Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

More focus on the political dimension – that is the message for international cooperation today. And it is the core business of NIMD. All our programmes centre and balance on the engagement of key political actors within programme countries in efforts to improve the performance of their political systems, the political parties and the relations of political society with civil society, the private sector and the media.

At the heart of the political reform process

Some NIMD programmes are right at the heart of political reform processes, such as the programmes in Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, Mali, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Guatemala, while others are evolving step by step in that direction. These programmes are deeply involved in peaceful constitutional or law reform processes which seek among other things to rebalance the powers of the Executives in relation to the Legislatives and the Judiciary; to review electoral systems with a view of making them more inclusive and representative for the different population groups (including improving gender balances), and to define the role of political parties and regulation of the public finances of parties to combat corruption.

NIMD’s contribution in this regards is directed both at the content of these reforms, to ensure better performance of democracy, and on the inclusivity of the process itself, to ensure greater legitimacy of the reforms through participation of the population. The additional focus on process is a key feature of the NIMD approach, which recognizes local ownership and inclusive dialogues to enhance trust and the culture of democratic practice in the programme countries. Institutional reforms may be supported but without internalizing these reforms in enhanced peaceful democratic practice (disagreeing without becoming disagreeable), reforms remain hollow facades.

International democracy assistance

With the launch of the new European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) in April 2008, NIMD gained a partner at the European level with a mandate to be a catalyst for expanding and harmonizing EU democracy assistance. The close relations between NIMD and EPD will ensure complimentarity between de national level from which NIMD operates and the European level at which EPD functions. Beyond the Netherlands, cooperation and synergy at the European level, including cooperation with bilateral agencies such as DFID of the UK and AECID from Spain, is the first priority in our networking activities.

Outside of Europe the cooperation with OECD, UNDP, Int IDEA, NDI, IRI and others remain important to increase the leverage of the combined international democracy support efforts. The multiparty approach of NIMD continues to remain pretty unique. The Finnish political parties have established an NIMD-style organization called DEMO and the Canadian government has recently accepted, following wide international consultations and research, the NIMD model while considering the modalities for its establishment. At the request of some of our international partners, NIMD intends to organize a small expert workshop with participants amongst others from International IDEA, WB, UNDP, OECD and EU to consider effective ways of supporting political society, and in particular parliaments and political parties, as contribution to more stable, legitimate and accountable democratic governance.

Centres for Multiparty Dialogue

A very important asset in the implementation of the NIMD programme is the institutionalization of the interparty dialogue by our partners in the Centres for Multiparty Dialogue (CMDs).The development of national democracy reform agendas, such as the Shared National Agenda in Guatemala and the recent Democratic Consolidation Strategy Paper (DCSP) in Ghana, through the inter-party dialogues shall be ‘best-practices’ for other programmes to aim for in 2009 and beyond. The institutionalization of the CMD’s will continue to be a priority in 2009 given the still very uneven institutional development of these young and innovative institutions. The continued successful cooperation with Berenschot, in the context of its corporate social responsibility, is a welcome contribution to the institutionalization process. It will in 2009 be extended to the institutionalization processes of political parties in selected programme countries.

The evolution of the partnership between NIMD and its counterparts in the programme countries will take a step forward in the planned third NIMD Partnership Days in 2009. This encounter will be another important peer review platform of lessons learned in the various programmes, it will also offer the NIMD Board of Directors a direct opportunity for a dialogue about and reflection of the cooperation with our partners around the world.

Institutional capacity

A second opportunity for an in-depth reflection during 2009 about the evolution of the NIMD programme and institutional capacity and arrangements, will take place on the basis of the outcome of the next external institutional evaluation, the second time in NIMD’s young history. Methodology, instruments and institutional set-up shall all be reviewed. In addition to the implementation of the annual programme itself, the external evaluation and the processing of its recommendations are expected to require concerted attention from the staff and governing bodies of NIMD. Evaluations, however, have become standard staple for NIMD’s work culture so we look forward it. Amongst democracy support organizations, NIMD has become known for regularly using external evaluations to review its policies and approaches.

With the various programmatic and institutional developments of NIMD, it is important to conclude that the core business of NIMD itself has not changed during the past years and will not change in 2009. Thus, the programme continues to centre on three objectives:

1) contributing to the reinforcement of the multiparty democratic system
2) supporting the institutional development of political parties
3) improving the cooperation on the political and civil society nexus.

All three objectives impact positively on greater accountability in governance in the NIMD programme countries, on more stability within countries and better conditions for durable development. We are encouraged to say that in 2008 we have seen some positive results of this impact which speak to the potential and the value of the pioneering, politically risky and at times intensely complex work NIMD and our country partners are engaged in. It is the work, which together with our national and international partners we look forward to continuing and extending - in 2009 and beyond.