The efforts of civil society organizations to monitor and assess the work of legislatures often receive little attention, but this critical and growing area was the focal point of a recent meeting among representatives of parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs) and the international development community.

NDI celebrated its 25th anniversary on May 10 by honoring two champions of democracy, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe and the Network of Chocó Women of Colombia, at an event hosted by NDI Chairman Madeleine K. Albright.

Thanks to the support of the European Commission and other partners, NDI has organized a two-year dialogue program to facilitate the development of recommendations to strengthen transatlantic cooperation on democracy support.

The idea came to Vuka Crnjanski when she heard a government official say of a group illegally charging tolls on Serbia's highways: "It's OK to steal a little. This group just went too far."

"Such a statement should have gotten the minister in serious trouble," said Crnjanski, who had worked with NDI as a political party and civil society trainer and was formerly senior figure in Serbia's Liberal Democratic Party. "However, there was virtually no reaction to the statement from any political parties, government officials, NGOs or the media."