Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

From June 10-14 NIMD and partners will meet in Nairobi, Kenya, to exchange ideas, lessons learned from the processes of democratization as experienced from Bolivia to Zambia and from Kenya to Indonesia. Although social and political contexts differ, sharing experience on common issues such as Constitutional Reform, Internal Party Democracy and Political Accountability is value.

Bi-Annual event
Every two years the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) organizes the NIMD Partnership Days where NIMD partner representatives, politicians and NIMD staff meet and exchange experiences. The Partnership Days aim to strengthen the network of our democratic partners throughout the world. The first two Partnership Days were organized in 2005 and 2007 and took place in The Hague, The Netherlands.

This is the first time that the NIMD Partnership Days will be hosted by one of our partners: the Centre for Multiparty Democracy Kenya (CMD-K) in Nairobi, Kenya. This creates a unique opportunity for our partners and NIMD to experience the work and political context of CMD-K and share, and learn from each others programmes.

Collective Stock Take
During the four days of the conference, we aim to undertake a collective stock take on progress made and results booked. We want to document and exchange the democratic impact that partners and NIMD have achieved over the last two years, learn from these experiences and assess how the partnership between partner organisations in different countries and NIMD can evolve.

The stories of partnership that are hidden in the experiences of our programmes are powerful, sometimes frustrating but most of all inspiring accounts of building trust, power broking and brave initiatives. At the moment, democracy assistance and development cooperation are facing serious challenges due to a global economic and financial crisis, and criticism on the effectiveness of development cooperation. In the spirit of partnership, NIMD wants to share views on the challenges that both partners and NIMD face, and how these affect our efforts to strengthen democracy.

Based on past experiences and current challenges we aim to look forward and together plot future visions of the direction in which our partnership will evolve. How can we assure that our programmes continue to create impact and attract more support from (new) strategic partners?

Shared Stories
Upon return from the Partnership Days we hope to have been inspired and able to share some stories based upon the experiences shared with a larger audience as well. What effect can attending a Democracy School have for a person and a larger constituency? How do Zambian Political Parties view the Constitutional Reform Process? How does Kenya deal with the aftermath of the conflict during the elections? From sharing these stories, we look forward to learning from one another and improve our efforts even further.