Stories

Enhancing Domestic Election Monitoring in Southern Africa

Multiparty democracy was adopted in nearly every country in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the 1990s in response to domestic popular pressure as well as encouragement from the international community. These changes fundamentally altered politics in the region, resulting in historic transitional elections in Namibia (1990), Zambia (1991), Angola (1992), Lesotho (1993), Malawi (1994), Mozambique (1994), South Africa (1994) and Tanzania (1995). These elections were not always close, but did offer citizens real choices and the chance to participate as voters.

Revenues from oil should spur economic growth and social development in developing countries. In many resource-rich countries in Africa, however, the lack of accountability and transparency in the management of these revenues exacerbates poor governance and often fuels cycles of corruption, conflict, and poverty. As the international community seeks alternatives to Middle Eastern oil and new reserves enter production, Africa’s oil revenues will multiply over the coming decade.

Political party finance and political corruption scandals are by no means exclusive to Africa. However, whereas a wide range of literature has been published on Western Europe, North American and Australia, relatively little research exists on the way these issues impact the continent and possible solutions to the problem. In February 2003, NDI launched the Africa Political Party Finance Initiative (APPFI), one of the first attempts to understand and evaluate the challenges of political party financing in Africa.

NDI celebrated pioneering African women at its 2007 Democracy Luncheon by bestowing its two highest honors on Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to head an African country, and the 50/50 Group of Sierra Leone, which is dedicated to promoting greater participation of women in that nation’s politics.

President Johnson Sirleaf received the 17th W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award. The 3rd annual Madeleine K. Albright Grant was awarded to the 50/50 Group.

Democracy Dialogue

NDI President Kenneth Wollack (center), with Lorne Craner (left), the president of the International Republican Institute, and Ambassador Robert Neumann at a panel discussion.

NDI will honor the 50/50 Group of Sierra Leone with this year's Madeleine K. Albright Award. Founded in 2000 to promote greater participation of women in politics, the 50/50 Group has grown from a handful of women meeting in borrowed space in Freetown to a nationally recognized organization actively engaged in building a new post-war Sierra Leone. Its efforts in advance of the country’s 2002 elections contributed to a dramatic increase in opportunities for women to run as candidates and play more meaningful roles in their political parties.

NDI Jordan recently held the first event of its new speaker series under the Women Helping Women (WHW) project last week, focusing on “The Impact of the Global Financial and Economic Crisis on Jordan.” Three women economic experts and practitioners spoke at the event, and participants included around 25 members of political parties and civic groups. Participants commended NDI and WHW for highlighting women who excel in their respective fields, including economics, and recognized the program’s work in changing attitudes about women in Jordanian society.

Since 1987, Nancy Pelosi has represented California's Eighth District in the House of Representatives. The Eighth District includes most of the City of San Francisco including Golden Gate Park, Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, and many of the diverse neighborhoods that make San Francisco a vibrant and prosperous community. Overwhelmingly elected by her colleagues in the fall of 2002 as Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi is the first woman in American history to lead a major party in the U.S. Congress.

Legislators and staff of the National Assembly of Macedonia focused on process rather than politics in a recent simulation exercise that demonstrated the use of public hearings to further the efficiency of committee work within their parliament.

Adversarial parties in Iraq recently achieved a major breakthrough – a negotiated end to the year-long Sunni bloc boycott of the Kirkuk Council. This significant development followed a multi-party, multi-sectarian, multi-ethnic symposium organized by NDI in late October.

Enhancing Domestic Election Monitoring in Southern Africa

Transparency and Good Governance in African Extractive Industries

Africa Political Party Finance Initiative

NDI Honors Liberian President Johnson Sirleaf and 50/50 Group of Sierra Leone

Democracy Dialogue

The 50/50 Group of Sierra Leone

Women Economic Experts Speak About the Impact of the Global Financial and Economic Crisis on Jordan

Nancy Pelosi

Macedonia: Parliamentarians Forego Partisanship in Public Hearing Simulation

Iraq: Forum in Kirkuk Leads to Political Breakthrough

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