Voices from The Field on NDI.ORG

NDI-Afghanistan Implements Successful Provincial Councils Program

vrao — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:16:55 -0500

NDI-Afghanistan is implementing a USAID-funded local governance program in 19 provinces throughout the country. Oren Ipp, Head of Programs for the NDI-Afghanistan office, and Mohammad Nabi Atiq, Senior Program Manager for the Provincial Council program, sat down recently with John Johnson, NDI’s worldwide Director of Governance Programs, to discuss their experiences managing the program.

John Johnson: By way of introduction, can you describe NDI’s local governance program in Afghanistan?

Oren Ipp: Our program is designed to support provincial councils’ ability to fulfill their legal mandates. The program approach was to help build skills for councilors, but more importantly, to provide them the opportunities to put those skills into practice.

Provincial councils were established in Afghanistan as a result of the 2005 provincial council and parliamentary elections. These councils are the only elected bodies at the provincial level to voice people’s concerns, advise local stakeholders on provincial development processes and monitor development projects among other mandates.

While the Provincial Council Law does not provide the councils much authority and is vague on their responsibilities, it does outline one area that we believed would be a constructive entry point for assistance: helping the councils to contribute to the drafting of Provincial Development Plans. We designed a pilot program for seven provinces, which we then expanded to 15; NDI’s program now reaches 420 councilors in 19 provinces (of 34 provinces nationwide).
The program is divided into four distinct phases, in which NDI assists the councilors to:

identify and prioritize the challenges and problems facing their respective provinces; this is a “listening” exercise.
evaluate ongoing development projects at the provincial level; this is a “monitoring” exercise to help the councilors identify the progress being made to address the aforementioned challenges.
draft their own development proposals for submission to the provincial development process.
communicate their proposals to ensure the proposals are incorporated into the final provincial development plans.

The program is designed to help the councilors establish a regular cycle of good governance.

JJ: How has NDI’s relationship with the provincial councils worked in practice?

Mohammad Nabi Atiq: Because we were asking the councils to participate in numerous activities and produce quite a lot of documents, we knew that we could not expect the entire council to be involved in each. We therefore decided to have one “driver” from each council, which we called a rapporteur; this was also important for us because it gave us one person on the council as our primary contact. Each phase of the program is launched with a training workshop in Kabul for the rapporteurs, designed to provide them with the required skills and knowledge to carry out activities during a particular phase. The gatherings also provide an opportunity for councilors and staff to share their experiences and challenges. In this way, training is only a small part of the program: councilors spend most of the time putting into practice those skills acquired in the trainings in Kabul. As a result, we are able to provide each council a tailored program, respond to specific needs as they arise, and maintain the flexibility necessary to program in very different political environments.

We are able to reach 19 provinces through our seven regional centers, allowing NDI to provide very hands-on support to the councils. The provincial council team in Kabul oversees activities in the provinces; staff travel frequently to provide additional support and training where necessary.

JJ: What are the main challenges you face in implementing the program?

Nabi: Candidates for the 2005 provincial council elections launched their campaigns without a clear understanding of what provincial councils were supposed to do. In fact, the Provincial Council Law only came out six weeks before the election! This meant that most councilors assumed office with little knowledge of their mandates or roles and responsibilities as provincial councilors. Many are illiterate and had no experience – after all, none had ever been councilors before.

Managing this program has also been a challenge. We have regional program staff based in six offices outside Kabul, conducting activities in 19 provinces simultaneously. This would be a challenge anywhere, but in Afghanistan, given the difficulties with security, logistics and communication, we cannot travel as frequently or easily as we would like, making managing the program even more difficult.

JJ: What impact has the Provincial Council Program had to date?

Oren: We designed the program in such as way as to make answering this question relatively easy. We set out benchmarks for each phase and for the program as a whole. Three of the seven development proposals drafted by the councils in the pilot program were incorporated in their entirety into the official submission of the provincial government to the national development process; elements of the remaining proposals were taken into consideration by the relevant provincial authorities. The PC program was not just an abstract exercise in governance; the councilor’s work was used formally in the governing process. We are only in Phase III of the current expanded program, but hope to have similar results in the coming months.

That not all of the proposals were taken in their entirety was not a sign that the program failed in those provinces. In the 15 provinces, each council produced a list of the five priority problems and possible solutions that were derived from each of the dozen or so activities (public forums, stakeholder meetings, local shura roundtables). The councils also wrote reports for each public hearing they held in their provinces. Finally, all seven of the councils in the pilot program drafted a proposal for submission to the government. This step in particular was well above our expectations when we began the program.

For first time-councilors, many of whom have little or no education, literacy skills or experience with democratic governance, these achievements are significant. More importantly, by participating in the program, the councilors have not been only practicing: they have been governing.

JJ: What are some keys to the success of the program?

Oren: First, we came up with a simple design. This meant that it was easy to explain to our partners—avoiding complex notions of democracy, governance or the like—and relatively straightforward for us to oversee. The concept of “linked phases” was also important in that each phase was self contained and that our partners had to complete the preceding phase in order to move on to the next.

By conducting a pilot program, we were able to learn from our experience, identify new areas of assistance and ensure that we were providing a program that had an impact. By taking a break between programs, we had the time and resources to review and improve the program before launching the expanded program. For example, in the expanded program we added the module on monitoring, which the councilors had told us repeatedly was an area they wanted assistance.

JJ: With a program of this size, how did you balance the needs of each individual council?

Oren: We made the decision early that we would provide more in-depth assistance to fewer councils. This meant using our regional staff more effectively, and allowing us to remain flexible and respond to the needs of each council. Similarly, because the benchmarks are clear, we know at any given time how the program is progressing, and where we need to pay more attention or dedicate more resources. One of the most significant keys to success was that the program resonated with our partners and provided them very practical assistance in carrying out their mandates.

Nabi: Another major factor in our success was the fact that we were able to develop a standard program for all 15 provinces, but also built in the flexibility to accommodate requests from the councils as well as changing political developments. For example, the provincial council in Herat asked NDI to support their annual meeting with stakeholders and citizens. This was a two-day affair for over 200 people – although we had not anticipated such an event, it was within the parameters of the program and we were able to support the activity.

Similarly, we recently expanded the program to an additional four provinces and were able to design a smaller version of the program based on what the councils had already done on their own. We have been able to adjust the program to the needs of the councils, rather than trying to fit them into a rigid program structure.

Final Thoughts

Oren: I think it’s crucial to examine the context in which local governance is taking place, rather than trying simply to apply a parliamentary framework to the local level. Local councils are generally smaller and less experienced than their national counterparts, and closer to their constituents; this has a significant impact on their approach and outlook on addressing the needs of their communities. It should, therefore, also have an impact on our approach to programming. Much of what we do with the National Assembly simply wouldn’t resonate at the provincial level.

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Published on Dec. 6, 2007

Bangladesh: A Fragile Democracy

jennycohan — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:17:48 -0400

By Mike Moore

I recently spent some time in Bangladesh as a member of a team organised by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), an American-based group that promotes democracy and provides technical assistance, monitors elections, and in this case, visited to provide an impartial pre-election assessment of the electoral environment in anticipation of parliamentary elections in January, 2007. Former Senator Thomas Daschle, and Mu Sochna, a former Cambodian Minister of Women’s and Veterans’ Affairs, were the other members of the team.

Life is not easy in Bangladesh, 145 million people in a land area about the size of New York State, half the population earns less than a dollar a day. Bangladesh’s short history since independence from Britain, and then independence as a separate state from Pakistan, has been savage and sad. The reason so many women have power in the region is not because of any love of women’s rights but simply because so many of the male leaders have been assassinated and their political brand has been taken up by their widows and children. Both the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition are women and have their positions because of assassinations. Listening to the complaints, each of the main parties in Bangladesh, the BNP (Bangladesh National Party), and the Awami League sound exactly like each other. Both list murders, assassination, intimidation, corruption by the others as a reason for non co-operation and mistrust. Parliament is often boycotted, each taking their turn when in opposition, general strikes, over twenty in one year, organised by each side in turn, is the strongest display of political power and force. The police move in and activists’ street action harassed! Mass detentions not unusual before protests. This has escalated over recent years with an attempted assassination on the life of the British High Commissioner, a multiple grenade attack on an opposition Awami League rally killed 24 people and injured the opposition leader.

A new and sinister development has been the intrusion of extreme Islamic influence with the first suicide bombing of two judges, a well-organised, simultaneous detonation of 500 small bombs in August last year shocked both sides. A leaflet released that day described the election as un-Islamic because they were man-made. The Government acted decisively with many arrests. The small Islamic party in Parliament condemned the attacks. In short, all this constitutes the conditions for a “perfect storm”. In light of all this, Bangladesh has instituted some unique constitutional arrangements. For 3 months before an election, a non-party, caretaker Government is installed to put at arms’ length an administration to whom the army, police and electoral officers are answerable. Good ideas, but claims have emerged that the caretaker Government will not be independent, may not be decided by political consensus. The Government claims the opposition parties are not prepared to negotiate a consensus in good faith, that they want reasons to walk away, even boycott the election, go to the streets and make the country ungovernable, and then take power one way or another. This has happened before. There is a so-called independent Electoral Commission and its Chief Executive is an ex-Supreme Court judge who, when we met, saw no problem in voter lists that had 10 million too many names when compared to the census.

Despite all this, Bangladesh has enjoyed three reasonably clean elections, power has been transferred peacefully. It’s still not too late for a free and fair election to be held. The electoral lists of voters need to be cleaned up, confidence needs to be built, civil society needs to be involved, and the new caretaker Government needs to be independent and appointed after honest consultations based on good faith discussions. The overwhelming view is that the army will stay out of politics, they value their independence and cherish their successful role in international peace-keeping, something they could lose if they were to involve themselves in domestic politics.

Most seem a little too relaxed about the threat of Islamic extremists because Bangladeshis do cherish democracy, and are mainly secular. Let’s see. The core problem is with the political elites, they won’t talk, each have attractive and ambitious sons who seem to want to carry on their family name and hatreds. Everyone has a party political affiliation, from doctors, lawyers, students, and workers on the streets. These are differences, not based on race, religion or geography. There’s no appreciation of the role of the loyal opposition in Parliament or in the country. There’s a difference between democracy and demagogy. It’s staggering that the economy is growing at 5% despite all this. Somehow a mechanism must be established to deliver a reconciliation between party leaders and their families. It will be a close-run thing.

Mike Moore is a former Prime Minister of New Zealand. He has also served as Director General of the World Trade Organization. He is the author of numerous books including On Balance, Fighting for New Zealand and A Brief History of the Future. His most recent book, A World Without Walls was published in 2003.

This article first appeared in the Australian Financial Review.

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Published on Jul. 2, 2008

Iraqi Youth Share Ideas, Build Skills at Leadership Camp

ggreene — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:40:05 -0400

A “Youth for Change” camp hosted by NDI brought together young people from across Iraq in July to share ideas about problems affecting youth in their regions, to identify their view of Iraq’s top two issues of national concern and to strategize about solutions.

Eighty-three activists ranging in age from 18 to 25 attended the camp, part of NDI’s Youth Empowerment Program (YEP). It marked the first time that the young people in the program—from different regions, ethnic backgrounds and religious affiliations—had been able to interact in person and share ideas.

The participants voted unemployment and lack of civil education as the top two issues of national concern to young people. Other issues raised included corruption, violence against women, and an unstable security situation.

After identifying these high-priority challenges, participants went to work on planning advocacy campaigns to address them. Their ideas included leafleting, holding community forums to garner support, and using a local radio station to broadcast public service announcements. To help develop these rough ideas into concrete plans, the participants will meet with NDI advisors over the next few months for updates and feedback.

A major goal of the camp was to create a foundation for a national network of youth leaders with the capacity to train others in advocacy and civic participation. To this end, participants from each region elected representatives to serve in a YEP coordinating body and carry out the national advocacy plans they had developed earlier in the program.

In campaigning for these representative positions, the participants used skills learned in training sessions conducted earlier in the year. They organized themselves into smaller groups and developed clear platforms. Each candidate was allotted only a minute to get his or her points across, requiring clear and succinct messaging. The campaign focused on the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates’ proposals, rather than on personal appeal.

A powerful unifying activity of the camp program was the Democracy on Air exercise, where participants cooperated to create a mock radio station with a variety of interactive programming. Radio station volunteers nominated a disc jockey and provided music, entertainment, poetry readings, on-air interviews, and roundtable discussions on issues such as upcoming governate council elections. The radio station drew more than three-quarters of the camp participants to gather and watch their “recordings.”

Additional skills gained in the camp included conflict resolution, media skills, and advocacy that would benefit participants professionally as well as in future political participation.

Pictured above: Leadership camp participants engage in a discussion.

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Published on September 4, 2008

Local Leaders Discuss How Latin American Political Parties Can Help Democracy Deliver

jbowen — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:40:34 -0500

At a recent seminar in Bogotá, Colombia, NDI brought together local elected officials from Latin America to discuss how to restore faith in political parties’ ability to deliver the benefits of democracy to citizens. The 20 participants from six countries spent five days together.

Francisco Herrero, NDI’s resident senior director in Colombia, discussed the goals and accomplishments of the seminar and offered his perspective on the challenges facing political parties in Latin America.

Where did the idea for the seminar come from?

At a retreat last year, we arrived at the conclusion that it would be a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of these elected officials being together to identify tools to help them really address the needs of their citizenry. Where you can produce the largest amount of day-to-day change in the life of the public is at the local level, through local government. Studies such as the 2007 study by Latinobarómetro (http://www.latinobarometro.org/), an annual public opinion survey in 18 Latin American countries, have shown that the ability of local governments to deliver to their citizens has a greater effect on local belief in democracy than macroeconomic factors such as economic growth.

What does it mean to help democracy deliver?

Helping democracy deliver means achieving substantial improvements in the quality of people’s lives through democratic institutions. In its work, NDI concentrates on helping political actors focus on delivering results as well as helping the citizenry learn how to demand those results and monitor government actions.

It has been suggested that Latin Americans have a distrust of political parties. Where do you think that mistrust comes from?

One of the most important reasons is that the parties have been disconnected from their populations. Studies like Latinobarómetro have shown a real connection between the level and quality of services delivered and the acceptance of or appreciation for democracy. Studies show that only 22 percent of the population of Latin America is happy with basic services. This translates into a low level of satisfaction with political parties as the protagonists of democracy.
With Latin American parties, for example, the perception of corruption continues. Citizens view politicians as corrupt and working for their own benefit rather than for the benefit of the populations they represent. This promotes distrust.

What tools and methodologies for helping democracy deliver did you offer participants?

The seminar was designed to cover four strategic areas in the fight against poverty: listening to citizens, thinking strategically, developing a poverty reduction plan, and implementing and sustaining the plan. Each day the seminar featured panels, presentations, case studies, role-playing, and individual and group exercises, culminating in a daily evaluation.

NDI emphasized learning by doing and discussed a number of different themes. Some presentations highlighted the big picture, such as how to develop better public policies or reach the Millennium Development Goals. Others addressed specific tools that could be used by local governments, such as conditional cash transfer programs that could be used to address situations of extreme poverty. We also looked at how policies would affect certain population groups, such as minorities, women and Afro-descendent communities. And NDI delivered practical tools and case studies for the participants to take home to incorporate into daily practices.

What sorts of practical issues were the participants hoping to address on behalf of their constituencies?

One of the most interesting discussions involved the rights of such citizen groups as youth, women and minorities in areas such as education, security and the ability to participate in the development of policies that affect their lives.

Women, youth and ethnic groups, such as Afro-Latino and indigenous. are the most poor and excluded in the region, which is why the design and implementation of public policies directed at them is of vital importance in a poverty reduction plan. Panel discussions with Afro-Latino and gay and gender leaders found common ground in terms of the struggles they face in the implementation of public policies. These discussions motivated many of the attendees and raised their awareness of the needs of these vulnerable sectors.

Two other themes addressed regarding poverty reduction were the role of justice and health. According to the Latinobarómetro study, only 22 percent of people believe they have equal access to justice; 63 percent believe that every day life becomes less secure, less safe. Only 52 percent are satisfied with the level of health care they receive or have access to. This shows politicians truly must deliver when it comes to these issues.

What would you say were the major accomplishments of the seminar?

NDI was able to motivate the local elected officials. They demonstrated that they were ready to initiate a process, a change, to go back to their countries and push for what is needed to deliver the benefits of democracy. The participants recognized that change will take place only if there is real political will among the political class to achieve the goals discussed.

There was also a valuable exchange among the participants about best practices and the sharing of success stories, which provided practical examples of how to make democracy deliver inside communities. Among those discussed were best practices in communication, accountability, and ways to include constituents more directly in the creation of a budget and other public policies.

How can you judge the impact of the seminar?

NDI will continue to develop and disseminate manuals that can be used as tools to help governments and democracy deliver. NDI will also continue to identify experts and construct a network of reformers and leaders to increase its database of experiences and practices so people have examples and case studies to reference. NDI will maintain contact with the participants to get their view of how the program worked and what experiences and tools were applicable to their home countries to put into practice. We have already received reports from participants that they have been using case studies and tools from the pilot program, including internal party questionnaires on the role of political parties, in policy making.

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Published on November 24, 2008

HIV/AIDS Program Helps Democracy Deliver in Southern Africa

jbowen — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:41:11 -0500

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is continuing to have a devastating impact on Africa, particularly in the southern region, where some countries have prevalence rates that exceed 20 percent.

Brionne Dawson (pictured at left), NDI’s resident senior program officer in South Africa, discusses how the Institute has helped lawmakers play a larger role in addressing the issue and its greater societal effects.

How did NDI become involved in HIV/AIDS issues in Southern Africa?

NDI’s work began in 2001 in Malawi, where we had a parliamentary program aimed at connecting legislators and constituents around issues that most deeply affected citizens. NDI helped organize a dialogue between legislators and constituents around how the government could deliver better HIV/AIDS services. The program also focused on monitoring budgets that were allocated to provide anti-retroviral treatment for people living with HIV. As a result of NDI’s assistance, civic groups lobbied parliament to protect funding in the national budget to provide these necessary drugs to HIV patients.
How has the program progressed since then?

The program has expanded to several other countries, focusing on the important role of parliamentarians as advocates for constituents who are heavily affected by HIV and AIDS. NDI has worked in Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria and Zambia on HIV/AIDS. The programs have been influential in pioneering strategies for other countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), including Botswana and Swaziland.

Through an NDI-sponsored constituency outreach program in Mozambique, parliamentarians determined that a law designed to prevent discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS was being violated, and people were being fired from their jobs on the basis of their perceived HIV status. Many citizens had no idea the law even existed and left their jobs without their employers being held responsible for the unfair dismissals.

With support from NDI, parliamentarians worked to revise the legal framework and passed a new law in December 2008 that now provides protection for people who are unfairly dismissed.
Can you describe the law and its provisions?

The law contains 58 articles and a number of broad provisions. It stipulates the provision of free treatment to people who are HIV positive, protects the right of sexual education for HIV orphans, protects people from being forced to disclose their HIV status, and acknowledges vulnerabilities faced by people living with HIV including women, children, the elderly, the disabled and the poor. The law also provides protections for women living with HIV, including the right to counseling and testing, and encourages care providers to be compassionate in how they treat people who are HIV positive. The law further mandates that the government provide anti-retroviral treatment and counseling services to citizens. The law also includes provisions that penalize the deliberate transmission of HIV.

The process for passing the law demonstrates the important role lawmakers can play in ensuring that services are provided to citizens and helping them speak out against HIV stigma and in favor of the rights of those who are treated unfairly because of their HIV status. It’s an example of how parliamentarians, exercising their role as brokers between citizens and government on controversial issues, can help democracy deliver for ordinary citizens by helping them secure a better life. Legislatures that are not responsive to the needs of ordinary citizens risk losing relevance, thereby compromising public confidence in democratic institutions designed to protect and serve people’s interests.
How has NDI helped pull this all together?

NDI has put legislators in touch with regional experts on the issue as well as active civil society organizations. In Mozambique, NDI connected legislators with experts from the University of Pretoria’s Human Rights Department – an internationally-recognized human rights research organization. They have compiled laws from across Southern Africa to determine how certain statutes have a bearing on HIV service delivery and access. This research has allowed Mozambiquan legislators to compare their law with others in the region and determine how to improve their response to emerging issues such as the criminalization of HIV and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission.

The SADC Parliamentary Forum, an NDI partner, has introduced a model HIV/AIDS law for Southern Africa that draws on recommendations from the University of Pretoria’s work. SADC has encouraged its 14 member states to adopt the law, which conforms to international human rights standards.

NDI supported Mozambique’s parliament as it considered various drafts of the bill and evaluated the draft against the SADC model legislation as well as relevant human rights conventions. NDI organized a series of roundtables where civil society groups and networks of people living with HIV were asked to provide input into the law. Those groups largely favored the criminalization of HIV transmission, which is currently being considered through a review process.
NDI also sponsors programming in Zambia on HIV/AIDS issues. Can you describe the Institute’s efforts there?

In Zambia, legislators are often reluctant to discuss HIV because as elected leaders, they are viewed as the only people who have access to resources needed to fight the disease. They fear, for example, that people will ask them for anti-retroviral drugs, which they are not in a position to provide, or funds to cover funeral costs. These burdens are a drain on their personal resources. Members complain that there are too many disincentives to being active on HIV. In some cases, members say that their involvement could perpetuate the perception that they are HIV positive and unfit for public office. As a result, Zambian legislators don’t discuss HIV publicly, partly because of its stigma and partly because they don’t want to open the door to a lot more demands they may not be able to meet.

NDI has helped parliamentarians develop messages to make them more comfortable talking about HIV in public. The Institute has provided media communications skills training and helped members acquire more information about the epidemic in Zambia by connecting them with health experts. Following a training program NDI conducted in April, members disseminated targeted messages to encourage testing, promote responsible sexual behavior, discourage harmful traditional practices and address the major drivers of the epidemic in Zambia. One effect of the program was a statement by Hon. Sylvia Masebo, in her local language in a crowded market in Changwe before members of the press, that “It’s important for you to go for testing. You can live a long healthy life as a person who is HIV positive.” Messages like these were disseminated through a variety of media outlets, including print, radio and television, and showcased on the parliamentary radio station.
How have NDI’s partners in the region played a role?

The most important aspect of NDI’s work is its partnerships with local partners and their bravery to engage on such a challenging issue – their courage to work day in and day out fighting the negative attitudes that contribute to the spread of HIV in Southern Africa. Their efforts have helped motivate parliamentarians and political leaders to make an impact on this disease that is wreaking havoc on their constituents in Southern Africa.

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Published on April 20, 2009

Bangladesh: NDI Election Observer Discusses “A People Hungry for Democracy”

ggreene — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:24:48 -0500

In an op-ed for the Melbourne Age newspaper, Bob McMullan, the Australian Secretary for International Development Assistance, details his observation of the Dec. 29 parliamentary elections in Bangladesh as a member of NDI’s international observation delegation.

McMullan writes:

As soon as I arrived in the country, I knew I had made the right decision in giving up Christmas with my family to observe the crucially important elections held in Bangladesh on December 29. I was even more certain when a young man at the Railway Government Primary School in Sylhet district, in north-east Bangladesh, stepped out of the line of voters to tell me: “We are very pleased you have come to look at our elections.”

Read the full story | Visit the Age newspaper »

Pictured above: Women standing in line to vote in Bangladesh during the Dec. 29, 2008 parliamentary elections.

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Published on Jan. 9, 2009

Empowerment Program Inspires Women to Engage in Iraqi Political Process

ggreene — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:08:58 -0500

The engagement of women in Iraq’s political process has been a major focus of NDI’s efforts in the country since 2006. Through the Women’s Empowerment Program (WEP), the Institute has conducted extensive training programs for women activists that have inspired engagement from the grassroots to the Iraqi Parliament.

In a recent interview, a member of NDI’s Iraq staff, Ferdos Majeed, discusses a series of NDI training programs in Erbil that have encouraged women’s political participation. Majeed, who has worked for NDI since 2005, is the first recipient of the Andi Parhamovich Fellowship, named for Ms. Parhamovich, an NDI staff member who was killed in Baghdad in 2007 while riding in a convoy that came under attack. The fellowship is awarded each year to a young woman who is deeply involved in building and consolidating democracy in her own country.

What drew you to work for NDI, and, more specifically, the NDI women’s program?

I originally served as a liaison with Iraqi government officials as part of NDI’s governance program in Iraq, though quickly realized my true passion was working to empower Iraqi women through greater political participation. I believe that women’s participation in promoting democracy in the world, and especially in Iraq, is crucial if democracy is to take root here.

Women make up at least half the population in Iraq. We are professionals (teachers, lawyers, doctors, engineers) and workers (cleaners, cooks, secretaries), mothers, daughters, wives and sisters. In these capacities we bring an alternative understanding to what Iraq needs, including family welfare, health, educational opportunities and other urgent matters that can get passed over in favor of other legislative "priorities." It is difficult to establish a stable democratic foundation in Iraq without the perspectives and active participation of women in all aspects of civil and political life.

What has been your focus while working with the program?

Empowering women, first and foremost. Since joining the women’s program in 2006, I’ve been responsible for organizing three women's empowerment training programs in Erbil. More than 60 women leaders from civic and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) across Iraq have successfully completed NDI’s training program, and, in turn, have imparted their knowledge and understanding of the political process to hundreds of other women through workshops and conferences organized in their respective regions.

Can you describe the scope of the training program?

Over the course of each eight-month training period, 20 Iraqi women came together for a series of five, one-week training sessions. Each session concentrated on a different facet of political engagement, such as how to conduct an advocacy campaign, build issue-based coalitions, or improve campaign and media skills.

After each session, participants returned home to conduct workshops for their organizations as well as other interested women in their communities using the skills they had learned. One participant gave six workshops with 50 women in attendance at each!

The participants’ “homework” before returning for the next formal session was to research specific issues of concern to women in their region so those issues could be incorporated into the skills training. For example, in a session on handling the media, women were filmed addressing questions of concern to their regions and then received feedback from the trainers on their effectiveness.

How were the women selected to participate?

Each participant was chosen because of her active involvement with a civic organization or NGO supporting women’s initiatives in Iraq. NDI distributed a questionnaire to all women-focused NGOs asking activists to describe how the training programs would further their organizations’ efforts to improve the status of Iraqi women.

Participants were also required to be unaffiliated with any Iraqi political party, hold a university degree, and be a volunteer member of their organization, rather than a member of the board of directors.

Can you share some examples of the ways women have engaged in the Iraqi political process as a result of the training programs?

Two women were inspired to run for the Iraqi provincial council in the Jan. 31 elections because of the skills and confidence they gained from the training program.

One of the participants held a demonstration in support of the Christian community in Ninewa, using the advocacy skills she learned. Another participant headed a delegation of women that traveled to Latvia to learn more about women in the economy. And one parliamentarian is leading efforts to pass legislation that will ensure inheritance rights for Yazidi women.

Others have used their skills to advocate with constitutional committees to amend Article 41 of the Iraqi constitution – the personal status law that governs the manner religious courts may settle disputes concerning marriage, divorce, custody of children, inheritance and other family issues. Many women are concerned that it gives them far fewer rights than they had under the 1959 personal status law that kept all Iraqi people under one unified court.

You’ve said you were personally inspired by Andi Parhamovich. What does this fellowship, and the opportunity it provides to study in the United States, mean to you?

I will never forget her. She came to a very dangerous area to try to make a difference in my country. She was that kind of woman on principle. She did this work for others – something much larger than herself. With this fellowship I hope to be able to increase my ability to help Iraqi women achieve their potential, using knowledge gained in the U.S. about how American women have made important strides in the political and private sphere in the last few decades.

Pictured above: Ferdos Majeed, the 2008 recipient of the Andi Parhamovich Fellowship.

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Published on Jan. 22, 2009

Liberian Legislature Program Helps Bring Democracy to the People

ggreene — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:48:11 -0500

As Liberia continues on the path to democratic governance, one of the key institutions in this transition is the legislature, the most diverse in the country’s history. Twelve percent of the House of Representatives and 17 percent of the Senate are women, and first-time legislators form a significant portion of the membership.

Alexander Chavarria, NDI’s resident director in Liberia, discusses an Institute program based in Monrovia that works to strengthen the legislature and helps members communicate more effectively with their constituents.

What is the goal of NDI’s work with the Liberian Legislature?

Our goal is to help strengthen the institution and help it become a more independent, transparent, open and accountable legislative body.

There are two major components of our program. First, we provide technical assistance to the members when they are in session, from January to August or September, focusing on their lawmaking and oversight responsibilities. This involves, for example, working with committee chairmen and other members on how to analyze, initiate and review legislation that is working its way through the legislative process.

The second component is to assist legislators during what is known as the “agricultural break,” which runs from mid-August to January, when the legislators go back to their home areas and have the most interaction with their constituents.
Could you give a specific example of how the program works when members are in the capital?

Yes. We do workshops and retreats when the legislature is in session. One recent example was a retreat we organized for the entire House of Representatives to help members understand an anti-corruption bill that was being drafted. Once the bill was introduced, we followed up with specific workshops for the Judiciary Committee, which, for the first time ever in Liberia, held public hearings on the bill. So the training we provide is varied – retreats, workshops, public hearings – which gives legislators a full spectrum of approaches. We, of course, deal with many different issues – from agriculture to foreign affairs – with a variety of committees.

We also provide guidance to individual legislators as they request it. For example, the Liberian Legislature, the first elected democratically in the last 20 years, has complicated rules that can be daunting for new members, who have many demands on their time and little experience with legislature procedures. NDI will respond to requests for assistance and feedback on the proper application of rules as bills are being debated in committee or on the floor.
What other kinds of assistance does NDI provide?

NDI works in partnership with legislators, both individually and in groups, to help them acclimate to their new roles. There are 94 legislators – 30 senators and 64 representatives. NDI has worked with all of them on constituent relations activities, such as preparing for town hall meetings in their home constituencies during the agricultural break. Some of these are small group sessions of five to six people – a mix of senators and representatives, men and women – and take five to six hours. But we also do full-day workshops with 20 to 30 people at a time covering how to improve legislative relations, become familiar with tools needed to interact in a meaningful way with constituents, and addressing topics of national interest.

The legislators then develop their own work plans. For public hearings and town hall meetings, for example, they decide on the topics, the audience and the format. NDI then works with the legislators’ staff to help prepare for the meeting. This type of interaction with constituents is very important and often presents enormous logistical challenges. Some regions are difficult to reach and it can take 10 or more hours to them. In three counties, there is no road access so the legislators must fly or go by canoe through Liberia’s network of rivers.

But once these hurdles are overcome, it is very rewarding to witness the interaction between the legislators and the people who come to the meetings. We have heard from traditional chiefs, some as old as 90, praising this process and saying this is the first time in their lives that they have had the opportunity to talk to their representatives.
What role is NDI playing in helping the Liberian Legislature in the post-war reform/recovery process?

In support of the country’s recovery process, NDI has worked with legislators to strengthen their committee work with the goal of producing high quality reform legislation in such issue areas as forestry, anti-corruption, defense, human rights, national budget, and media reform.

Besides working with committees, we also host workshops and retreats for the House and Senate membership on key issues, such as those previously mentioned, which contribute directly to the reform process in Liberia.
How has the legislative strengthening program enhanced the independence of the Liberian Legislature?

By working with legislators to strengthen their three main functions – lawmaking, representation, and oversight – NDI has helped the legislators achieve a higher degree of independence. The goal is to improve the quality of these processes. One way is by strengthening the central staff of the legislature by helping them improve research skills so they can provide more timely and high-quality information to members. Another is by assisting members in the processes needed to pass sound appropriations bills by, for example, helping them analyze how previous budgets were executed. Overall, we are supporting the legislature’s efforts to build a strong, independent institution that is less subject to outside political pressures and that is more open and accountable to citizens.
Can you describe the role of civil society organizations in NDI’s legislative strengthening program?

Civil society organizations have been important. The Institute has formed partnerships with eight groups that have helped us carry out the strengthening program. They deserve a lot of credit for the results and accomplishments of NDI’s program

Civil society organizations also actively participate in the legislative process, often by testifying at public hearings. Last year, NDI assisted the legislature with more than 15 public hearings on important pieces of legislation relating to human rights, national defense, the national budget, and media reform. The input from civil society organizations was critical in shaping the new measures.
What are your thoughts on the overall progress of the program?

I would say that we have accomplished over 90 percent of our immediate goals in helping legislators strengthen their committees as well as their outreach to constituents.

The progress is significant – in how legislators have acquired new skills, how they have used the information, and how they are implementing all the new tools that NDI has provided them in the last three years.

Pictured above: Alexander Chavarria (at center in blue shirt), resident director of NDI programs in Liberia, with Liberian lawmakers at a legislative strengthening workshop.

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Published on Feb. 24, 2009

Gender Quota in Burkina Faso Marks Feats Accomplished, Challenges Ahead

ggreene — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:07:40 -0500

The Burkina Faso National Assembly has adopted a law that requires a 30 percent quota for women on political party candidate lists. (Related story: “Women Gain Ground in Burkina Faso Assembly,” May 19, 2009.) Passage of the measure on April 16 was a landmark day for a number of groups in this West African country of about 14 million that have been working to bring women into the political process. But it was just one step in an effort that started long before the bill’s passage and is far from over.

Aminata Kassé (pictured at left), a former member of the Senegal parliament, has spent the past five years working as NDI’s resident director in Burkina Faso, where women’s representation on local councils has risen to 35 percent across the country. Kassé discusses NDI’s work in the country.

Could you explain what sort of work NDI has been doing in Burkina Faso?

For the past four years NDI has been working directly with political parties, and over the past three years we’ve been working with Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, to promote women. One goal of our program is to increase the number of women elected and another is to help women after they are elected. There were 6,400 women elected in the last elections in 2006, so we wanted to help them advance, in part by taking full advantage of the political changes and opportunities created by Burkina Faso’s political decentralization, which gave more authority to local governments.

Have you noticed any change in policies because of the increased number of women serving in the commune, or regional, councils?

It’s very localized—you see improvements in people’s lives more often in the big cities, where the governments have the most finances. The small cities don’t really have much money, so it’s harder to see changes. But there was one commune called Dano, where a cleanup brigade organized by the mayor, who is a woman, helped to clean up the city. She invited poor women to participate in the brigade and she even offered them a small income to take part. There were also some improvements in Bobo with sewage and water policies.

It is important to note that for most of the councilors, this is the first time they have been elected to public office. One of the major changes we’ve noticed is that now that they have become councilors, they are moving up within the government—becoming mayors, deputy mayors, and presidents of local government committees. This has convinced the rural population that women are capable of occupying positions of leadership. The women councilors have participated in the creation of local development plans and were instrumental in integrating women’s concerns, such as the need for microcredit, access to clean water, and access to markets that sell locally-grown produce.

How many women overall has NDI worked with?

We work with 14 political parties, and all 14 have different women’s wings. In addition, we worked with 1,600 women who were local councilors, and then in eight communes we did follow-up work with elected women. But the big challenge now is to help the political parties recruit and train new women candidates to respond to the new law. Using a new Sida grant, NDI will follow-up with a number of parties to finalize and help them carry out action plans for recruiting women. In addition, NDI will provide training programs for local women candidates in 2011 and legislative candidates in 2012.

Could you tell us more about this next phase?

Sida did an evaluation that showed that NDI’s assistance really helped increase the number of women involved in the political process, the number elected and the level at which they served.

Next we will focus on how to involve women leaders in democratic governance in ways that take into account the needs of the most marginalized women—those that are the poorest. In Burkina Faso, as in a lot of countries in Africa, there’s a huge emphasis on policies that reduce poverty, which makes it important for candidates and elected officials to address this issue. So we’ll work at the local level and also with parliamentarians on how they can develop follow up measures to carry out the government’s program to fight poverty. For example, NDI will provide a grant to a coalition of organizations that monitors the government’s implementation of its Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers Program (PRSP) by analyzing how the needs of poor women are addressed. We also want to work with civil society groups to advocate for implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This convention, adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women.

How do you find the people that actually take part in the program?

In November we held a series of meetings on the promotion of women, and the president of one of the major political parties spent a whole day with NDI to talk about how to increase women’s participation. The engagement was extremely strong. It’s the same at the high levels as at the local levels. In Burkina Faso, there are not very many offers of training — especially not for women – so the programs are popular. NDI offers training to elected women councilors on accounting and budget management, roles and responsibilities in the decentralization process, and leadership skills as well as candidate training on how to secure a party’s nomination, fundraising, and communicating with the media. We work with opposition parties just as much as we work with the presidential movement or the ruling parties, so the parties have a lot of confidence in the work that NDI does because we work with everybody.

What was the effect? How do NDI programs help improve people’s lives?

Where we see most of the results is at the local level. We worked with eight different communes and then did follow-up work with these eight. You can see on a daily basis the work that local councilors undertake to help improve the conditions of life in their communes. There are only 23 women mayors out of hundreds, and you can really see how they develop initiatives on sanitary programs and other areas that help the population on a daily basis. Also, local councilors have found public funding for women’s groups, organized vaccination campaigns, and raised awareness on girls’ education and the importance of obtaining an identity card in order to vote.

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Published on May 19, 2009

NDI Partners Prepare for Largest Election Observation Mission Ever Held in Lebanon

ggreene — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:53:47 -0400

Following years of instability and political deadlock in Lebanon, the Doha Accord, signed last May, has paved the way for parliamentary elections to be held in June of this year. Ayman Mhanna, NDI’s resident senior program assistant in Lebanon, discusses preparations for the elections by the Institute’s civil society partners as well as efforts to lay the groundwork for the largest domestic election observation mission in the country’s history.

Can you describe NDI’s role in supporting electoral law reform efforts and other preparations for the upcoming parliamentary elections?

NDI has worked in Lebanon since 1996 and opened an office in Beirut in 2001. The Institute has, among other things, supported civil society organization efforts to reform Lebanon’s electoral law so it better represents people’s real needs and aspirations. Successive electoral laws have addressed only district boundaries but did not include needed reforms to improve election administration, ensure fair media coverage of the election and regulate election-related spending, and truly guarantee secrecy of voting, some of which were included in Lebanon’s new electoral law that was passed last year.

But those reforms are only part of the picture. They need to be accompanied by a robust domestic observation effort to achieve real change. Elections in the past were either manipulated by the government and its foreign backers and/or held according to controversial and flawed electoral laws.

This is the first time that Lebanon will hold elections that will be both freely administered by the Lebanese and conducted according to a law accepted by all sides. An independent Lebanese voice, coming from the people, that certifies the transparency and fairness of the elections will be a very important step toward strengthening the democratic process. To this end, NDI is supporting the largest domestic election observation mission in Lebanon’s history, which will have more than 3,000 observers by election day. The vanguard of this effort is more than 50 long-term observers who began work this month in 22 regional offices throughout the country. They will work through the June 7 parliamentary elections to ensure the election process is in compliance with the new electoral law and make recommendations for further reforms.

With municipal elections scheduled for the spring of 2010, experiences with the parliamentary elections will serve as a strong indicator of how to improve the process.
Who has NDI worked most closely with on the electoral law reforms?

NDI has worked with the Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform (CCER) – a coalition of 60 nongovernmental organizations. The founding partners of the CCER – the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE), the Lebanese Center for Policy Study (LCPS) and the Lebanese Transparency Association (LTA) – launched the civil campaign in June 2006.

Since then, the coalition has proposed numerous administrative reforms to the electoral law, such as lowering the voting age to 18, creating an independent electoral commission, encouraging fairer media coverage, tightening campaign finance regulations, a proportional representation system, a requirement that candidate lists include at least 30 percent women, and official printed ballots. (Lebanese do not use government printed ballots. Voters write the names of their chosen candidates on a piece of paper. They can also use ballots printed by party agents). The law included the following reforms: campaign finance reform, media regulations, and holding the election on one day.

Over the past two years, the CCER has held town hall meetings across Lebanon that were attended by more than 5,000 citizens and focused on the need for electoral reform. Participants have been encouraged to draft letters to their Members of Parliament (MP) in hopes that enough civic demand would impel MPs to discuss the issue in the legislature. The CCER has also launched an extensive media campaign to promote the issue.

Pictured above: Ayman Mhanna, a resident senior program assistant for NDI in Lebanon.

How has the electoral reform campaign been received by Members of Parliament?

As the legislation was being drafted, a representative of the CCER sat within the Justice and Administration Committee in the parliament to provide technical assistance on the prospective reforms. After the law was adopted on Sept. 27, 2008, the coalition appointed a representative of the CCER to a permanent office within the Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for administering the elections, to continue to provide guidance on carrying out the reforms.
One of the NGOs within the CCER, the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE), has been a longtime NDI partner. Can you share a bit about NDI’s history with this group?

NDI has worked with LADE for almost 14 years, providing assistance to implement the most innovative methods in election observation. The organization was originally formed in 1995 when a group of civil society activists expressed interest in launching an election observation mission for the 1996 parliamentary elections.

NDI has since assisted LADE in observing the past five major elections in Lebanon. The organization has become the largest and most credible domestic election observation group in the Arab world.
How has NDI assisted LADE in its preparations for the parliamentary election observation?
NDI is helping LADE develop a publicly accessible online portal that will be launched in April (www.observe.ladeleb.org). The portal will allow people to download election day information as well as voter education materials produced by civil society organizations and the Ministry of the Interior.

The portal will also include an innovative mapping system that will allow citizens to locate both their polling stations and local LADE offices. After election day, the portal will feature election results broken down by villages and districts.

Another innovative component of the portal is an extranet that will link the 3,000 observers to training and election day schedules, maps and a guide to the various districts. An online discussion forum will also be available for observers to share their experiences and any difficulties anticipated.

For the first time in Lebanon, LADE observers will use mobile phone observation technologies to report violations and observation findings. Their reports will be available on the online portal.

NDI has also provided technical assistance to the “Lebanese Parliamentary Monitor,” a website where citizens can access detailed profiles of their MPs and what they have, or have not, accomplished in office. The site helps citizens develop informed opinions about their MPs and whether they want to re-elect them based on their public policy record.

In addition, NDI is working with Nahar al-Shabab, an NGO hosted by An-Nahar, Lebanon’s best-selling daily newspaper, and IT Lebanon, an NGO comprised of technology experts active in e-democracy projects, to develop the very first Vote Match website in the region. Citizens will answer questions on political and policy-related issues on www.votematchlb.com and the website will calculate how close their answers are to the positions of 46 Lebanese political parties on the same questions. This will allow citizens to find which parties best represent their stances.

Lebanon is a highly politicized society with the vast majority of citizens closely following what’s happening on the election front. While most of the major political parties already have websites, LADE’s portal, the “Parliamentary Monitor” and the Vote Match website offer something that is not yet available – an objective source of voter information with explanations on the electoral process from a nonpartisan point of few.

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Published on March 31, 2009