New York, 17 July 2000 – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) today announced a new initiative to jointly promote good governance and strengthen democratic institutions around the world. The agreement was signed by NDI President Kenneth D. Wollack and UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown at UNDP Headquarters in New York.

Amat Al-Aleem Alsoswa was Yemen’s first minister for human rights and the first female cabinet member in the country’s history.

A two-day regional conference in Jordan, hosted by NDI, brought together civic leaders from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, West Bank/Gaza and Yemen to discuss innovative uses of information technology in election monitoring.