The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

Marie-Ève Bilodeau is NDI’s country director in Mauritania. She is a political and policy advisor with experience in both the government and the non-profit sectors, as well as in the development of legislative, advocacy and communication strategies. Since joining NDI, Ms. Bilodeau has managed programs aimed at parliamentarians, political party representatives and civil society organization representatives. Ms. Bilodeau managed a three year political party strengthening program in Pakistan, where she advised political party leadership representatives and worked with key officials and political activists on skills reinforcement. In addition, Ms. Bilodeau assisted parties in the development of rules and regulations, and helped create job descriptions for senior officer positions.

Before joining the Institute, Ms. Bilodeau worked for Médecins Sans Frontières in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of the national coordination team. She has also acted as an adviser on program development and fundraising for the Canadian Executive Service Organization in Haiti.  Ms. Bilodeau worked in Benin as a governance, communications and development advisor for Oxfam, and as a gender equity advisor for the program support unit of the Canadian International Development Agency.

Prior to her career in international development, Ms. Bilodeau worked on Parliament Hill in Canada for seven years as a policy, political and legislative advisor for two federal ministers and a senator. She was a political party activist for the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) for more than 15 years, she served as a political strategist and an election organizer for two Canadian prime ministers, and was part of the LPC national headquarters for the 2005-2006 federal election.