New Chair and Six New Members for IDEA’s Board of Directors
- Ms Lena Hjelm-Wallén, former Swedish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, was elected Chair of IDEA’s Board of Directors by the institute’s Council at its meeting on 25 June. Other new Board members are:
- Dr Brigalia Bam, Chair of the South African Independent Electoral Commission and former General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches;
- Mr Jermyn Brooks, Member of the Board of Directors of Transparency International and former Global Managing Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers;
- Ms Lourdes Flores Nano, President of Alianza Electoral Unidad Nacional and Peruvian Presidential candidate in 2001;
- Mr Harri Holkeri, former Prime Minister of Finland and President of the 55th General Assembly of the UN;
- Dr Subhash Kashyap, former Secretary-General of the Lower House of Indian Parliament and Constitutional Adviser to the Indian Government; and
- Ms Kaci Kullmann Five, former Cabinet Minister and Chair of the Conservative Party of Norway.
At meetings on 22–25 June, IDEA’s Board and Council discussed the strategic direction of the institute’s programme of activity in 2004–06 and reached agreement on management and budgetary issues. The Netherlands has taken over as Chair of the Council, with Canada and Chile serving as Vice Chairs.
Drawing on the recent IDEA handbook: Reconciliation after Violent Conflict, a broad debate was held on reconciliation, which included a presentation by Ms Mónica Jiménez de Barros (the Board’s outgoing Vice Chair). Read more
Strategies to Enhance the Political Participation of Women in Indonesia
International IDEA raised awareness of strategies to enhance the political participation of women in Indonesia at a conference on 26 June 2003 in Jakarta, held in coordination with the Centre for Electoral Reform (CERTRO). The conference aimed to identify and develop the strategies of political parties to improve opportunities for women to participate actively in politics at all levels and in all geographic areas. It also assessed the role of civil society groups, academics and the media in promoting women to powerful political positions. Read more
Capacity Building of Local Democracy Leadership in South Africa
In cooperation with the African Union of Local Authorities (AULA), International IDEA is developing a capacity-building programme for local governments in Southern Africa. Entitled ‘Leadership for Local Democracy’, the programme aims to provide local authorities with the tools to identify the challenges facing, and the opportunities for, democratic governance, and to encourage and assist them in introducing and advancing participatory forms of government. A roundtable, involving major international and regional organizations, was held in Pretoria, South Africa, on 16–17 June, at which participants clarified the programme’s scope and contents and identified five cities in the region in which to carry out pilot tests. Read more
OTHER NEWS
IDEA Participates in Carter Center Conference on Financing Democracy in the Americas
The Conference, organized by the Carter Center’s Americas Program and its Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas, in collaboration with the Organization of American States (OAS), focused on the potentially damaging effects of unregulated or poorly regulated campaign financing. The council issued a collection of detailed recommendations for improving transparency and accountability in campaign funding and for strengthening regulatory powers. It also called for the adoption of the proposed ‘Principles on Political Financing’ and standards for tracking progress with implementation. More information on the conference can be found in the Carter Center News, Spring 2003, and in the Conference's Statement.
IDEA Continues its Work on Political Parties: Activities Initiated in Central and Latin America
In April, International IDEA, together with the Pro-Tempore Secretariat of the Rio Group, set up a working group tasked with producing a document on strengthening democratic institutions and political party systems. The report underscores the importance of consensus building and training political leaders, and encourages the adoption of political party laws oriented towards achieving greater financial transparency, internal democracy and equal opportunities. The document was well received by the 19 heads of state attending the 17th Rio Group Summit in Cusco, Peru, on 23–24 May.
An international seminar entitled ‘A Law for Inclusive, Democratic and Transparent Political Parties’ was held on 22–23 April in Lima, Peru. The aim of the meeting was to present the political party law project promoted by IDEA and Transparencia, a local non-governmental organisation (NGO), and to strengthen the commitment of political leaders to the initiative. The seminar, involving more than 400 people, including Peru’s main political and social leaders, as well as party militants, academics and students, marked the first open, public discussion of the project.
At a meeting in Copan, Honduras, on 27–28 May, representatives of IDEA, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organization of American States (OAS) agreed to conduct a study of party systems and political parties in Central America. The study will take place within the framework of the Inter-American Forum of Political Parties. Read more
Kathmandu Workshop on State of Democracy in South Asia
The inaugural workshop of the ‘State of Democracy in South Asia’ project, organised by the New Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), was held in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 13-15 June. International IDEA was represented by Leena Rikkilä and Patrick Molutsi, who presented the institute’s democracy assessment framework. In collaboration with a network of institutions and scholars from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the CSDS plans to launch a 2.5-year-long research programme examining the state of democracy in South Asia. The proposed project will be based on two of IDEA’s methodological approaches. The project team plans to utilise the State of Democracy Assessment framework, which has been piloted by IDEA in eight countries around the world and is now being employed independently in a number of states, such as Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Moreover, a key dimension of the project, apart from the opinion survey, is conducting dialogue with strategic actors in the field of democracy. The outcome of the project will be a public report designed to promote debate on democratic reforms in each of the five countries of the region. The full report or at least its summary will be translated into more than ten languages, including Bengali, Hindi, Nepalese, Sinhala, Tamil and Urdu. Read more
DID YOU KNOW?
- The Inter-American Development Bank and International IDEA released the Spanish version of Democracies in Development: Politics and Reform in Latin America [La Política Importa: Democracia y desarrollo en América Latina]. The English edition was released in 2002. The book offers a comparative analysis of democracy and other political developments in 18 Latin American states over the past two decades.
- On 23 June, International IDEA and the Confederation of Latin American Foundations [Confederación Iberoamericana de Fundaciones (CIF)] signed an agreement to cooperate in promoting democracy and good governance. Created in 1996 and presided over by H. R. H. Infante Carlos de Borbón of Spain, the CIF comprises more than 1,000 Latin American, Portuguese and Spanish foundations, including the Association of Spanish Foundations (AEF), the Confederation of Brazilian Foundations (CEBRAF), Fundación Social (Colombia), Telefónica, the Argentinean Federation of Foundations (FEDEFA) and the Fundaçao Luso-Africana (Portugal). The CIF supports projects in a variety of areas, ranging from democratic governance and education to culture, infrastructure and health. IDEA will join a new CIF working group on democratic governance and will be represented on the CIF’s Committee of Personalities. Read more
ELECTIONS ROUNDUP
June elections:
