NEWS & EVENTS

Dear Colleague,

It gives us great pleasure on behalf of the Graduate School of Public Policy and Public Administration, the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, (EGAP/ITESM), The Mexico Project and the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, John. F. Kennedy School of Government - Harvard University, to invite you to apply to participate in the dialogue on innovations in democracy taking place at the EGAP Program of ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico on August 30-31, 2007.

A group of 50 individuals drawn from government, NGOs, the private sector and academia will convene under the auspices of "The Latin American Regional Forum of The Global Network of Government Innovators". This group will share examples of innovations in Democratic Governance in the hopes of creating an Agenda for Innovations in Democratic Practices, Public Decisions and Citizenship. The recommendations and findings drawn from the Forum will be disseminated to create awareness, inform research and foster opportunities for enhancing innovation in governance in Latin America.

In case anyone still doubts how much technology is changing politics, on July 23, the Democratic candidates for president are going to debate issues and answer questions posed by citizens via youtube! In other words, whoever has a video camera on their computer can submit a question.

See more in The New York Times.

The National Endowment for Democracy is accepting applications to the 2008–2009 Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program. These three- to ten-month fellowships in Washington, DC give democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world the opportunity to deepen their understanding of democracy and enhance their ability to promote democratic change. English required. Deadline: November 1, 2007.

"The Leadership Program is like finding one of those books that has everything you ever wanted to learn but nobody had the decency to tell you of its existence." --2006 participant

This year, 28 young leaders from parties in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru were selected to attend the seminar and are now implementing renewal within their parties with technical assistance from NDI.

With the participation of political experts and high-level trainers from Latin America, Europe and the United States, NDI helps young politicians develop leadership skills such as communication, political negotiation and strategic planning. Our political experts also provide strategies on the internal democratization of political parties and their contact with voters.

The Political Leadership Program has helped, through the projects of its participants, to promote political reforms within 36 political parties and movements in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.