Latest activity
News, commentary, and stories from WFD
Image
Filter
Graeme Ramshaw, WFD’s Director of Research and Evaluation, participated in the European Partnership for Democracy launch event of the World Development Report 2017 in Brussels last week. Here are his takeaways on what this means for democracy support.
For a democracy to function properly, it needs a well-informed electorate. In an era of social media and so-called fake news, now more than ever, people need trusted sources of news and information.
May 2017 saw the arrival in Kyiv of over 300 people from 52 countries interested in parliamentary openness. The Global Legislative Openness Conference was a two-day event, hosted by the Ukrainian Parliament and organised by the Legislative Openness Working Group of the Open Government Partnership and the Open Parliament Initiative in Ukraine. WFD participated through its senior staff from the UK, Sri Lanka and Serbia, and by supporting the presence of parliamentary delegations from Uganda, Kenya, Montenegro, Jordan, Morocco,Ghana and Venezuela.
Corruption is a significant and persistent challenge in Iraq. Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index puts Iraq 166th out of 175 countries, indicating a huge need to improve public sector financial management and tackle corruption.
Demographic data is essential for effective, responsive and evidence-based legislation.
Between October 2016 and March 2017, Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), in partnership with the Federation of Sri Lanka Local Government Association (FSLGA) organised five workshops targeted at potential cross-party women candidates.
One of parliaments’ key roles is to make laws which meet the needs of a country’s citizens.
To ensure the programme delivers local government in line with citizens’ expectations and as outlined in the 2008 constitution, the team conducted a scoping visit to two States and two Regions earlier this year to determine how WFD can support the respective Hluttaws as they too develop their institutional capacity.
In March 2017, Westminster Foundation for Democracy’s programme Supporting the Capacity and Accountability of the Lao Parliament, offered a delegation from the National Assembly the opportunity to exchange ideas on how different jurisdictions approach the rights of citizens and legislation through a study visit to the UK.
Kashif Mahmood Tariq, a former legislative drafter from Pakistan participated in a WFD organised placement in October 2016. Following his placement he argued that effective legislation needs a solid understanding of society.
Local self-government systems are intended to bring power and decision-making closer to citizens and communities. As in many other post-Soviet countries, the Kyrgyz systems of local self-government have existed since independence in various forms.
Since May 2016, WFD organised training, panel discussions and mentoring on the best methods to engage with parliament. The most recent session tackled the skills needed to plan, research and write a policy paper and present the findings to the parliament.
In Uganda, half of the battle in protecting women from discrimination is ensuring they know what their rights. WFD’s work in Uganda centered around building the capacity of civil society organisations to ensure that laws designed to protect women were actually implemented at the local level.
On 26 January 2017, Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the House of Councillors of the Moroccan Parliament during a conference on climate change legislation.