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Executive Office Assistance
For several years, NDI democracy assistance has supported competitive elections, strengthened civil society, provided organizational training for political parties, and conducted intensive work to strengthen legislatures and local governments. While these areas are critical pieces of the democracy puzzle, assistance to executive offices can be just as crucial, yet has often received less attention from the international development community.
Executive offices – offices of presidents, prime ministers, and ministers – are responsible for directing the development of their countries. They direct the implementation of laws enacted by the legislature, and ensure that government ministries deliver programs and services to citizens. Yet executive office officials frequently lack the skills and experiences required to enable them to identify, prioritize, and develop the policies and structures needed for them to manage effectively. And partly as a consequence, laws and policies in many emerging democracies are either not implemented or implemented poorly, and voters become apathetic because of the failure of democracy to deliver on their expectations.
In 1999, NDI began to work with presidents, prime ministers and their staffs to help them better understand and perform their roles. The Institute works with its partners to develop strategic plans, design office structures, define staff roles and responsibilities, carry out message and policy formulation, engage citizens in the policy-making process, and develop strategies and mechanisms to implement the laws passed by the legislative branch and policies devised by their offices.
Delivering on Democracy
Helping democratic institutions deliver improvements to citizens’ lives is an overarching objective of NDI programs. In many transitioning democracies, citizens have experienced either minor or no tangible benefits from their new governments: poverty levels have remained the same; government services remain ineffective or have become worse; and citizens continue to feel disconnected from their governments.
Government leaders who fail to deliver basic levels of stability, safety and opportunity risk losing their legitimacy. When they fail to deliver on basic needs for prolonged periods, their poor performance can lead to a crisis of legitimacy not just for particular governments, but for the concept of democracy as a viable form a government.
NDI’s governance programs address these issues in a number of ways. Through the Institute’s legislative, executive office, and local government strengthening programs, the Institute assists government institutions in listening to citizens (through public hearings, for example), and responding to their concerns. NDI has also begun to help legislatures build capacity to address specific policy issues, focusing on legislative engagement on poverty reduction initiatives, HIV/AIDS policies, and management of oil, gas and mining industries.
Since 2001, NDI has worked with legislators to specifically address poverty reform, linking the legislators’ efforts with the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper process and efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In the Nigerian National Assembly, for example, NDI supports committees in their review and analysis of MDG-relevant areas of the executive’s budget. This work has helped committee members better understand how their budgetary decisions impacts poverty alleviation. In Malawi, NDI worked with members of parliament and civil society organizations from 2002 through 2004 on monitoring and tracking the national budget and the delivery of programs and services most critical for poverty reduction.
In partnership with the Southern Africa Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF), NDI conducted an assessment of efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in the 12-country SADC region. The program culminated in a November 2004 report which concluded that parliamentarians are not taking full advantage of their constitutionally mandated powers to address HIV/AIDS crisis. Since publishing the report, NDI has conducted pilot programs in Mozambique and Namibia to help bridge the knowledge gap between MPs and the executive branch of government; strengthen relationships between MPs and civic groups; promote dialogue and information sharing with the private sector; and enable MPs to carry out their oversight function on HIV/AIDS policy issues.
NDI also works to support transparency and good governance in extractive industries by promoting legislative engagement through their oversight, lawmaking and representation responsibilities. In 2007, the Institute produced a report, Transparency and Accountability in Africa’s Extractive Industries: The Role of the Legislature, based on a nine-country survey to help reform-minded legislators and their partners in civil society design and implement workable strategies to improve accountability and transparency in Africa’s extractive industries. NDI has recently begun to help the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) build its capacity to conduct regional oversight of extractive industries, and develop regional policies to promote transparency and accountability in the industries.
