NED Staff and partners at the Third Summit for Democracy in Seoul, South Korea
NED anchors its grantmaking in country and regional strategies that respond to context-specific democratic challenges. At the same time, just as authoritarians are learning from each other and working in concert, democracy champions must do the same.
NED addresses thematic priorities that expand beyond individual countries and regions. These priorities link activists together so they can learn from one another, share technical expertise developed from country programs on a larger scale, collaborate on key areas of advocacy, and foster solidarity to amplify their efforts. Thematic initiatives span multiple regions and complement the national-level work of advocates, providing opportunities for partners to connect with fellow activists in other parts of the world to jointly develop more effective responses to shared problems and systemic challenges.
Strategic Initiatives
Launched in 2016, NED’s Strategic Cooperation Funds seek to address emergent, cross-regional threats to democracy by focusing NED’s resources, including NED grantmaking, the core institutes, and research and convenings. As part of NED’s effort to sharpen our strategy, we have refined our approach and reorganized our institutional priorities around five systemic and cross-cutting thematic areas:
NED’s Global programs and initiatives support the key tenets of democracy, empowering local activists to work in common cause to protect democratic gains where they are at risk and expand democratic freedoms where new opportunities arise. Working with democratic stakeholders, including political parties, labor unions, the private sector and civil society, NED granteeswork to protect rights, encourage innovation, and make democracy deliver.
Total projects supported under Global Thematic Areas in FY2023. Dollar amounts have been rounded.
Protecting Human Rights
Amid the ongoing global democratic recession, international human rights standards—and those who advocate for them—are under increasing duress. Strengthening the protection of at-risk democracy activists will remain a priority at a time when autocrats continue to curtail civic space and increase repression. Global human rights initiatives are strengthening coordination of assistance to democratic activists and consolidating resources on safety and security for human rights defenders. This work seeks to ensure that there is an architecture of support to assist them that goes beyond piecemeal efforts limited to certain countries or regions. Furthermore, because the shaping of international norms and standards continue to be key arenas of contestation between democracy and authoritarianism, initiatives that enable advocates to engage with regional and international bodies and be part of conversations on reforming, developing, and articulating human rights standards are another critical area of support.
Grantee Spotlight
Informal workers in Accra, Ghana. (Photo by Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images)
Solidarity Center’s Rule of Law (ROL) department conducts a wide range of activities that ensure workers across the world receive the legal protections they are entitled to under international and national law. ROL’s engagement with international, regional, and country-level legal mechanisms supports workers in their efforts to defend freedoms of association, assembly, and expression; counter gender-based violence and harassment in the workplace; and align local labor laws to international standards.
One of the critical areas of work being conducted by the ROL department is its engagement with international and regional human rights mechanisms to protect and expand workers’ rights, which has gained traction particularly in the Africa region. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), nearly 83% of employment in Africa is informal. In most countries, however, workers are beyond the scope of the protections of labor laws. Through NED funding and sustained engagement with the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, the Solidarity Center drafted and secured the passage in 2024 of a Resolution on the Development of Guidelines on the Protection of the Rights of Workers in the Informal Economy Sector in Africa. The Center is working closely with the African Commission to develop a General Comment which will explain state’s obligations to workers in the informal economy, based on the rights and protections enshrined in the African Charter, as well as a series of Model Laws on particular sectors of workers in the informal economy. The work will be completed in 2025, setting minimum standards for workers in the informal economy across the continent.
Strengthening Democratic Innovation and Citizen Participation
Democracy seeds expectations, and its capacity to meet those expectations legitimizes it. In recent years, fledgling democracies have been facing significant challenges, ranging from growing political polarization, the lack of trust in public institutions, and the overall sense of underperformance, all of which fuel disillusionment with democracy. Efforts that seek to revitalize today’s strained democratic architecture are a critical part of NED’s focus. While governance challenges are eminently local and context-specific, they are part of a global trend in which cross-national and cross-regional efforts can help to form successful responses. NED supports multiregional initiatives that enable democrats to incubate new ideas and learn from the best practices in political innovation to deepen citizen participation, foster cross-regional sharing of experiences and the dissemination of effective approaches to promote more open, accountable, and collaborative governments.
Grantee Spotlight
(Photo courtesy of CIPE)
Corruption fighters across the globe must act quickly to seize moments when change is possible. However, policy reform is a complex process that requires coordinated action and great leadership. Whether the opening for reforms is triggered by an election or a scandal, the window of opportunity to act is narrow. This means that changemakers across sectors must take fast action to maximize positive impact.
The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) works with nimble, impact-driven organizations in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa through its Rapid Response program, led by CIPE’s Anti-Corruption & Governance Center (ACGC).
In Armenia, when popular protests led to reformer Nikol Pashinyan’s election to the office of Prime Minister, ACGC quickly supported partners that cemented an anti-corruption agenda. In Malaysia, following the 1MDB scandal and the fall of the regime linked to it, ACGC coordinated efforts to highlight the reforms necessary to put in safeguards that would prevent a repeat.
Recently, as part of the Rapid Response program, a public Whistleblower Resource Catalogue was launched to empower activists by offering guidance on risks and reporting. ACGC also worked with a partner organization to develop a training manual for private and public sector stakeholders to employ the Mirror Gap Analysis (MGA), a powerful tool for identifying potential fraud and corruption associated with global trade.
Since 2021, ACGC has partnered with Nigeria-based Connected Development (CODE) to enhance and expand Follow The Money (FTM) campaigns across Africa. FTM is a grassroots movement that swiftly mobilizes local civil society groups, builds community awareness, and holds officials accountable. Rapid Response is a global program with local impact. Take, for example, the ABAK Foundation Ghana (FTM chapter linked to CODE) that put a spotlight on an abandoned school project. The heightened visibility ultimately resulted in government accountability: the school was opened in April 2023. CODE’s FTM continues to grow in size and impact across Africa while CIPE’s Rapid Response effectively evolves to mobilize anti-corruption champions globally.
Bolstering Democratic Political Processes and Institutions
Fostering political processes that are free, fair, and inclusive as well as institutions that are democratic are priorities for NED. As key pillars of democracy, political parties are facing new and evolving challenges that affect their ability to contribute to a democratic political system. Political party strengthening support, particularly through NED’s partners the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, focuses on providing technical expertise and facilitating access to a global knowledge base that can help local partners to adapt to new threats to democracy, represent citizens’ interests more effectively, and serve as voices for democratic reform. NED also supports initiatives that promote electoral integrity and strengthen democratic electoral processes. The business sector and trade unions also play important roles in strengthening democratic institutions. The Solidarity Center works to improve worker rights and strengthen unions and freedom of association to ensure that labor rights advocates are able to participate in democratic processes. And the Center for International Private Enterprise works with private sector partners on the ground to promote economic and democratic reforms as well empower the private sector to contribute to policy advocacy and discussions to address critical democracy challenges.
Grantee Spotlight
(UN Photo/Paul Banks)
One of the most important contributions to electoral integrity has been the increased professionalism and credibility of nonpartisan election monitoring by citizens around the world. Since 2009, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), working with the National Democratic Institute (NDI), has supported citizen election observation through the establishment of the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM). GNDEM advances civic participation and electoral integrity by supporting and advocating for norms, rights, peer-to-peer learning and visibility of citizen election monitoring organizations.
Since its creation, GNDEM has become the leading global entity for nonpartisan citizen observers, representing over 250 country-based and regional citizen election monitoring groups and networks from 93 countries on five continents. In 2012, NED funding supported GNDEM members in launching the Declaration of Global Principles for Nonpartisan Election Observation and Monitoring by Citizen Organizations at the United Nations, which outlines standards for credible citizen election observation. These principles help observers gain greater recognition for their work, which is increasingly undertaken at great professional and personal risk.
As the rights of observers are under threat and electoral challenges evolve, GNDEM serves as a voice for citizen observers in the international community, working with regional and international observer organizations to strengthen resilience, coordination, methodologies, and norms. With support from the NED, GNDEM is undertaking the first ever global study on citizen observer rights. These efforts have fostered the explicit recognition of election observers as human rights defenders from the UN Special Rapporteur and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), providing important support and avenues for redress for citizen election observers when they face undue pressure or attacks.
Promoting Equality and Inclusion
No sustainable democracy can be built without safeguarding the rights of all citizens to participate in the public sphere. NED supports initiatives aimed at promoting the inclusion of underrepresented and marginalized sectors of society in all aspects of public life. From increasing women’s political participation to nurturing the engagement of marginalized communities, the NED’s support of cross-regional efforts to foster inclusive democratic societies focuses on developing communities and platforms for sharing best practices and developing new methodologies to deepen inclusion efforts, mainstreaming these considerations into all areas of programming, and promoting norms, standards, and policies to support effective inclusion.
Grantee Spotlight
(Photo courtesy of CIPE)
CIPE’s Center for Women’s Economic Empowerment (CWEE) engages women business owners and entrepreneurs, as well as women’s business membership organizations, across the world to ensure this dynamic constituency has a powerful voice in the laws and regulations that govern them and their businesses. Embodying CIPE’s core values of local ownership, inclusion, and learning and innovation, CWEE consolidates CIPE’s thought leadership on its unique approach to women’s economic empowerment, promoting a strong business enabling environment for women at the individual, community, and institutional levels. Through private sector engagement, excellence for business membership organizations, capacity building and peer learning, and partnership innovation efforts, CWEE is supporting CIPE’s broad efforts to empower local partners to bring democratic and free market solutions to challenges women face. CWEE has also established a unique role for itself within CIPE; working closely with CIPE’s regional teams to ensure that local programming includes innovative strategies that purposefully engage women. Through its external and internal engagement strategy, CWEE ensures that CIPE is delivering in the space of gender equity and equality by showcasing the talent of women leaders in the private sector.
CWEE’s engagement with CIPE’s regional programs has led to the establishment of regional hubs for women’s economic empowerment. In Latin America, CWEE has established a regional hub with CIPE’s Colombia team to promote networking, peer learning, and dialogue among local partners in the region on issues of gender equity and equality. As a result, CIPE partnered with EAFIT University in Medellín to help local partners engage in debate on public policies such as the Gender Equality for Urban and Rural Women of Medellín, and to explore international platforms such as ILO C190 working to eliminate violence and harassment in the workplace. The project researched how private sector companies can integrate gender equity policies effectively at the company level in order to improve productivity, workplace culture, and business resiliency. In 2022, EAFIT University created two private sector how-to guides to assess and incorporate gender equity practices in operations and identified international and national strategies for protecting rights that can be integrated into company policies. Through the diagnostics prepared by EAFIT and CIPE, members of the Business Alliance incorporated concrete actions to promote gender equity, and policies that promote inclusion and leadership roles for women.
REsearch and Analysis
International Forum Report: Defending the Global Human Rights System
(Photo by Ana Maria Serrano/Getty Images)
Authoritarian influence in multilateral institutions is growing rapidly and poses a serious threat to democratic and human rights principles. In this International Forum for Democratic Studies report, Dr. Rana Siu Inboden examines how authoritarian regimes exploit multilateral institutions to further their illiberal goals and how democracies can work together to uphold the system and hold abusers accountable.
Center for International Media Assistance Report: Gender Equality in Media Development
(Image Courtesy of Abdirahman Abukar Omar / Sucdi Abdifitab and Fatima at Somali National University)
Gender inequality remains an intractable problem in the media sector. A new report from NED's Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) and the Fojo Media Institute analyzes the systemic issues that women journalists and media stakeholders face and how media support organizations can push for gender equality.
