Pakistan’s political parties are increasingly turning to social media to engage with the public on policy issues. Party activists from across the political spectrum produce original online content about pressing citizen concerns, using public opinion research to inform social media strategy and deploying new messaging and communication techniques to interact more effectively with citizens. Parties use these tools to develop more responsive policy proposals and create space for conversation and two-way exchange between citizens and party leaders.

Through its Innovation Network (Red Innovación) regional program, NDI is taking advantage of the impact and reach of new technologies to allow for the exchange of best practices between civil society and government across Latin America. From January 11 to 13, Red Innovación brought a group of 10 political leaders from 10 countries across the region together with Chilean politicians.

On November 29th, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) co-hosted a bipartisan event to explore the challenges to international democracy and U.S. foreign policy. Entitled a Bipartisan Celebration of Democracy, the discussion was particularly well-timed in the wake of one of the most divisive U.S. elections in recent memory, and with forces pushing back against democracy around the world.

Elections in the United States are unique -- not only due to the decentralized election framework and history of campaigning, but also for the impact that presidential results in particular have around the world. This year Americans cast their votes for 469 members of Congress and 6,064 state-level elected leaders, in addition to dozens of ballot measures in individual states.

“This battle will liberate us; we want to be involved in the decision making process. Women will not continue to be used as fillers,” declared Socorro Torres, coordinator of the Honduras Interparty Women’s Network (Red de Mujeres Interpartidarias de Honduras, or the Network). Torres’s comments were in response to the historic ratification of a pact between members of Honduras’s leading political parties, affirming women’s equality in political participation.

Tensions one day before Zambia’s August 11 elections are high. As incidents of violence perpetrated by political party cadres against other parties increased, young party activists – typically blamed for the violence – worked across parties to publicly disavow the violence. After an NDI training on conflict mitigation, youth leaders organized a series of public events and marches to call for ending the violence.

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) mourns the passing of Abner Mikva, who served his country in all three branches of government -- as a Congressman from the Chicago area, as chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and as White House counsel under President Clinton. "Ab Mikva represented my hometown in Illinois," said NDI President Kenneth Wollack.