Search results for: aFRICA
Despite high hopes for a democratic transformation in Ethiopia after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s election in 2018, the country has encountered significant challenges to progress, including civil unrest, postponements of elections, a state of emergency introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and conflicts in different regions.
Since 1996, NDI has provided technical assistance to partners in Mali to increase citizen voice and responsibility; advance electoral, political, and institutional processes and reform; and improve voter education, domestic election observation, legislative oversight, inter-party dialogue, and women’s political participation.
On September 5, 2021, the Guinean military, led by Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, deposed President Alpha Condé in a coup d’etat. Condé had won a contentious third mandate in 2020 after pushing through a new and controversial constitution for the country that undermined presidential term limits and plunged the country into political turmoil.
Democratic development in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faces a myriad of challenges, including a legacy of exploitation and conflict, lack of physical and communications infrastructure, extreme poverty and continuing pockets of insecurity.
Niger is a landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel, bordered by Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, and Nigeria. Although rich in uranium, Niger has for decades ranked at the end of the United Nations Human Development Index (2021: 189th out of 191). At less than 15 percent, literacy among its approximately 27 million inhabitants is among the lowest in the world, even lower among women.
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country bordering Mali to the north and west, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, and Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo to the south. The country of approximately 23 million inhabitants is rich in gold, but remains among the poorest in the world according to the United Nations Human Development Index. Since January 2022, the country has experienced two military coups.
After nearly 11 months of popular protests calling for greater economic reforms, more accountable government and better public service delivery, then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agreement in November 2011, transferring presidential authorities to Vice President Abdo Rabu Mansour Hadi.