NDI - Mexico

Mexican Men and Women Work Together to Elect More Women to Office

fstovall — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:03:29 +0000

"Why women, why now?" was the question posed to over 300 participants, both male and female, participating in a week-long series of training sessions across Mexico aimed at giving women candidates the skills and tools they need to get elected to office.

The answers — that democracy works best when women have an equal voice in the process and that upcoming local elections are a great opportunity to elect more women — were emphasized throughout the events as the women learned about message development, targeting women and young voters, and recruiting and keeping campaign volunteers.

Though gender quotas have led to an increase in the number of women running for and elected to office in Mexico in recent years, women hold only 5 percent of municipal and state elected positions. They frequently receive ballot placement that lessens their chances of winning, and they receive less public financing and fewer opportunities for training.

In collaboration with the Fox Center and Mexico's three major political parties — the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) — NDI is working to help women gain campaign skills that are already familiar to their male counterparts.

The training kicked off at the Fox Center in San Francisco del Rincón on April 15 with a speech by former President Vicente Fox. Fox offered words of encouragement to the participants, saying that women in Mexico today have risen to the challenge of being more active in politics, the economy and social organizations.

"I believe Mexico has been changing rapidly on this issue. The 2000 election changed many things that had been limited or prohibited before, particularly for women," said Fox, whose victory in that election broke the country's tradition of one-party rule. "I believe that nowadays women have taken the challenge. Women are active in politics, in the economy, civil organizations, but they need programs like this to keep opening doors."

Trainers emphasized strategic aspects of running a campaign, such as message development, targeting messages to specific demographics, scheduling and time management. They also addressed some of the "soft" skills, often familiar to male candidates, such as projecting confidence through voice and presence, negotiating and debating with opponents, and tips for surviving a campaign.

"After these workshops you're aware that you are not alone. You belong to a broad network of women around the world struggling to hold decision-making positions in politics," Cathy Allen, CEO of the Seattle-based Connections Group, told the participants.

The trainers who came from outside Mexico included Allen and Roula Attar of NDI's Jordan office. They joined Julian Quibell, Keila Gonzalez and Rocio Alvarez from NDI's office in Mexico.

This year, 15 states in Mexico will hold elections for governors, local legislators and mayors. Many attendees were women who are either already running for office or strongly considering it.

Pictured above: Vicente Fox meets participants

Published May 7, 2010

Protocolo Policial de Atención a Mujeres Victimas de Violencia de Género: Juarez, Chihuahua

sruiz — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 19:44:01 +0000

Author:

National Democratic Institute

Publisher:

National Democratic Institute

Published Date:

09/16/2016

Resource Type:

Manual, Handbook

Language:

Spanish

Attachment	Size
Protocolo Policial (español)	878.49 KB

Programa Municipal para Prevenir, Atender, Sancionar y Erradicar la violencia Contra las Mujeres en Tijuana

sruiz — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 19:40:36 +0000

Author:

National Democratic Institute

Publisher:

National Democratic Institute

Published Date:

09/16/2016

Resource Type:

Manual, Handbook

Language:

Spanish

Attachment	Size
Programa (español)	2.52 MB

Perspectiva de Género y Prevención Social de la Violencia y la Delincuencia: Guía para Evaluar los Procesos de Diseño e Implementacion

sruiz — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 19:35:33 +0000

Author:

National Democratic Institute

Publisher:

National Democratic Institute

Published Date:

09/16/2016

Resource Type:

Manual, Handbook

Language:

Spanish

Attachment	Size
Manual Prevención (español)	1.33 MB

Perspectiva de Género y Derechos Humanos: Guía para Evaluar los Mecanismos de Protección

sruiz — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 19:30:21 +0000

Author:

National Democratic Institute

Publisher:

National Democratic Institute

Published Date:

09/16/2016

Resource Type:

Manual, Handbook

Language:

Spanish

Attachment	Size
Guía (español)	2.34 MB

Combating Violence against Women through Civic Activism in Mexico

erodriguez — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 14:23:58 +0000

The Baja California Gender Violence Alert Working Group discusses recommendations to address violence against women in Baja California.

Every year more than 2,500 women die in Mexico due to gender-based violence. The National Citizen Femicide Observatory (Observatorio Ciudadano Nacional del Feminicidio, OCNF) cites that at least six women are targeted and killed every day in the country. These are the numbers that run through Meritxell Calderón’s head as she goes to work every day. Meritxell has served as an activist since the age of 14. With more than 20 years of experience, her passion to defend the rights of women and victims of violence inspired her to establish the Iberoamerican Human Rights Network (Red Iberoamericana de Derechos Humanos, Red IDH), a local civil society organization (CSO) in Baja California, in 2004. As Meritxell explains it, “what [the Red IDH] looks to provide is real protection for victims. At some point in my life, the idea of being politically influential led me to work within the political framework, but when I saw that there was a great lack of interest in [the issue of] human rights, I knew I would accomplish nothing [from the inside].” She decided to take matters into her own hands and continue her advocacy through civic activism. Mertixell believes that the only way to make a lasting impact in favor of victims of human rights abuses is to help them gain a voice so that they can defend themselves.

It was this determination and support from other sectors of society that prompted Red IDH to act when the State of Baja California witnessed a steady increase in the number of cases of violence against women, including femicides, in early 2015. That same year, Red IDH requested the activation of a protection mechanism known as the Gender Violence Alert (Alerta de Violencia de Género, AVG). Enacted in 2007, AVG was created to raise public awareness and precipitate state and local government action to address violence against women across the country. The AVG provides a formal process for CSOs to request federal assistance in monitoring state efforts to prevent, respond to, sanction and eradicate violence against women.

In Baja California, when Red IDH requested the AVG, it allowed both the federal government and Red IDH to monitor the state government’s response to the issue. A Working Group (Grupo de Trabajo), chosen by the federal government deliberated and presented the state government with 14 recommendations for the prevention, rapid-response, punishment and eradication of violence against women. Red IDH was convinced that putting pressure on state institutions was key to keeping the issue active in public discussion. Thus, they began to monitor the state government’s implementation of the Working Group's’ recommendations. However, Red IDH lacked knowledge and access to monitoring methodologies, negotiation skills and advocacy tools.

To fill this gap, NDI provided trainings and strategy sessions focused on supporting Red IDH with the skills they needed to analyze the state government’s progress in meeting the indicators set out by the Working Group. They did so within the six month-period granted to the state by the federal government. Red IDH’s work involved more than 300 requests for public information, interviews with public state officials and the revision of state public websites. Red IDH also conducted roundtable discussions and developed a workplan with government agencies.

For Meritxell, NDI’s assistance proved invaluable in consolidating Red IDH’s capacity to engage in dialogue with government authorities. Meritxell explains, “At first, when we presented officials with demands and ambiguous slogans, they had few incentives to meet with us, but now that we arrive with concrete and viable policy proposals, our dialogues with government are more consistent and cordial.” She adds that with NDI’s support, their organization is better able to report on public issues as their “credibility as experts has now increased. Previously we were only perceived as ‘banner activists.’” Public officials are also now more willing to develop public policies in collaboration with CSOs.

Once the monitoring period came to an end, Red IDH presented a report to local authorities and the federal Working Group panel, tasked with assessing Baja California’s progress and ultimately deciding whether or not to declare the Gender Violence Alert in the state. While in the end the Working Group did not issue the AVG in Baja California, the monitoring process resulted in increased data on violence against women, a new state law on equality of treatment and opportunities for men and women, and a state program to prevent, respond to, punish and eradicate violence against women.

Monitoring efforts by Red IDH and the federal government also prompted the state government to establish a follow-up agenda to achieve outstanding goals in its initiative to address gender violence. Through a cooperation agreement, the state government and CSOs have set up four working groups to continue the dialogue between parties. Secretary General of the State Government, Francisco Rueda, notes that the alert not being declared was in many ways a positive outcome because it meant that the recommendations set out by the Red IDH were finally being addressed. He adds, “it does not mean that everything has been resolved but it does show that there is political will and that is why we are collaborating with CSOs that understand the issue.”

Today, CSOs have formally requested activation of the the AVG in at least 14 states (Of these 14 states, Jalisco remains the only case in which the state government itself requested the activation of the AVG). CSOs are currently working through the AVG to monitor state programs in four of those states: Mexico State, Michoacán, Morelos and Jalisco. Having a set precedent of dialogue between CSOs and the state serves as a reference for other state governments that seek to address the problem of gender violence. Thanks to the leadership and initiative of Red IDH, perhaps other concerned CSOs will feel empowered to call for the activation of the AVG in their state because they now have a better understanding of how to take action and shape the process. “We have come a long way since the alert was requested. We were long overdue on this issue and now it is as if we have advanced 20 years because we have a Law on Equality, a protocol to investigate cases of femicide, a Center for Women’s Justice (Centro de Justicia para Mujeres) and other protections we previously did not have in Baja California,” says Meritxell.

The Working Group consisted of designated representatives from the following institutions: the National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence Against Women (Comisión Nacional para Prevenir y Erradicar la Violencia contra las Mujeres), the National Women's Institute (Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres, INMUJERES), the National Commission on Human Rights (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos) and the Institute for Women of Baja California (Instituto de las Mujeres de Baja California). Additionally, an open call was made for two nation-wide academic experts and two academic experts from Baja California.

Published on September 9, 2016

Latin American Party Leaders in Lima Identify Reform Agenda

jfrant — Fri, 27 May 2016 17:14:59 +0000

In spite of significant democratic advances, citizens across Latin America are dissatisfied with the performance of democratic institutions and elected officials. Corruption, insecurity, inequality, and lack of economic opportunity and avenues to participate in public life have fueled protests across the region.

Political parties are an example of institutions that many citizens consider “out of touch.” However, parties remain the few institutions that offer citizens meaningful choices in governance, avenues for political participation and opportunities to shape their country’s future. They therefore remain fundamental to the healthy functioning of democratic systems. In many countries in Latin America parties are facing serious crises of confidence, representation and legitimacy that further distance them from citizens. In a recent Latinobarómetro survey, only four out of every 10 Latin Americans felt any affinity towards a political party. Without functioning political parties, the role of civil society to advocate for their priorities becomes far more difficult, if not impossible.

Faced with these challenges, 25 political leaders from Latin America met in Lima, Peru, on March 2 at NDI’s invitation to discuss the difficulties facing political parties globally and successful approaches taken in the region to foster political and electoral reforms and build more effective, transparent and representative political organizations for citizens in the region. Over two days of discussions with academics and experts in party organizations, party leaders from nine countries across the region, representing different ideologies and experiences, both parties with decades of experience and recently organized political movements, discussed how to confront this reality by strengthening confidence in democracy and rebuilding ties between citizens and political organizations. To encourage participants to set aside political constraints and have honest conversations, discussions were held off-the-record.

The need to strengthen party ideology, as well as ensuring consistency between parties’ principles and values and their actions, took up a large part of the conversation. Participants noted that many citizens see parties as only focused on elections, and less concerned about governance and how to improve people’s lives. As a Mexican political leader observed, parties need to use “lasting visions, solid principles, identity, a good brand, coalitions and alliances for the purpose of good government, not just electoral triumphs.”

The leaders also shared their strategies on how to more effectively connect with constituents. “Ideas are what allow for sustainability, strategic value and connecting with constituents,” said a political leader from Argentina. A party without ideas cannot put together political proposals in a coherent manner and therefore cannot respond to society’s needs and regain its trust.

Participants agreed that parties must change to keep up with their own societies. The internal structures of parties should be strengthened in a way that allows for the active participation of all party members, with the understanding that society has been evolving and that historically marginalized groups like youth and women should have more and better representation at all levels within political parties. Participants remarked that contemporary society is less hierarchical, which requires citizens to actively participate, be better informed and be included in the decision-making process.

Noting that politics has a tendency to focus on individual personalities, a party leader from Chile said, “Any institutional design should push for structures that prioritize the collective over the individual.”

Political parties can make use of new information and communications technology to bring citizens closer to the political system and political organizations. These technologies can also complement traditional community organizing approaches that parties still use as the primary way to facilitate in-person contact with constituents.

Another topic of discussion was the importance of political party financing, transparency, and integrity, as well as the need to overcome the negative incentives to engage in clientelism and eliminate the relationship between politics and lawlessness. A Central American political leader said, “We should not underestimate the risk of corruption because it is an issue that deeply hurts the viability of political parties.”

The findings from this meeting in Lima will allow NDI, through its regional program Red Innovación, to update existing party strengthening materials and develop new ones that can address the most pressing challenges faced by political parties. Red Innovación already offers a platform for party activists to share experiences and take virtual courses on several issues identified by the party leaders as priority areas, such as increasing transparency and using new technologies for closer communication with citizens.

Through the Red Innovación network and peer-to-peer discussions of party leaders like the Lima Forum, NDI will continue to share experiences and help political parties to implement best practices in areas such as improving constituent relations, creating participatory platforms, strengthening party think-tanks, accountability and transparency and promoting the use of new technologies in politics, among others. In addition, NDI is expanding this discussion globally through its Party Renewal Initiative, which explores different types of reform needed to help parties adapt to the societal and technological changes of the 21st century.

Published on May 27, 2016

Civic Updates

vrao — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 17:55:00 +0000

Author:

National Democratic Institute

Publisher:

National Democratic Institute

Resource Type:

Civic Update

Language:

English

Attachment	Size
Issue 50: A Matter of Political Space (April 2016)	1.06 MB
Issue 49: Social Movements (January '16)	1.22 MB
Issue 48: Peace, Security and Democratic Resilience (August '15)	818.41 KB
Issue 47: Integration (April '15)	1011.57 KB
Issue 46: The Infomediary Role of NDI Partners (Jan. '15)	339.19 KB
Issue 45: The Role of Dialogue in Deepening Democracy (Sept. '14)	1.84 MB
Issue 44: Taking Advantage of Political Entry Points to Improve Meaningful Engagement (May '14)	1.12 MB
Issue 43: Political Inclusion of LGBT Population (Jan. '14)	1.43 MB
Issue 42: Radio as an Effective Communication Tool (Aug. '13)	1.48 MB
Issue 41: The Use of ICT to Enhance Citizen Participation (May '13)	1.57 MB
Issue 40: Supporting Inclusion of Marginalized Ethnic and Religious Groups (Dec. '12)	1.87 MB
Issue 39: Public Opinion Research (Sept. '12)	1.69 MB
Issue 38: Youth Programming (May '12)	1.83 MB
Issue 37: Mainstreaming Persons with Disabilities (Jan. '12)	1.72 MB
Issue 36: Organizational Development (May '11)	1.1 MB
Issue 35: GOTV, Voter Information & Voter Education (Jan. '11)	1.04 MB
Issue 34: Structuring and Maintaining Partnerships (Sept. '10)	306.87 KB
Issue 33: Political Process Monitoring (May '10)	419.89 KB
Issue 32: Defending Space for Citizen Participation (Aug. '09)	204.87 KB
Issue 31: Best Practices for Meaningful Citizen Engagement (April '09)	540.61 KB
Issue 30: Context Matters (Jan. '09)	311.87 KB
Issue 29: Voice, Space and Accountability (Aug. '08)	869.11 KB
Issue 28: Communications Tools (May '08)	207.88 KB
Issue 27: Using Information and Communications Techonologies (Jan. '08)	486.89 KB
Issue 26: Working with Marginalized Populations (Sept. '07)	283.24 KB
Issue 25: Ten Years of Civic Updates (July '07)	258.56 KB
Issue 24: Making Democracy Deliver (Feb. '07)	413.86 KB
Issue 23: Positive Partnerships with Local Groups (May '06)	268.06 KB
Issue 22: Political Activism for People with Disablities (Dec. '05)	458.7 KB
Issue 21: Local Fundraising and Volunteer Recruitment (July '05)	221.65 KB
Issue 20: Tips from NDI Practioners (April '05)	561.26 KB
Issue 19: Get Out The Vote (Dec. '04)	496.75 KB
Issue 18: Involving Youth in the Political Process (July '04)	277.27 KB
Issue 17: Monitoring as a Driver of Change (Feb. '04)	488.58 KB
Issue 16: Citizen Surveys and Other Organizing Tools (Nov. '03)	546.03 KB
Issue 15: Making University Connections (Aug. '03)	579.18 KB
Issue 14: Focus Groups (May '03)	334.74 KB
Issue 13: Civic Forum (Nov. '02)	279.56 KB
Issue 12: Coalition Building (Jan. '02)	195.45 KB
Issue 11: Assessment Methods (Aug. '01)	84.74 KB
Issue 10: Partnership Approaches (April '01)	109.87 KB
Issue 9: What's Voting All About? (Oct. '99)	82.5 KB
Issue 8: Global Seminar on Advocacy and Democracy Development (June '99)	481.85 KB
Issue 7: How Civic Programs Increase Women's Participation in Processes (Dec. '98)	962.34 KB
Issue 6: Post-Conflict and Ethnic Divided Societies (July '98)	120.75 KB
Issue 5: Assessing Programs (March '98)	81.99 KB
Issue 4: Training (Nov. '97)	98.85 KB
Issue 3: Resources and Communication (July '97)	74.43 KB
Issue 2: Advocacy (April '97)	94.31 KB
Issue 1: Program Highlights from Around the World (Feb. '97)	121.71 KB

Sandra Pepera

skincaid — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 18:41:17 +0000

Sandra Pepera is a career diplomat and international development professional. Before joining NDI as its director for Gender, Women and Democracy in 2014, she spent thirteen years as a senior officer at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), including leading programs in the Caribbean, Rwanda-Burundi and Sudan. Prior to joining DFID, Sandra spent time in British domestic politics; lecturing in political science and international relations at the University of Ghana; and as a political analyst in the Political Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat. She has a portfolio of skills and experience which include strategy development, political and risk analysis, diplomacy, general management and corporate governance.

Much of Sandra’s career has been spent working in or on transitional economies, focusing on the building of resilient and inclusive institutions. She led work on women and politics at the University of Ghana and in outreach public policy during the period of intense and unstable political transition in the early 1990s. This included participating in a program that supported the ANC Women’s League during South Africa’s transition from apartheid to majority democratic rule in 1993.

Sandra is a member of the Cambridge Sustainability Leaders Network, the Royal Commonwealth Society, the Global Board Ready Women initiative, and the International Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Journal for International Affairs (the Round Table). She holds the Financial Times Diploma for Non-Executive Directors, and serves as a trustee for the pension fund of an intergovernmental organization.

Global Campaign to Open Legislatures Draws Broad Support

dleonard — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 16:43:59 +0000

Civic activists and government reformers in at least 30 countries rallied behind open legislatures to promote values of transparency, inclusion and participation in the lawmaking process during the first-ever Global Legislative Openness Week (GLOW) Sept. 15 to 25.

GLOW kicked off on the International Day of Democracy and was designed to help legislatures share tools and strategies for engaging their citizens, particularly tech-empowered youth. The week was organized by the Open Government Partnership (OGP)’s Legislative Openness Working Group, which is co-anchored by the Chilean Congress and NDI.

Montenegrin youth present a skit on democracy to a regional meeting of members of parliament and civil society organizations.

At OGP’s High-Level Event on the margins of the UN General Assembly Sept. 24, President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico, which now holds the chairmanship of OGP, noted parliamentary openness as among its priorities: "a fin de que más reformadores puedan colaborar en un mayor número de ámbitos, impulsaremos iniciativas de Parlamento abierto..." ("so that more reformers can collaborate on a larger number of issues, we will promote initiatives on open parliament ...")

Events organized in conjunction with GLOW showcased the diversity of the global open-government movement and demonstrated that every society can take action toward openness, although institutional structures and technological capacities vary widely. Here are just a few of the events organized as part of GLOW:

Serbian civil society organization Otvoreni Parlament organized “Yes to Open Parliament” street actions in six cities.

In Montenegro, the OGP Legislative Openness Working Group and the Parliament of Montenegro held a two-day meeting to explore issues of legislative openness and how they can be advanced through the OGP process. The meeting, which featured members of parliament, parliamentary staffers, and civil society representatives from 15 countries, helped strengthen relationships among those groups around issues of legislative openness.
In Jordan, the speaker of parliament met with the Al Hayat Center for Civil Society Development to receive a letter on the importance of open parliamentary data. Al Hayat also released issue briefs on legislative transparency topics, and organized a series of local meetings between members of parliament and their constituents.
In Mexico, the Senate, Chamber of Deputies and Federal Institute for Access to Public Information and Data Protection (IFAI) joined civil society organizations in launching the Open Parliament Alliance, an institutional platform that will coordinate efforts to strengthen transparency, accountability and citizen participation.
In South Africa, the People’s Assembly website released an infographic measuring the South African Parliament’s progress against benchmarks based on the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness.
In Australia, the Open Australia Foundation invited local coders to work with parliamentary data during a weekend civic-hacking event. The ‘hackfest’ attracted more than 45 participants and generated a record 18 pull requests. Civil society organizations in Israel and Denmark also organized workshops around parliamentary data.
In Guatemala, the International Republican Institute organized a video teleconference with open-data experts in Mexico to discuss how legislators and civil society can use open data to promote accountability and stronger governance. The audience in Guatemala included members of congressional commissions, civil society groups working on transparency and OGP commitments, and university students.
In Serbia, Otvoreni Parlament organized a series of “Yes to Open Parliament” street actions in six cities.
In Brazil, the Hacker Lab of the Chamber of Deputies hosted a hacker weekend for experts and software developers to propose ideas and showcase projects aimed at legislative transparency -- including Olho nas Emendas (Eye on Amendments) and Vigia Político (Politicswatch).
In Poland, Gdansk Mayor Paweł Adamowicz recorded a video in support of GLOW, and the Lech Walesa Institute organized a Code for Freedom civic hackathon in partnership with ePanstwo Foundation and Teplitsa.
In Chile, the OGP Legislative Openness Working Group hosted its first global meeting. Members of the working group shared recent developments in parliamentary openness and drafted recommendations to the OGP Steering Committee for incorporating parliaments more effectively into the OGP process. This meeting occurred alongside the ParlAmericas Plenary Assembly, which included discussions of open parliaments on its agenda.
In six countries across Latin America, the Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency presented its second Index on Legislative Transparency.
Around the world, more than 100 parliamentary monitoring organizations signed onto an advocacy letter written by the Sunlight Foundation, which calls for parliamentary data to be open by default.

In addition to these events and several others, hundreds of individuals and organizations broadcast their support for GLOW on social media. The speaker of the UK House of Commons, Rt. Hon. John Bercow, recorded a video message for the meetings in Chile and Montenegro, both of which included representation from the Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy. Others weighing in to support legislative openness included NDI’s Chairman Madeleine K. Albright, U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, Mexican Senator Arely Gómez González and New South Wales (Australia) Legislative Council Member Penny Sharpe, who expressed their support for GLOW on Twitter. In all, the #OpenParl2014 hashtag has been used in over 3,700 tweets. Visit openparl2014.org for more details about the week’s events.

Read more:

Published Sept. 30, 2014

Abrirán datos de procesos legislativos en el mundo

Fri, 05 Sep 2014 15:21:27 +0000

Source:

El Universal

Article Link:

Published Date:

09/04/2014

Participantes de distintos países en el mundo se darán cita en el Open Parl 2014, para compartir los avances y responsabilidades de cada región, en materia de datos abiertos. La celebración forma parte de la Alianza para el Gobierno Abierto (AGA) que busca proponer el uso de nuevas tecnologías y herramientas de transparencia, para mejorar el acceso a la información.

Mexican Congress Launches New Initiatives to Increase Legislative Transparency

jcradit — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 14:31:32 +0000

Although Mexico passed a federal law on transparency and access to public information in 2002, legislative information is still hard to come by for citizens who want to participate in the policymaking process and hold their governments accountable.

According to the Latin American Index of Legislative Transparency, the Mexican Congress often does not release information on attendance, voting records and legislative spending. And when that information is made public, it’s seldom in an open data format. That makes it difficult for citizens and web developers to analyze and share the information with a public that is increasingly interested in monitoring the performance of elected officials.

In an unprecedented effort to address this issue, the Mexican Congress gathered more than 250 people from 24 states—including national and subnational parliamentarians, public officials, civil society representatives, academics, journalists and other interested citizens—in Mexico City in March. In a week-long series of meetings and panels, the legislators discussed steps Congress was taking to increase transparency and involve civil society in the legislative process.

One of these steps included granting autonomy to the Federal Institute for Access to Information and Protection of Data (Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Información y Protección de Datos, IFAI), the body responsible for responding to requests for information, which had previously been organized under the executive branch. Another was requiring all government branches and entities that receive public funds to respond to access to information requests, which totaled 142,000 in 2013, a 7.8 percent increase from 2012.

Legislators also heard from experts about best practices in transparency reform and potential areas for improvement, including greater use of information and communication technologies and publishing information in more accessible formats.

Mexico’s first Transparency and Open Parliament Week was co-organized by Fundar, a local organization advocating for increased transparency in government; Mexican Transparency, Mexico’s chapter of Transparency International; NDI; and the Mexican Senate.

During the event, the Mexican Congress made two landmark announcements. The first was the establishment of a Bicameral Commission on Parliamentary Openness, which demonstrated a commitment by both legislative chambers to work together to provide citizens with information —such as how representatives developed and voted on legislation— to evaluate the performance of their government. In addition, Congress announced the creation of a Partnership for Parliamentary Openness, an alliance between civil society and the Congress to develop goals and plans to increase legislative transparency.

The Mexican government is a member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance, and this initiative comes as the Mexican Congress begins to engage as a leading member of the OGP’s Legislative Openness Working Group, the OGP’s wing that advocates for transparency in legislatures.

In addition to the panel discussions, some 130 of the attendees participated in roundtable discussions facilitated by NDI on how to increase transparency and citizen participation in the legislative process. In the discussions, participants developed proposals on how the Congress could increase the public’s involvement in policy-making. These included streaming congressional committee hearings live on the Internet, expanding use of social media accounts to all state congresses to communicate with constituents and raise awareness of legislative affairs, improving the national congress’ website and convening forums with legislators and their constituents. They also recommended developing standards for the presentation of information by federal and local congresses to make it more easily accessible, usable and readable.

Senator Arely Gómez González, chair of the Committee on the Guarantee of Access and Transparency of Information (COGATI), who led the organization of the event, said that the Congress should not only ensure its own transparency, but should also work with civil society to educate citizens on the importance of transparent governments.

The role of technology was recognized as an increasingly critical tool for creating transparency. Alejandra Lagunes, coordinator of the Mexican president’s national digital strategy, said the legislature should increase its use of social media to provide additional outlets for citizens to communicate with their representatives. She also stressed that social media could be as a more innovative and efficient way to provide people with information about their government by sharing it with a wider audience.

Keila González, director of NDI-Mexico, noted the limited Internet penetration in the country and low technological literacy, suggesting it was still important to provide information through traditional means, such as print media, radio and television, to ensure transparency.

NDI, with support from the National Endowment for Democracy, began working with COGATI, other Senate committees and civil society organizations in mid-2013 to increase legislative transparency and access to information. Through the program, NDI and partner organization Fundar developed a tool based on the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness to help legislative committees assess their transparency practices and how they could improve. And with NDI support, COGATI is considering developing guidelines for the online publication of Senate information that could help committees develop transparency standards.

NDI will continue to work with legislators to improve their understanding of and commitment to transparency as well as support civil society’s efforts to increase accountability of their elected representatives in Mexico.

To view photos, presentations, panelist profiles and a detailed agenda of Transparency Week (in Spanish), please visit transparenciayparlamentoabierto.senado.gob.mx/.

Read more:

Published June 17, 2014

Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties: A Good Practices Guide to Promote Women's Political Participation (Now available in Burmese)

fstovall — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 14:31:07 +0000

Author:

Julie Ballington

Publisher:

National Democratic Institute United Nations Development Programme

Published Date:

10/31/2011

Resource Type:

Manual|Handbook

Language:

Arabic, Burmese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Urdu

English

Arabic

French

Spanish

Russian

Urdu

Attachment	Size
Read the manual (English)	2.49 MB
Read the manual with case studies (English)	3.45 MB
Read the manual (Arabic)	1.9 MB
Download the poster (Arabic)	1.18 MB
Read the manual (Burmese)	4.59 MB
Read the manual (French)	2.57 MB
Download the poster (French)	670.54 KB
Read the manual (Russian)	2.82 MB
Download the poster (Russian)	256.16 KB
Read the manual (Spanish)	2.59 MB
Download the poster (Spanish)	680.95 KB
Read the manual (Urdu)	3.74 MB
Read the manual with case studies (Albanian)	10.91 MB

Equal Access: How to Include Persons with Disabilities in Elections and Political Processes

dleonard — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 14:59:44 +0000

Author:

National Democratic Institute, International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)

Publisher:

National Democratic Institute

Published Date:

03/06/2014

Resource Type:

Manual|Handbook

Language:

Arabic, English, French, Indonesian, Russian, Spanish, Uzbek

English

Arabic

Spanish

Russian

Attachment	Size
Download the manual in Arabic	2.54 MB
Download the manual in English	3.24 MB
Download the manual in French	2.36 MB
Download the manual in Indonesian	16.34 MB
Download the manual in Russian	2.37 MB
Download the manual in Spanish	16.87 MB
Download the manual in Uzbek	3.85 MB

Implementing and Overseeing Electronic Voting and Counting Technologies

pbrondyke — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 16:40:37 +0000

Author:

Ben Goldsmith and Holly Ruthrauff

Publisher:

NDI/IFES

Published Date:

12/17/2013

Resource Type:

Manual

Language:

English

This new manual published jointly by NDI and IFES addresses a variety of challenges, opportunities and risks related to casting and counting ballots electronically.

Media Type:

PDF

This new manual published jointly by NDI and IFES addresses the challenges, opportunities and risks to adopting and monitoring electronic voting and counting technologies. The manual is designed as a resource for democracy and governance specialists, election management bodies, election observers and political parties. It offers 25 country examples, including three in-depth case studies on Brazil, the Netherlands and the Philippines, highlighting lessons learned with these technologies, as well as practical nearly 20 checklists of key considerations.

The guide can be download in full or in parts here. You can also access an electronic version of the guide for quick topic navigation and sharing.

English

Attachment	Size
Download the full manual	2.84 MB
Section 1: Overview of Electronic Voting and Counting Technologies	1.03 MB
Section 2.1: Making a Decision on E-voting or E-counting	381.88 KB
Section 2.2: Building the System for E-voting or E-counting	458.02 KB
Section 2.3: Implementing Electronic Voting or Electronic Counting in an Election	441.06 KB
Section 3: Concluding Remarks	211.86 KB
Section 4: Case Study Report on Brazil Electronic Voting, 1996 to Present	297.02 KB
Section 5: Case Study Report on Electronic Voting in the Netherlands	265.63 KB
Section 6: Case Study Report on the Philippines 2010 Elections	339.58 KB
Section 7: Resources on E-voting and E-counting	211.18 KB
Section 8: All Key Considerations	351.38 KB
Section 9: Key Considerations On Implementing E-Voting and Counting	318.16 KB
Section 10: Key Considerations On Overseeing E-Voting and Counting	404.75 KB