About NED:

The National Endowment for Democracy is a private, bipartisan foundation that works to strengthen democratic institutions worldwide. Since 1983, with support from the American people, NED has made thousands of grants to democratic nongovernmental groups in more than 100 countries, and has become a hub of activity, resources and intellectual exchange for activists, practitioners and scholars of democracy the world over.

NED Grants

NED Events

Journal of Democracy

International Forum for Democratic Studies

Fellowship Programs

Democracy Resource Center

World Movement for Democracy

Democracy Digest

Employment

North Korean grantees committed to freedom of information
No matter how hard the North Korean regime attempts to stop the free flow of information into and out of the country, recent North Korean refugees testify that more people inside the country are listening to foreign radio broadcasts and accessing non-North Korean media. Much of this is possible now because of dedicated grassroots NGOs and civil society organizations based in South Korea, particularly those formed and run by North Korean defectors. [read more]

2009 White Paper on North Korean Human Rights
NED, together with the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, sponsored a seminar discussing the findings of the 2009 Annual White Paper published by the North Korean Human Rights Archive. The White Paper provides systematically researched and analyzed data on human rights violations in North Korea and is distributed through the North Korean Human Rights Database Center (NKDB), a NED grantee. The event featured speakers from NKDB, Human Rights Watch, and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. [read more / download the white paper]

Nathan Glazer to deliver Sixth Annual Lipset Lecture
Democracy and Diversity: Dealing with Deep Divides will be the topic addressed by Harvard Professor Emeritus Nathan Glazer when he delivers the Sixth Annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World, which will be held at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, DC on November 4. [read more]

Middle Eastern Democrats and their Vision of the Future
Leading democratic voices from the Middle East will have an opportunity to discuss the future of democratic reform in their region at a half-day conference in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, November 18. Several prominent politicians, parliamentarians, and government ministers from Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, and Morocco will be joined by leading Washington analysts,  members of Congress, and the administration to discuss the prospects and challenges of a democratic future for the region. [read more] 

CIPE convenes conference on "Democracy That Delivers"
The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) held an international conference on October 27 titled Democracy That Delivers, which focused on improving the quality of democratic governance and economic growth and featured renowned democracy scholars and practitioners. [read more]

From the Margins to the Center: Women and Democracy in the Middle East
In cooperation with the Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP), NED hosted a panel discussion focusing on how women in the Middle East are working to change public opinion, laws, and policies in order to build democratic and inclusive societies. The meeting featured activists from campaigns for justice in Iran, Jordan, Morocco, and Bahrain, who shared their challenges and successes in demanding equal rights as citizens – in the family and in society. The event also included the US launch of a new book, Iranian Women’s One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality: The Inside Story. [read more / watch this event]

Democracy, Totalitarianism and the Culture of Freedom:
A memorial symposium honoring the life and work of Leszek Kolakowski
On October 15, NED and the Embassy of Poland hosted a symposium on the legacy of Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski, the thinker who, more profoundly than any intellectual since George Orwell, explained the origins and deformities of communist totalitarianism and the threat it posed to human freedom. Zbigniew Brzeskinski moderated a discussion featuring Richard Pipes, George Weigel, Abbas Milani, and Nadia Diuk. [read more]

Legislative Power in Emerging African Democracies
In an event held on October 15, Joel D. Barkan discussed his new book, Legislative Power in Emerging African Democracy, which compares the development of national legislatures in six African countries. Peter M. Lewis (Johns Hopkins University) and Stephen N. Ndegwa (World Bank) provided comments. [watch this event]

Interethnic Chinese conference seeks understanding and cooperation
NED Grantee Initiatives for China convened the Fifth Interethnic/Interfaith Leadership Conference October 8-10 at Trinity University in Washington, DC. Advancing the Quest for Understanding and Cooperation was the topic considered by a broad array of Chinese participants including Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Christians, Falun Gong Practitioners, Muslims, as well as delegates from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao, and Mainland China. NED Deputy to the President for Policy & Strategy Barbara Haig was the conference keynote speaker. [read more]

NDRI conference on “Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy” convened in Bratislava, Slovakia
The International Forum for Democratic Studies (IFDS), the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University, and the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO, Slovakia) recently convened a conference of the National Democracy Research Institutes (NDRI) on “Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy.” [read the conference report]

NED welcomes new Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows
The new class of Fellows includes leading democratic activists, journalists, and scholars from Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Russia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, South Korea, Syria, and the United States. [read more]

• October 28 - Increasing Transparency in Governance in the Arab World
  
  
• October 27 - Digital Media in Conflict-Prone Societies

• October 21 - Media Literacy: Helping to Educate the Public in a Rapidly Changing World
  
  
• October 20 - Declining Media Freedom in the South Caucasus
  
  
• October 14 - Freedom of Expression in the Americas: Restricted Media in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua

• On September 28, the Guinea military junta open fired on a pro-democracy rally and killed at least 157 people. Dozens of women were raped in the violence that followed.“They are afraid to talk,” said Mamadi Kaba, president of the African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights (RADDHO). “They are afraid to give any information [about the events of September 28].” More recently, the military junta has arrested dozens of leading pro-democracy activists, including former NED grantee attorney Thierno Baldé, head of the Research Institute on Democracy and Rule of Law. [read more]
  
  
• Nnimmo Bassey, who heads NED Nigerian grantee Environmental Rights Action, was named one of TIME Magazine’s “Heroes of the Environment 2009.” [read more]
  
  
• The new Human Rights in China (HRIC) YouTube Channel shares HRIC-produced videos and playlists of videos on human rights issues related to China. [read more]
  
  
• NED grantees Roya and Ladan Boroumand recently received this year’s Lech Walesa Award, along with Shadi Sadr, a fellow Iranian human rights activist, for promoting human rights and democracy in Iran. [read more]
  

The October 2009 issue of the Journal of Democracy includes a special section, Iraq in Ferment, that looks at the turmoil in Iran following the disputed presidential election in June. Free articles online include The Green Wave by Ali Afshari and H. Graham Underwood, Cracks in the Regime by Abbas Milani, and Civil Society's Choice by Ladan Boroumand. [see the full table of contents]


Democracy: A Reader is the newest title in the Journal of Democracy book series. In this new book, contributing writers address the questions: What exactly is democracy, and what sustains it? What institutions are best suited to a democratic system? Can elections produce undemocratic outcomes? Is democracy a universal value? [read more]

New Reports:

• Experimentation and Evolution in Private U.S. Funding of Media Development by Anne Nelson
  
  
• Digital Media in Conflict-Prone Societies by Ivan Sigal
  
  
• Media Literacy Series: Understanding the News and Citizen Journalists by Susan D. Moeller and Empowering Youth Worldwide by Paul Mihailidis