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Kenya’s 2010 constitution established a groundbreaking gender quota, requiring “not more than two-thirds of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender.” Ten years later, after numerous attempts, the government still has not adopted legislation to fully implement this constitutional requirement. As a result, this September 21, the Chief Justice of Kenya advised President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve parliament.
Burkina Faso is rich in mineral resources; its deposits of gold, zinc, copper and manganese are found in an arc that spans the country’s southeast to its northwest regions. It is a globally-ranked producer of gold -- both industrial and artisan-mined -- with more than one million Burkinabe citizens employed in this sector.
Across the globe, citizen election observers play a critical role in ensuring electoral processes meet national and international standards. During the October 2020 general elections in Tanzania, NDI supported citizen election observation through its USAID-funded CEPPS program in both mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar – a first for the Institute.
Disinformation, hate speech and fake news continue to grow as threats to open and democratic societies around the world, and are among the pressing issues that the National Democratic Institute (NDI) is addressing in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In Libya, NDI recently launched a multi-platform campaign in partnership with the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides to raise awareness on disinformation and hate speech among youth at the local level.
On October 25, 2021, the Sudanese military took over government institutions and arrested the civilian prime minister, upending the tenuous transitional agreement that had been in place since the overthrow of former president Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The military’s takeover has spurred widespread popular protests on a near-weekly basis calling for civilian rule, which have been met by heavy-handed repression by security forces.
In November 2020, Zambia made headlines when it became the first African nation to default on its debt repayment to foreign lenders during the COVID-19 global health crisis. While many African nations made significant progress in reducing their debt burdens in the 1990s and 2000s, in recent years, countries such as Zambia, Kenya and Mozambique have steadily taken on more and more loans to finance large infrastructure projects and government spending.
It was a busy December in Washington D.C., as leaders from across the African continent attended the African Leaders Summit, and met with their American counterparts and diaspora communities. Days before the African Leaders Summit, the Kenya Diaspora Alliance - USA (KDA - USA), with support from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the U.S.
On December 15, 2022, 11 youth political party members across four African countries came together in Nairobi, Kenya for a final regional dialogue to present their personal projects accomplished through NDI’s Political Party Leadership Institute (PPLI) program. The regional symposium marked the completion of the 2021 cohort and their transition into the program’s Alumni Network.
During the week of May 8th - 12th, NDI-Tunisia and our civil society partners join the annual celebrations of the International Week of Open Government through ongoing programming on open, accountable and transparent governance processes with the Government of Tunisia, and the El Kef Municipality in northwest Tunisia.
As more women candidates in Liberia strive for effective and competitive legislative campaigns, it becomes increasingly important to promote opportunities for growth and connection throughout the campaign process. NDI, with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), is implementing a campaign boot camp training program entitled Promoting Women’s Political Participation in the Elections Program in Liberia.