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.

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.

Mohammad Fahim Rostahi, a fourth-year student of political science and law at Kabul University, was impatient with the slow pace at which the government was developing its Code of Conduct. A parliamentary intern through a program run by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), he had been assigned to take minutes at the special committee appointed to draft the Code. Frustrated with the committee’s lengthy deliberations and lack of results, Fahim decided to draft his own Code.

Since 2004, NDI has worked with Roma to help them build the skills necessary to successfully contest elections and wage effective advocacy campaigns. Yet Romani elected officials often face the challenge that typical good governance practices such as constituent outreach are insufficient in the face of the protracted problems prevalent in their communities such as high unemployment and economic underdevelopment.