Latin America and Caribbean Program Highlights 2010

The Endowment addressed these varied challenges and opportunities in 2010. In Cuba, NED focused on fostering civil society development; providing humanitarian assistance to dissidents and democratic activists; breaking the information blockade; and raising international awareness about the state of human rights.

In Haiti, NED-supported programs centered on strengthening civil society in rural and conflict-ridden areas, and on increasing civil society’s capacity to interact with the state, build networks and advocate for improved development. In response to the crisis set off by the January 2010 earthquake, NED grantees helped citizens access aid, organized recently-displaced Haitians, and served as interlocutors between the population and the government.

In the Andean Region, NED awarded grants in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela to organizations working to reduce political and ethnic polarization; encourage citizen participation; strengthen local governments to improve performance, accountability and good governance; promote democratic values and the renewal of democratic leadership; provide objective and pluralistic information on key reform efforts; bolster citizen oversight of public institutions; defend journalists and freedom of expression; and empower women, youth, indigenous communities and other traditionally-excluded sectors.

In Mexico, NED-assisted programs focused on sub-national levels of government in the more impoverished central and southern states. Programs also supported reforms to deliver democratic and socioeconomic benefits in an accountable fashion, and worked to empower traditionally marginalized sectors, such as indigenous peoples and women. At the national level, NED-funded programs promoted public security and freedom of expression. In Nicaragua, NED awarded grants to encourage citizen participation and good governance at the local level, as well as to promote civic education and sustain civil society organizations and independent media.

In Guatemala, NED-supported organizations worked to provide citizen oversight of government-sponsored social programs; increase the political participation of indigenous populations and women; and to facilitate citizen involvement in local governments. NED-supported programs in Honduras promoted dialogue about the need for civilian control of Honduras’ armed forces and strengthened citizen oversight of the National Congress.

In the Southern Cone, NED awarded grants in Argentina to consolidate civil society and improve citizen participation at the sub-national level, and to strengthen checks and balances at the provincial and national levels. In Paraguay, NED-supported programs encouraged citizen participation; worked on improving government administration; and promoted the development of the country’s nascent civil society.

The Endowment also awarded grants to carry out regional programs. These covered a variety of issue areas, such as training in human rights law and effectively leveraging the Inter- American System of Human Rights. Programs also addressed strengthening the oversight capacity of civil society in civil-military relations, defense and security; defining a democratic social agenda to address inequality and poverty; and improving accountability and transparency in conditional cash transfer programs. Other programs focused on enforcing the right to identity for underrepresented populations; providing a civil society voice in regional forums such as the OAS and the Summit of the Americas; and training for emerging political leaders. 

These highlights were written for the 2010 Annual Report, published in August 2011.