With roads and infrastructure still in disrepair from the First and Second Congo Wars, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faces some of the world’s greatest mobility and communications challenges.
The country is large — around two-thirds the size of Western Europe— and lack of transportation options severely restricts travel. For instance, a recent 3,000 km car trip that should have been measured in hours required 15 days to complete. Air travel is in many cases the sole option for moving from place to place.
Unreliable Internet service also severely hampers communication. In the political party realm, for example, party leaders have considerable difficulty staying in touch with and conveying information to their rank and file members located in different communities.
To help parties find alternative means for getting messages to members far away from the capital city of Kinshasa, and to help them formulate those messages, NDI conducted a four-month course for party members on both policy development and dissemination. Six leading majority and opposition parties each sent two Kinshasa-based representatives to participate in NDI’s Policy Development Training School.
