For nearly two decades, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) has had official standing with Liberal International (LI), the global association of like-minded political parties. NDI’s relationship with LI underscores the Institute’s commitment to working with parties across the ideological spectrum and LI helps to position NDI to foster global multi-party cooperation on issues of party development. In recent years, the Institute’s partnership with LI has benefited NDI on a programmatic level on three key initiatives.
Most recently, and to deepen the NDI-LI partnership, the Institute is currently hosting Ms Tamara Dancheva, Head of LI’s Human Rights Programme. During her autumn fellowship, Ms Dancheva will work closely with the Gender, Women and Democracy Team to develop a party inclusivity barometer that will measure and propose recommendations to strengthen parties’ ability to include women and other marginalised groups within their structures. Under the auspices of the 21st Century Parties initiative, Ms Dancheva will also assist the Parties Team in creating toolkits to help parties achieve gender and inclusivity-related internal reforms. These toolkits will be part of the team’s Framework for Party Reformers, currently in development.
In 2013, LI expanded the reach of the Institute’s Win With Women global action plan by offering training to its member parties. More recently, LI has been a key partner in the launch and dissemination of NDI’s #NotTheCost campaign. LI has also been instrumental in the Institute’s 21st Century Parties initiative, which assists parties to respond to challenges that new political and technological contexts present. Representatives from two LI member parties participated in the initiative’s 2017 launch to reflect on themes from its Blueprint alongside the NDI’s Regional Political Party Initiative in Southeastern Europe. The parties then received assistance with identifying and designing internal reforms their parties could implement.
For more information on the Reflect, Reform, Re-engage Blueprint, please see this document.
