News

Kabul, Afghanistan – Democracy International implores the security forces of Afghanistan to direct resources to the protection of candidates and their supporters.

At this critical juncture of the country’s political development there can be no greater security task than providing a safe environment in which to hold this election. This government should take the opportunity to show that it has the ability to protect candidates and their supporters from enemies of a democratic Afghanistan.

On September 18, 2010 more than 2,500 candidates will contest 249 seats in the Afghan parliament, the Wolesi Jirga.

At least three candidates and five campaign workers have been killed in this year’s election campaign so far.

Further details after the break. Read more »

Last week, DI Principal Glenn Cowan spoke to Maria Abi-Habib of the Wall Street Journal about next month’s parliamentary elections in Afghanistan. Read a copy of the article after the jump. Read more »

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded Democracy International, along with four other organizations, a five-year Indefinite Quantity Contract with a combined ceiling of $75 million to support the Agency’s democracy and governance work worldwide.

Democracy International (DI) will support USAID’s central bureaus, field missions, regional bureaus, and other USG agencies around the world by conducting democracy and governance assessments and evaluations in specific countries, designing democracy and governance programs and strategies, and carrying out applied research and writing projects. The evaluations cover the full scope of USAID’s programs in democracy and governance and will inform the design and implementation of USAID-funded democracy and governance strategies and programs. Such services will ensure that USAID’s democracy and governance strategies, programs and activities, and monitoring and evaluation plans are based on in-depth and well-informed analysis, cutting-edge research, valid data, and best practices in the field of democracy and governance.

DI’s approach focuses on bringing innovative ideas and fresh perspectives of practitioners and opinion researchers to the new challenges of effective impact evaluation, use of technology, security sector reform, and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. DI’s team includes The Carter Center, Charney Research, Chemonics International, Global Business Solutions, and Planning and Learning Technologies (Pal-Tech).

The launch of Democracy International’s new Djibouti Elections and Political Processes project was covered on the front page of La Nation, Djibouti’s largest daily newspaper. The article reports that the project, launched jointly by the U.S. and Djiboutian governments, is  ”like no other” and “a first in Djibouti”. 

Read the full English translation after the break. Read more »

DI’s new Djibouti Elections and Political Processes project was officially launched on Monday July 19, 2010 at the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti. In preparation for the spring 2011 Presidential and Regional Council elections, this $2.2 million dollar project will focus on five strategic areas:

• building electoral management;
• conducting voter education and participation; 
• supporting the Electoral Commission (la Commission Electorale Nationale Independante –CENI) in its role to oversee the electoral process; 
• enhancing political dialogue among electoral contestants and strengthening political parties; and
• deploying international observers before, during and after the elections.

The project goals are based on the objectives included in a bi-lateral assistance agreement signed in September, 2009 between the United States Government and the Republic of  Djibouti that includes promotion of democracy and good governance. Read the more about the launch event after the jump. Read more »

DI has published its unofficial translation of Afghanistan’s new Electoral Law.

On February 17, with Afghanistan’s National Assembly in recess, President Hamid Karzai issued an Article 79 presidential decree amending the Electoral Law of Afghanistan. According to Article 79, in the event of an emergency, the President of Afghanistan is permitted to issue decrees amending laws. It also affords the National Assembly the opportunity to reject these decrees. Afghanistan’s lower house of the National Assembly, the Wolesi Jirga, took just that action with a majority of members voting to reject the Article 79 decree. For Article 79 decrees to be nullified, however, both houses of parliament must reject them. Afghanistan’s upper house, the Meshrano Jirga, chose not to include the Article 79 decree in its working agenda. It is now widely acknowledged that the Article 79 Electoral Law decree forms the framework by which Wolesi Jirga elections will be held on September 18, 2010.

DI’s Electoral Law translation is available for download here.

DI recently submitted its final report to USAID evaluating the second phase of the Government Accountability Program (GAP2) in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The GAP2 program was designed to improve the ability of municipalities to better serve their Bosnian citizens, including the construction of citizen service centers, provision of small infrastructure grants, formation of capital improvement planning committees, financial software for budget management, and support for indirect taxation revenue sharing. Led by Senior Adviser Chuck Costello, DI has provided recommendations on how future GAP2 activities could be altered to focus more heavily on supporting the provision of the municipal services that matter most to Bosnian citizens and bolstering the fiscal authority of municipalities so as to ensure the long-term viability of democratic local governance in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Dr. Yemile Mizrahi, a DI consultant, recently gave a presentation to representatives from the USAID Bureaus for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) describing the findings of DI’s recent Democracy and Governance Assessment in Panama that piloted the new assessment framework developed by USAID’s Office of Democracy and Governance. The team was tasked with assessing the political environment in Panama and developing recommendations for USAID programs to address the major barriers to the consolidation of Panamanian democracy. DI’s team interviewed Panamanian government officials and politicians, political parties, lawyers, judges, academics, local officials, civil society actors, and journalists in order to identify the main challenges to further democratization in Panama.