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NDI began working in Ecuador in 2002, helping several Ecuadorian civil society organizations to form Citizen Participation-Ecuador (Participación Ciudadana-Ecuador, PCE), a national organization that aims to engage citizens in the electoral process. PCE was the first domestic group to monitor presidential elections in the country.
In 2006, NDI reopened its field office to work on strengthening the relationships and the collaboration between civil society and political organizations, to help political organizations incorporate citizen concerns into their platforms more effectively and to improve governance. During the 2006 elections, Ecuadorians expressed their frustration with the traditional political party system by electing political independent Rafael Correa as president. True to his campaign promises, President Correa has altered the Ecuadorian political landscape during the last five years and laid the foundations to bring about broad reforms.
Political Context
Prior to the 2006 election, Ecuador's political system was one of South America’s least stable, with six presidents in one decade. Ecuadorians have expressed strong dissatisfaction with their democratic system, as bitter disputes between the executive and legislative branches erupted, and political and economic issues remained unaddressed. The geographic divide between the coast and the highlands has contributed to a lack of national unity and consensus on issues of national concern.
In 2006, Ecuadorians expressed impatience with the inability of political parties to implement broad social and political reform by electing Rafael Correa of Country Movement (Movimiento País, MP) president. As promised in his campaign, President Correa convened a constituent assembly via referendum to implement political reforms through the development of a new constitution. With MP’s landslide victory in the September 2007 constituent assembly elections, and the legislature’s deteriorating public image, President Correa declared the congress in “permanent recess,” and the constituent assembly assumed its mandate. Strong public support for President Correa led to the “Yes” campaign’s constitutional referendum victory in late September 2008. The referendum approved the country’s twentieth constitution, which has ushered in a series of broad institutional changes. The new constitution called for general elections in April 2009, in which President Correa was re-elected by a wide margin and members of a new legislature were elected. President Correa tested his political capital by organizing a referendum in May 2011 on controversial reforms to the judiciary and the media, among others. Final results published by the National Electoral Council (Consejo Nacional Electoral, CNE) show that he won each of the 10 questions in the referendum, although not by the wide margins originally predicted. While enjoying a high level of popular support since his re-election, some of President Correa’s initiatives have sparked disagreement among various sectors of Ecuadorian society.
NDI Activities
NDI currently works with leaders of Ecuadorian political and civil society organizations across the ideological spectrum. NDI is working to encourage political organizations to develop mechanisms to adapt to the recently passed political party law as well as to adopt internal changes that will help govern more effectively and/or contribute to policy formulation. The Institute supported development of a guide on a new electoral and political organization law to help parties better understand and comply with the new legislation. NDI has also shared tools and international experiences with Ecuador’s major political organizations — including President Correa’s party, MP, the Multi-country Pachakutik Unity Movement, the Social Christian Party and the Patriotic Society Party — to help increase their responsiveness to citizen concerns. Most recently, NDI has focused on helping parties increase women’s representation within their structures, one of the requirements for political organizations to register and compete in elections. The Institute has also sought to support accountability and sharing of information between National Assembly members and civil society organizations as part of a British Embassy-funded project.
Past Programs
In 2002, at the request of several Ecuadorian civil society organizations, NDI assisted Ecuadorian civic leaders in developing a national organization to engage citizens in the electoral process and to promote political dialogue through a national network of nonpartisan volunteers. NDI opened a field office in Quito and drew on its global experience with domestic monitoring groups to assist the newly formed group, Citizen Participation Ecuador (Participación Ciudadana Ecuador, PCE). This initiative laid the groundwork for the consolidation of a national volunteer network that has been an asset in addressing critical issues facing Ecuadorian democracy, such as promoting dialogue and fostering broad-based citizen participation and governmental accountability.
With technical assistance from NDI, PCE organized the first-ever nationwide domestic election observation in Ecuador, in which 4,000 Ecuadorian citizens monitored the 2002 presidential elections. In addition, PCE's youth volunteer network encouraged nationwide dialogue and participation in the country's first citizen education campaign on punctuality, uniting coastal and highland Ecuadorians alike. This highly respected civic organization continues to inspire citizens to strengthen and participate in Ecuador’s democracy.
In 2006, NDI re-established a field office in Ecuador to help political organizations with reform efforts, to develop platforms on key issues of national concern and to encourage cooperation between political and civil society organizations. As part of this initiative, NDI commissioned a series of focus groups to provide decision-makers with information about citizen opinions on key issues and about public perceptions of political organizations. NDI presented the results of the focus group research to partner political organizations and consulted on party responses to the findings. Click here to read the findings from this research.
From 2007 to 2008, NDI continued to provide technical assistance to parties in enacting reforms. NDI also conducted trainings for parties on strategic planning, political negotiation, communications and transparency. In 2009, NDI continued its work to promote multiparty dialogue at the national level and to encourage political party/organization outreach to civil society and constructive dialogue on issues of concern to citizens by strengthening advocacy coalitions in Chimborazo, Esmeraldas and Sucumbíos. In particular, NDI worked with citizen coalitions to foster dialogue and to work on improving the delivery of basic services such as potable water and healthcare in the three target provinces. NDI also supported dialogue between the country’s major political organizations and civil society organizations on reforms initiatives such as the newly approved electoral and political party law and the draft citizen participation law.
Contact Information
For more information about these programs, use our contact form or contact:
Quito
Sandy Quimbaya, Resident Representative
squimbaya@ndi.org
Washington, DC
Diana Paez-Cook, Program Manager
dpaezcook@ndi.org
Kathryn Mudge, Senior Program Manager
kmudge@ndi.org
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