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Topic Discussion III
Participation in
Democratic Decision-Making:
The Vital Voices of Women, Civil Society and
Pluralism
Room 3
(2 of 16 pages)
Chair: My name is Gina Hamadi Bennerjee (ph) and I work in the Management,
Development and Governance Division in NDP in New York. I have been asked to moderate this session. I would like
to set some rules before we begin. First, I would invite you to limit your interventions to no more than two minutes
please. We would like to have as much participation as possible and I expect pretty soon the room will fill up
and we would like to make sure that everyone has a chance to speak in the spirit of the title of this session When
you address the meeting, kindly identify yourself and the country or the organization you come from. The third
rule we will have is that I will try to call upon one person per country first, so that we will allow as much diversity
of responses as possible and only after that has been exhausted will we call on other participants to make a contribution.
There are several questions that have been given to me which I will read to you now to make it easier for you to
focus your comments on.
#1: How can emerging democracies provide adequate institutional channels for individual citizens and their organizations
and networks to make their opinions, interests and complaints known. What role can civil society play in creating
or maintaining these channels?
#2: What institutional reforms such as ombudsman offers, decentralization of power and public negotiating forums
and specific sectors of policy-making can help to improve public access to and support for the policy-making process?
Here I would like to also add, if you can think of any traditional form of institutional participation, please
include it as well.
#3: In allowing for widespread public participation in and criticism of government, what is the proper balance
between civil liberties and public order?
#4: Which forms of civic education have been found effective in creating the capacity for and commitment to informed
political participation by ordinary citizens at the grass roots?
#5: What programs or initiatives can be adopted to encourage the participation of women in the political process?
Of course, all other questions relate to women as well but this is specifically to women,
#6: How can citizens and government address the challenges of managing participation in multi-ethnic and multi-religious
societies? What is the responsibility of organizations of civil society in reaching out to these minorities?
I will now introduce the first speaker. On my right is Madame Fatoumata Diara Dembele from Mali. She is the President
of the Observation for the Women and Children's Rights Watch organization; she is a Magistrate in a Court of Appeal
and she is the President of the Coalition of NGOs that is involved in monitoring the elections at the national
and local level. They provide training and she has worked extensively with NDI.
Madame Fatoumata Dembele: Thank you, Madame Chairperson. I am very happy to have been selected to talk to
you this afternoon on the theme of the participation of citizens and democratic decision-making and the importance
of women, civil society and pluralism in a democratic system. Democracy, which is a political system ensuring the
exercise of power through the greatest number, implies two groups of actors: the government and the governed. If
democracy would require governments and the management of public business in transparency, efficiency and responsibility,
it contributes a special role to government, that is the ability to exercise their rights and duties and, above
all, to contribute towards the application of difficult measures but often very healthy for the country.
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