News

Emma Armshaw, Head of SNP WFD Office The Arab Women Parliamentarians’ Network for Equality or Ra’edat is working with the Scottish National Party through its WFD funded work to improve gender equality. Ra’edat developed a regional policy paper calling for changes to political party structures in its 14 member countries in March 2018. On 14 October, the SNP WFD […]

WFD-Uganda partnered with the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs (UPFYA), Uganda Youth Network, Restless Development, Faraja Africa, ActionAid and Plan Uganda to convene the first ever “Youth Moot Parliamentary Session” in August. Over 300 young people from across Uganda debated important issues affecting their lives and submitted the top priorities in a petition to […]

The theme for International Day of Democracy this year – Democracy under Strain: Solutions for a changing world – has been relevant for at least ten years and won’t disappear any time soon. We see it on a regular basis as growing inequality fuels a feeling of unfairness and elected autocrats generate a feeling of hopelessness. […]

Following the London Western Balkans Summit, WFD will expand its presence to Albania as we launch a new programme to improve democratic culture in the region with support from the UK Government. WFD has been active in the Western Balkans since the early 2000s, when it led efforts to stabilise the region’s political institutions in […]

On 10 July 2018, the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies of the University of London and WFD co-organised an Academic Seminar bringing together 170 delegates from 40 countries to discuss Post-Legislative Scrutiny. The Seminar launched a draft London Declaration on Post-Legislative Scrutiny. This aims at galvanising action in national parliaments around the world, based on […]

By Devin O’Shaughnessy, WFD Director of Programmes On 18-20 June, WFD supported a conference on populism in partnership with International IDEA, Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, OSCE/ODIHR and REPRESENT. The event, held in the Belgian Senate, saw leaders from politics, civil society and academia from across the world gather to shape a “Global Agenda for the Renewal of Representation”, a […]

On 18-20 June, representatives of Commonwealth parliaments met at Wilton Park to review and update the 2006 Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Benchmarks on Democratic Legislatures. Read the benchmarks The meeting, organised by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) under the Commonwealth Partnership for Democracy (CP4D), brought together representatives from the Maltese, […]

New Chairman of Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), Richard Graham MP, says time for democracies to see off both new and traditional threats to accountability Following his first official engagement, meeting the Speaker of the Parliament of Albania on 29 May, Richard Graham MP said “in these divisive times the temptations of autocracy to government as […]

WFD will implement a £4 million programme to build trust in democratic institutions and support the political engagement of minorities and vulnerable groups in 18 developing countries across the Commonwealth. The programme, funded by the UK Government as Chair of the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting (CHOGM), was announced by Foreign Secretary Rt. Hon Boris […]