Democracy Matters
Parliaments can develop four focused work streams to reduce corruption: enact legislation, establish codes of conduct, conducting effective oversight, and forming relationships with indepdendent oversight institutions.
In April 2019, WFD launched a new and innovative activity and outcome monitoring system called the Evidence and Impact Hub. We can report very good uptake and a large amount of usable data in our 8th month after launching it.
International Human Rights Day on Tuesday 10 December is an occasion to underline that human rights are core components of democracy as a concept and as a practice, writes our senior human rights adviser Dina Melhem.
Our director of research and evaluation, Graeme Ramshaw, outlines how WFD is trying to walk the walk when it comes to prioritising cross-organisational learning and drawing lessons from and reflecting on our programming.
Institutions of governance have a fundamental role in bringing an end to gender-based violence, writes WFD’s senior gender and politics adviser Shannon O’Connell: but to achieve transformative change, those working in formal political and public institutions need to ask challenging, probing questions.
WFD’s Chief Executive reflects on the importance of strong institutions and good leadership in strenthening democracy in the decades since 1989 and today.
Governance and oversight of the democracy- and governance-support sector relies heavily on reporting, specifically reporting in a narrative format. However, that type of reporting, which for some parts of the sector have come to be largely synonymous with “monitoring”, is only useful for certain purposes and is limiting for a variety of reasons. How is WFD tackling the challenge?
WFD’s Senior Governance Advisor, Franklin de Vrieze, explains the importance of assessing the implementation, impact and unintended effects of legislation for the protection and promotion of human rights in Indonesia. “Public expectations of parliaments’ legislative success have evolved substantially, from getting laws on the statute book to ensuring that laws are brought into effect and […]
WFD’s Director of Research and Evaluation Graeme Ramshaw explores how in governance, looking at how and why things happen can be just as important as the end result. After several months immersed in content on politics and development, thinking and working politically (TWP), and adaptive management, my mind is awash with ‘wicked problems’, intractable […]
WFD’s Chief Executive, Anthony Smith, responds to Democracy Under Pressure: A Global Survey – a joint product from the International Republican Institute (IRI) and french think-tank, the Fondation pour l’Innovation. Understanding the political context in which international democracy support takes place is vital to ensure the right issues, including participation, oversight and transparency are […]
Dr Susan Dodsworth and Professor Nic Cheeseman Across the world activists are working hard to get more women in politics. Their degree of success has varied. In Kenya, for example, women now make up almost 22% of the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. This represents a significant improvement compared to 2010, when women […]
