The deaths of many of these women, often at knifepoint or by gunshot, orphaned children who had no other responsible caregivers.

NDI celebrates the news that Anar Mammadli and 13 other political prisoners regained their freedom in Azerbaijan on March 17. Mammadli was arrested in December 2013, shortly after his organization, the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS), released a report that criticized how the presidential election was conducted earlier that year. Although no evidence of wrongdoing was ever produced, Mammadli was convicted and sentenced. He served two and a half years in prison.

Roberto Mena wasn’t exactly sure what the Youth Leadership Academy was, but he knew he wanted to be a part of it.

A 26-year-old Honduran from the state of Cortes, Mena is an active participant in local politics. In fact, politics runs in his family, which includes political leaders who founded a local chapter of the Anti-Corruption Party (Partido Anti-Corrupcion, PAC), an opposition party that emerged from the political crisis following the 2009 coup d’etat against the Manuel Zelaya government.