WFD recognises that building the cornerstones of democracy takes time, particularly in war-torn societies or those emerging from an authoritarian regime. So we have moved away from a tradition of supporting single projects to a new approach of developing wider and deeper programmes in fewer countries, where we have set specific objectives and work to achieve them over time.
The Foundation is uniquely placed to draw directly on the expertise and involvement of all the Westminster political parties and works both on a party-to-party and cross-party basis to develop the capacity of local political parties and politicians to operate effectively in pluralistic and peaceful democracies. WFD has current cross-party political programmes in: Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh.
The Foundation’s parliamentary strengthening work focuses on improving governance through developing sustainable capacity among parliamentarians, parliamentary staff and parliamentary structures to ensure transparency and accountability. WFD has current parliamentary strengthening programmes in: Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Georgia, Macedonia, Ukraine, Egypt, Lebanon.These include programmes managed by The Westminster Consortium for Parliaments and Democracy (TWC), which is led by WFD, and funded by the DfID Governance and Transparency Fund (GTF).