To inform the work of the second phase of the Global Equality Project (GEP II), implemented in partnership with Kaleidoscope Trust, this report explores the impact of Covid-19 on LGBT+ activists in Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. As the most impactful global health disaster the world has faced since World War II, the research aimed to assess the extraordinary impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable LGBT+ individuals. The countries were selected to comparatively illustrate cases in Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia due to their distinct social, cultural, and legislative contexts.

This report from examines the extent to which legislatures protect the environment, by conducting a study of single-use plastic bans in 32 countries.

Women’s participation and representation in decision-making is increasing globally but those numbers are driven by mostly left-wing parties. Despite some improvements in the last years, the women’s underrepresentation in the right-wing parties in Albania remains a concern.

On 15 October 2022, WFD organised a discussion forum on the inclusion of women in electoral lists in the DRC, alongside key national CSO’s. The forum looked at the key barriers to women's political participation and leadership in the country. Recommendations on what should be done to promote more women political leadership were provided in the forum; below is the full report of the conference-debate in English.

Starting from 2019, WFD’s Western Balkans regional office has been working on developing a comprehensive index of transparency of political parties. Together with a group of regional experts, WFD has continued its work in the course of 2020 in order to develop the Political Party Transparency Index (PPTI). The index consists of 67 individual indicators which are placed in three connected pillars: Internal party democracy (IPD), financial transparency and public outreach. During 2021, the PPTI was applied for the first time in partnership with 23 political parties from the Western Balkan (WB) region.

Healthcare advocacy is important to ensure equal access to qualitative care for the vulnerable population, increase the use of the referral system, address health inequities, influence decision-makers, and create systematic change for a healthier population.

Green budgeting is a novel concept not only for Albania but also for other much developed countries. Green Budgeting consists of tools and instruments of budgetary policy-making to help achieve environmental and climate goals. Similar practices in Albania that have achieved some positive results include the Gender Budgeting.

Following the previous reports on “Monitoring the Health State Budget in Albania” WFD office in Albania has supported Together for Life to continue the health budget monitoring for the period September 2021-April 2022.

As part of the initiative package “CSOs in Decision-Making”, WFD aims to strengthen the participation and advocacy efforts of civil society in decision-making through evidence-based approach, which is crucial to advance accountability and resilient institutions.

This policy brief focuses on how an increased strategic foresight and stress-testing capacity of national parliaments and governments can improve policy resilience.

Following the Conference on Environmental Democracy, WFD commissioned research from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, which explores how a greater focus on environmental democracy and governance may help address climate change and environmental degradation. The study with recommendations for policymakers is available here.

Albania is significantly vulnerable to climate change. The government has taken several initiatives to address climate change in the mid to long-term, such as the approval of the Action Plan of the National Strategy on Climate Change (NSCC) 2020-2030, the Climate Change Law (2020), the implementation of adaptation programs etc.

On 16 May 2022, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy presented the findings from its latest study on socio-political participation of young people in North Macedonia. The findings show that half of young people (51%) take initiative to solve certain social problems, but only one third manage to often solve the problems they engaged with. One third of the respondents (34%) believe the country is farther from the EU perspective compared to last year. Almost half of respondents (45%) believe the country will become an EU member state, which is a drop of 15% compared to 2019. Half of young people (57%) rarely or never follow political events and developments in the country. Young people with disabilities are facing greater challenges in increasing their participation compared to the general youth population.

Modern parliaments are increasingly questioning not only whether they should perform oversight over the executive, but how they should do so. As parliaments continue to be responsible for monitoring whether the laws they have passed are implemented as intended and lead to the desired impact, Post-Legislative Scrutiny (PLS) is increasingly recognized as an important dimension within the oversight role and the legislative role of parliaments and as an integral part of entire legislative cycle. Therefore, PLS could be considered as a new practice of monitoring the implementation and evaluating the impact of laws. PLS also ensures that laws benefit citizens in the way originally intended by lawmakers.

This inaugural initiative served to build capacity in Malaysian legislators to develop a deeper understanding of gender mainstreaming and gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) through its application in a bottom-up approach within their constituency projects and programmes.

These policy briefs on the role of parliaments in debt transparency and debt sustainability explain parliamentary roles and good practices related to public debt.