I have written a president’s message for the annual report every year since NED began its operations in 1984, and this one is my last. It has been an extraordinary 37 years during which the world has changed dramatically and repeatedly, as has NED.  First, there was the third wave of democratization, which peaked during NED’s early years, and the revolutions of 1989 that ended the Cold War.  It was a very hopeful time when many people thought that continued democratic progress was inexorable and that an institution like NED was no longer needed. Then came 9/11 and the return of history, followed by the resurgence of authoritarianism and the global crisis of liberal democracy. Suddenly democracy was under attack, and a political consensus formed in support of NED’s mission to aid people around the world who are fighting for democracy.

Though NED had a difficult beginning when it was a new and controversial idea, it is now an established and respected institution, filling a critical need with broad bipartisan support from the U.S. Congress. The benefits of stability, a larger budget, and rapid growth have brought their own challenges—as has the crisis of global democracy. NED has had to resist bureaucratization while staying flexible and able to quickly respond to rapidly changing events. It also has had to remain mission-focused, connected to frontline activists, and positioned at the cutting-edge of democracy struggles in a very dangerous world.

With its four core institute partners that draw upon the expertise of American political parties, business, and labor, NED is now a critical hub and support system for people everywhere who are fighting for fundamental rights and for systems of government that are lawful and accountable to the people. The NED family, as it is often called, is also at the forefront of a global association of democracy support organizations and multilateral agencies that it can leverage to complement and amplify its work. Through NED’s research, publishing, and fellowship activities, it has become an unparalleled center for democracy information, analysis, and learning. And at this time, when people working for democracy are under attack as never before, NED has prioritized the mobilization of political support for activists, journalists, and others who are fighting corruption and defending human and minority rights.

The challenge today is nothing less than to reverse the decline of democratic values and institutions. This will involve helping pivotal democratic transitions to succeed in countries like Sudan and Armenia; sustaining democracy activists who are resisting despotic governments; countering authoritarian sharp power in the information space; building greater cooperation and shared learning among groups working to aid democracy; strengthening liberal values against the rising tide of illiberalism and extremism; and helping democrats compete with authoritarians in the arena of technology. The NED cannot do this alone, but it can be a catalyst, a coalition builder, and a source of urgently needed practical support and moral solidarity.

NED is a U.S. institution with the mission of supporting democracy around the world. But there is a sense in which it is today also an institution for American democracy—not programmatically, but symbolically, and in the values it upholds. At a time of great political polarization in the United States, NED represents a common space based on shared democratic values. Its unique structure that includes institutes associated with Democratic and Republican parties, the labor movement, and the business community demonstrates that democracy can be a unifying principle in American life.  And its global democracy mission, which is embedded in national legislation, is a reminder of how deeply rooted the democratic idea is in American identity.

It has been an extraordinary privilege to have been able to lead and build such an organization for nearly four decades. I am confident that NED will continue to thrive for the simple reason that people everywhere want to have their voices heard and their dignity respected, and America needs to have a national institution that helps them realize these aspirations.  Democracy is a very difficult system to maintain because it requires finding the proper balance between rivalry and consensus, between the competition for power and the need for compromise, and between partisan differences and the common good. But it is the only system that can secure human freedom, and there is no higher calling than contributing to its development and defense. That’s the NED’s mission, and it’s more important now than ever before.

Carl Gershman

President’s Letter photo: NED president Carl Gershman, former Journal of Democracy coeditor Marc Plattner, and coeditor Larry Diamond celebrate the Journal’s 30th Anniversary in 2020.

Annual Report Cover photo: Regional Centre for Development and Training of Civil Society (RCDCS) president Dr. Mutaal Girshab and a student pose in front of photographs from the Sudanese revolution in Khartoum, Sudan. RCDCS was honored with a 2020 NED Democracy Award. 

Despite the disruption created by Covid-19 and political setbacks across the continent, NED increased its support to democratic activists in Africa during 2020. The pandemic led the government of Ethiopia to postpone national elections—precipitating a rise in ethnic conflict and a full-blown war in Tigray Province, throwing an historic opportunity for democratic transition off track. Yet NED continued to augment its program in Ethiopia, bolstering the tenuous democratic space afforded by Abiy Ahmed’s ascension to power in 2018, including assistance to human rights and media institutions.

NED made Sudan’s democratic breakthrough a priority for 2020. Civil society activists who helped lay the foundations for Sudan’s peaceful revolution received NED’s annual Democracy Award, which was bestowed virtually due to the pandemic, but still galvanized international recognition of the transition.  NED’s grantmaking also rose to meet the challenge with increased support to Sudanese groups providing leadership training and promoting legal reform and transitional justice.

Elections across Africa were a mixed bag in 2020. Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Tanzania, and Togo held elections that defied term limits or brutalized the political opposition to return incumbents to power, while Ghana and Burkina Faso held more credible processes that also returned the incumbents. Niger held a first round of elections in which the incumbent, President Mahamadou Issoufou, willingly stepped down in accordance with the constitution, the first democratic transfer in Niger’s history. Malawi was the happiest surprise of the year, where the court ordered a re-run of flawed elections, leading to the defeat of the incumbent and hopes for democratic reform. NED’s partners were engaged in every one of these struggles—mobilizing the participation of women and youth, monitoring the elections, preserving democratic space, and advocating for human rights. 

Police abuses in Nigeria sparked the massive #EndSARS movement that calls for reforms, and although it has since been suppressed, the momentum for greater accountability and respect for human rights continued. NED’s partners pushed back against government repression, pressed for greater inclusivity, and took to social media to popularize democratic values. 

Hopes for democratic reform in Zimbabwe were disappointed in the wake of the 2019 elections, but NED’s partners regrouped, calling out the massive corruption in the country even as its economy disintegrated. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, political developments opened the potential of renewed democratic reform as President Felix Tshisekedi attempted to break the hold of his kleptocratic predecessor, Joseph Kabila. The fight against kleptocracy emerged as a major theme of NED’s work in Africa, and the concerted efforts of groups such as the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) scored significant victories, starting to rein in some of the worst offenders.      

Africa Overview photo:  Befeqadu Hailu, the executive director of NED grantee Center for Advancement for Rights and Democracy, poses for a portrait on the roof of his office building in downtown Addis Ababa in February, 2020. 

Click here to explore more of NED’s work in Africa.

The global democratic recession arrived late in Asia, but hit hard when it did. Although many analysts believed that the region held many of the prerequisites to foster and sustain democracy—including an increasingly educated population, a growing middle class, urbanization, and relative peace—these conditions did not prove adequate to weather the global storm of economic dislocation, endemic corruption, illiberalism and terrorism, and the spread of misinformation. From Thailand to the Philippines and Bangladesh to Sri Lanka, elections have resulted in illiberal governments and a further backsliding of democracy. 

In 2020, NED worked with political parties, media organizations, business associations, civil society organizations, and unions to bolster democratic partners while attempting to re-establish democratic norms and values across Asia. NED continued to prioritize four countries that represent the biggest democratic challenges, or where a democratic breakthrough could have significant implications for the entire region: China—including Tibet, Hong Kong, and East Turkistan; North Korea in east Asia; Burma in southeast Asia; and Pakistan in south Asia.

In China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continued its brutal repression against the Uyghurs and Tibetans and the curtailing of rights in Hong Kong. North Korea remained the most closed country in the world. In Burma, civil society focused on the 2020 nationwide elections as Rohingya refugees sat in camps in Bangladesh, ethnic conflict continued, and anti-Muslim rhetoric spread throughout the country. In Pakistan, despite a peaceful transfer of power, the military maintained its paramount role in politics as it marginalized many democratic institutions throughout the country. 

NED grants also supported efforts to build democratic resilience and to create a more open environment for civil society and independent media across the region. In 2020, NED’s Asia program also partnered with efforts in other regions to expand networks and information among China experts and activists to address the negative impact of the CCP’s influence on democratic institutions and values around the world.

Asia Overview photo: Activists march from Victoria Park during a democracy march in Hong Kong on January 1, 2020. (Photo by ISAAC LAWRENCE/AFP via Getty Images)

Click here to explore more of NED’s work in Asia.

Thirty years after the collapse of the communist bloc, Europe’s transitions remain under threat. Now most countries of central, eastern and southeastern Europe are experiencing a democratic decline that began a decade ago. Rising polarization, pervasive corruption, and weakened rule of law point to the deterioration of democratic processes and political institutions.

Public dissatisfaction with the fairness, pace, and outcomes of the post-1989 changes and the high level of corruption contributed to the centralization of power by populists and nationalists, who have used legal means to undermine democratic values and freedoms. Russia and other authoritarian states exploit this situation and aim to increase political polarization and discontent through disinformation, corrosive capital, and other forms of malign influence. Governments and oligarchs now control most mass media, and in many cases, they have used the pandemic to increase pressure on civil society as economies suffer. Although people across Europe have previously demonstrated against abuses of power and rampant corruption, the pandemic forced people to stay home for most of 2020, making it harder to hold governments accountable.

In the midst of this global crisis, Belarus provided hope for change. Citizens braved both the pandemic and the regime’s brutal repression to flood the streets in unprecedented numbers following blatantly rigged presidential elections. Another hopeful development was the victory of a pro-Western and pro-reformist president in Moldova who has an ambitious anti-corruption agenda.

In all the countries in Europe where NED provides assistance—from Belarus to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and from Ukraine to Serbia—independent media and civil society play indispensable roles in providing objective information, fighting disinformation, and holding public officials and institutions accountable. In 2020, NED increased funding for civil society and independent media organizations that promote political accountability and good governance, including in the most vulnerable areas. NED continued to emphasize political and historical reconciliation programs that counter polarization and extremism, especially among youth in post-conflict countries. NED also expanded support for initiatives that analyze, spotlight, and counter foreign malign influence, particularly disinformation and corrosive capital.

Europe Overview photo: Belarus opposition supporters hold the former flag of Belarus during a demonstration in central Minsk on August 16, 2020. (Photo by SERGEI GAPON/AFP via Getty Images)

Click here to explore more of NED’s work in Central and Eastern Europe.

In 2020, the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region experienced the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic combined with ongoing economic deceleration and democratic fatigue. Governments across LAC have managed the health crisis with varying degrees of effectiveness and transparency, while the health crisis exacerbated pre-existing issues­­–such as weak governance and widespread inequalities. Massive demonstrations swept across the hemisphere in 2019 as citizens expressed dissatisfaction with elected populist leaders and lagging reforms, but the pandemic restrictions forced people home. 

Region-wide disenchantment with democracy affected consolidated, functional, and fragile democracies alike, and LAC still harbors three notoriously authoritarian regimes: Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Furthermore, fragile democracies, such as those of Central America’s Northern Triangle, continue to struggle with the combined challenges of drug trafficking, organized crime, deeply-embedded corruption, and emigration. Human rights defenders, journalists, and environmental activists face ongoing threats from hostile governments and criminal actors. While providing connectivity to urban and rural populations, the growing digital space in LAC has also followed the global trend of spreading disinformation and amplifying polarization. The region has also witnessed increased influence of outside players, such as Russia and China, that seek political and economic advantage. 

In 2020, NED’s LAC program provided critical support to advance democracy in the countries under the most authoritarian regimes. Two transitional countries, Ecuador and Bolivia, offered important opportunities to revert previous authoritarian legislation on freedom of expression and judicial independence, and to encourage citizen participation in electoral processes. In the Northern Triangle, NED expanded anti-corruption, digital media, and human rights programs. NED reaffirmed commitments to the largest countries of the region, Brazil and Mexico, that are currently facing the menaces of right- and left- wing populist governments, respectively. 

Through regional programs, NED addressed global challenges, such as the growing contamination of the digital information space, Russia and China’s influence, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on corruption practices. NED also supported human rights defenders and the rights of vulnerable minorities, while strengthening key democratic requirements such as free and fair elections and effective democratic governance.

 LAC Overview photo: NED grantee Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa(Foundation for Press Freedom), or FLIP, hosts a conversation on the risks journalists take during the pandemic in Quibdo, Colombia.

Click here to explore more of NED’s work in Latin America and Caribbean.

Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the pandemic exacerbated the economic stagnation and weak governance that fueled mass mobilizations in 2011 and in 2019. Some MENA countries exploited Covid-19 to further close civic space in already inhospitable environments. Declining oil prices affected both the region’s oil producers and countries that were beneficiaries of their investments. Political rivalries and regional conflicts were further complicated by escalating U.S.-Iran tensions. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the nascent democratic institutions that developed over the nearly two decades are more vulnerable due to weak governments and the potential drawdown of U.S. troops.

Despite these challenges, there are opportunities and potential openings for reforms. Tunisia continues to consolidate its democratic gains. Ongoing protests in Algeria forced President Bouteflika out of power after 20 years. Turkey witnessed surprising opposition victories in 2019 mayoral elections that represented a clear repudiation of President Erdogan’s authoritarian rule.

During 2020, NED grantmaking in the MENA region focused on safeguarding democratic progress in Iraq and Afghanistan, supporting Tunisia’s democratic transition, promoting regional cooperation to address cross-cutting trends, and enhancing support for countries that are less accessible or open to direct assistance, such as Algeria. To restore public confidence in democratic institutions, NED programs provided assistance to protect civic space, strengthen accountability and governance through independent media, and promote pluralism while including marginalized groups in policy and decision-making. NED also expanded programs in Afghanistan, Morocco, and Lebanon to respond to political opportunities and guard against further democratic backsliding.

In the region’s authoritarian states, NED expanded programming when possible, such as in Egypt, to protect and defend civic space and democracy advocates. In the more repressive authoritarian states, including Iran and the Gulf States, NED continued support for civic groups–mostly operating in exile–to promote accountability. In the region’s conflict countries, NED maintained a modest presence with the aim of contributing to post-conflict political transitions.

MENA Overview photo: NED grantee Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS) organizes a discussion about the latest issue of their women-led foreign policy journal, the first in Afghanistan. (Photo courtesy of DROPS)

Click here to explore more of NED’s work in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Rampant democratic backsliding, deteriorating revenue streams, and a global pandemic contributed to a perilous year for media outlets across the globe. Despite these challenges, the work of NED’s Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) remained vital in exploring ways for independent media to safely navigate this existential threat.

In January, CIMA launched Supporting Media at a Time of Crisis: Donors Explore New Strategies, which addressed the challenges and potential roles for private, bilateral, and multilateral donors in confronting the global crisis independent media. Knowledge gained from this report proved crucial moving forward, as the COVID-19 pandemic stripped formerly reliable revenue streams from independent media .

With the pandemic ravaging media ecosystems, regional collaboration has become essential to the survival of independent media outlets around the world. Based on the lessons learned from the fourth in its series of regional consultations, CIMA released Building Regional Strategies for Media Development in the Middle East and North Africa, which offers an overview of current challenges and priority areas for collective action in the Middle East and North Africa region. In addition to this convening of regional actors, CIMA also convened discussions with the international donor community and the US media development community on the added challenges facing independent media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants discussed how the donor and media development communities should support vulnerable media outlets in the Global South.

Throughout the year, CIMA’s research and events continued to stress a local, demand-driven approach to media development. To that end, the team organized a public webinar in June on Local News in Times of Crisis, convening NED experts, grantees, and others to discuss the ways news outlets adapt in challenging environments, the growing threat of “news deserts,” and how to support critical work on the ground. Similar obstacles and innovations were reflected in a report launched that month, Local Radio Stations in Africa: Sustainability or Pragmatic Viability?, which explored the types of flexible donor strategies needed to sustain local media in sub-Saharan Africa.

The ongoing crisis demanded innovative solutions to media sustainability. CIMA responded to this call with the report, Are Punchlines the New Front Lines of Media Development?, a vibrant look at the potential of satire media in promoting independent voices and more sustainable business models. The report featured NED grantees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kenya, Serbia, and Zimbabwe, among other case studies, and served as the basis for a virtual public event. The continued exploration of innovative development strategies led to the report, The Wisdom of the Crowd: Promoting Media Development through Deliberative Initiatives, which outlined a new set of citizen engagement practices with the potential to improve media assistance efforts and strengthen media environments around the globe.

To close out the year, CIMA collaborated with Project Syndicate to organize a panel discussion for UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Conference in December. Usually held in the spring, the virtual conference brought together foundational thinkers from various sectors to reflect on the role of journalism in these unprecedented times.

CIMA Overview photo: CIMA’s four part animated video series “Internet Governance and Journalism” covered topics such as “The Right to Be Forgotten.”  Watch the series on Youtube.  

The International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy is a leading center for research, discussion, innovation, and analysis on the theory and practice of democracy around the world. Established in 1994, the Forum strives to bridge the gap between academic research and the practice of democracy through several initiatives:

• Publishing the Journal of Democracy, the leading scholarly journal on democratization.
• Organizing fellowship programs for international democracy activists, journalists, and scholars.
• Hosting the Power 3.0 blog and podcast, which explores how savvy authoritarian governments survive and thrive in a globalized information age, and the ways that democracies are contending with this challenge.
• Engaging in specialized research on authoritarian sharp power and democratic resilience, as part of an initiative examining authoritarian influence in crucial arenas relating to the integrity and vibrancy of democratic systems.
• Producing resources on topics relating to transnational kleptocracy, defending the integrity of the information space, authoritarian influence, and democracy and civil society.
• Coordinating the Network of Democracy Research Institutes (NDRI), a global think tank network.
• Overseeing the Democracy Resource Center, a political science-oriented library providing researchers access to a collection of materials produced by leading think tanks and non-governmental organizations, featuring works by prominent thinkers within the field of democracy and democracy assistance. The DRC’s Allen Overland Collection, named in honor of its founding librarian and director, includes more than 20,000 books, journals, grantee reports, DVDs, and other publications on democracy.

The Forum supports and enhances the work of the Endowment’s grants program and the World Movement for Democracy.

The International Forum for Democratic Studies was directed by Shanthi Kalathil through the end of the 2020 calendar year. She was joined during that year by Kevin Sheives, the Forum’s Associate Director. Christopher Walker serves as the NED Vice President overseeing all aspects of the work of the Forum. The Forum’s programs benefit from the advice and involvement of a Research Council consisting of scholars and other specialists on democracy from around the world. Marc F. Plattner and Larry Diamond serve as co-chairs of the Research Council. Larry Diamond and Will Dobson coedit the Journal of Democracy.

Seventeenth Annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World:

Minxin Pei, Pritzker Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College, delivered the seventeenth annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World on “Totalitarianism’s Long Dark Shadow over China.” The lecture was held virtually in partnership with the Canadian Embassy on December 3, 2020. An article based on the lecture will appear in the April 2021 issue of the Journal of Democracy.

Research and Conferences Program

The Forum’s research and analysis focuses on issues of democratic transition and consolidation as well as the common challenges facing both new and established democracies. Each year the Forum convenes an extensive number of meetings ranging from international conferences to smaller seminars and colloquia in Washington, D.C. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Forum’s meetings, seminars, and colloquia began taking place virtually in March 2020. These events bring together leading activists and experts across geographic locations and thematic disciplines.

Focus Areas

Throughout 2020, the Forum continued to release several podcast episodes tied to its Power 3.0 blog, focusing on the ways in which modern authoritarianism takes advantage of the features once chiefly thought to empower democracies—the interconnected economic and financial system, ubiquitous communication networks, international norms and institutions, and global media and culture. 2020’s Podcast episodes include “Beijing’s Mask Diplomacy and Power Plays in Europe,” with Lucrezia Poggetti, “The Changing Global Media Landscape,” with Claire Wardle and Jamie Fly, and “China, the Party and the World,” with Mareike Ohlberg. Key areas of authoritarian influence and democratic resilience explored by this series include culture and education; media/information/technology; norms/ideas/institutions; overseas assistance/trade/investment; and transnational kleptocracy.

Forum Overview image: Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow Dolgion Aldar and Fellowships Program Director speak during Aldar’s event presentation, “Thirty Years After Mongolia’s Democratic Revolution: Has Democracy Delivered for All?” on February 18, 2020.

Initiated in 1999 by the National Endowment for Democracy, the World Movement for Democracy is a global network of democrats including activists, practitioners, scholars, policy makers, and funders who collaborate to promote democracy. The World Movement Secretariat at the NED facilitates information sharing, networking, and solidarity building to bolster democratic movements and leverage support provided by democracy assistance organizations such as the NED. Learn more about the World Movement and its activities.

Defending Democratic Space

Civil society activists and everyday citizens increasingly face restrictions on their freedoms in both physical and digital spaces. The World Movement helps civil society organizations (CSOs) understand their rights to peacefully assemble and associate, collaborates to reform repressive laws, and highlights the stories of activists at risk.

Right to Receive Funding

Funding from donors helps CSOs fulfill their missions and contributes to their sustainability. However, many authoritarian governments restrict civil society’s access to funding to impede its ability to hold leaders accountable. Through its Right to Receive Funding project, the World Movement strengthens international human rights norms and develops advocacy tools for defending CSOs’ right to receive funding. Check out the resource hub.

In 2020, the World Movement mobilized a group of 25 CSOs around the world to contribute to developing the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s General Comments #37 on Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which protects the right to peaceful assembly. The group’s advocacy resulted in the inclusion of a provision in the General Comment that supports the right of activists and CSOs to receive resources to support their work. General Comments are UN Human Rights Committee’s official interpretations of provisions in binding international human rights laws, making the General Comment #37, published in July 2020, the strongest international mechanism yet for protecting civil society’s right to receive funding.

Join the Network: World Movement participants engage with peers facing challenges to human rights and democracy, build solidarity within regional and global networks, and collaborate on innovative approaches to preserving freedom. We welcome any organization or individual who can contribute to and benefit from this network. Learn more about the many ways you can get involved by visiting our website.

World Movement Overview photo: Senegalese rapper Moonaya was a featured artist in the World Movement for Democracy’s “Music as a Messenger of Democracy” campaign.

Click here to learn more about NED’s World Movement for Democracy.