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.

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For Debby Linares Sandoval, the challenges faced by transgender women in Guatemala are personal. Watching her peers struggle to gain access to basic healthcare services, and experiencing discrimination herself as a transgender woman, Linares began to realize the importance of not just advocating for human rights, but also actively participating in the broader political system to effect even greater change.  

The Balkans are experiencing a fair share of instability these days. External factors—the refugee influx, the Eurozone crisis, Russian economic and political influence, and a pre-occupied European Union—are contributing to uncertainty about political stability and the region’s prospects for joining the European Union. Domestic political conflicts, both inter-ethnic and partisan, suggest that countries in southeastern Europe have some distance to go in becoming stable democracies.

Editor's Note: This op-ed written by former Secretary of State and NDI Chairman Madeleine K. Albright was published in CNN Opinion on International Women's Day, March 8, 2016. NDI will be launching a global campaign to stop violence against women in politics on March 17, 2016, in New York City. Click here for more information