 | | IFES PRESIDENT VISITS UKRAINE TO SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH STAFF AND PARTNERS, PLAN FOR THE FUTURE | | “I am moved by the determination of my colleagues to continue IFES’ work in the face of the most grievous challenges, and to continue the fight for democracy in Ukraine,” - Tony Banbury, IFES President and CEO On March 26, 2022, IFES President and CEO Tony Banbury and Senior Country Director for Ukraine Peter Erben crossed the Polish border into Ukraine to meet with IFES staff who had relocated from Kyiv to western Ukraine. They also met with IFES partners in Ukraine, including members of the Central Election Commission and representatives of civil society organizations. Despite the Russian Federation’s invasion, IFES continues to support Ukraine’s democratic institutions and organizations. Learn More | |
|  | | THE DARK SIDE OF DEMOCRACY | | “We need to talk about the dark side of money in politics. Dirty money. Foreign money. Illicit, opaque, crypto, gray and black.” Director of the IFES Center for Anti-Corruption and Democratic Trust Katherine Ellena and Director of the Center for Applied Research Erica Shein addressed the insidious impact of dark money on democracy in Foreign Policy magazine. This op-ed was written in concert with last month’s Foreign Policy Virtual Dialogue: Corruption and Democratic Decay. Read the op-ed Watch the event | |
|  | | IFES CHAMPIONS GLOBAL DISABILITY COMMITMENTS | | IFES is honored that the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) made their support of IFES’ disability rights work one of their commitments to the Global Disability Summit, hosted by the International Disability Alliance (IDA), the government of Norway and the government of Ghana in February 2022. IFES’ commitments are in line with Strategic Outcome Three of IFES’ Five-Year Strategic Plan adopted in 2019: All people safely participate in civic and political life on an equal basis. Learn more | |
|  | | V-DEM DISCUSSION OF 2022 DEMOCRACY REPORT | | On Thursday, April 7, IFES and the Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem) hosted a discussion about the 2022 V-Dem Democracy Report. Despite global democratic backsliding and increased authoritarianism, extensive evidence collected by V-Dem reaffirms that democratic governments perform much better than authoritarian regimes in key areas of development, including economic growth, security, public health and the provision of public goods. These findings offer an important opportunity to consider how democracy champions can leverage data to both debunk the autocratic narrative and to fight for democracy and guarantee its benefits, domestically and globally. Read the report and watch the discussion | |
|  | | IFES ENDORSES INTERNATIONAL OPEN DATA CHARTER PRINCIPLES | | IFES is pleased to announce our endorsement of the International Open Data Charter Principles. These principles state “open data is digital data that is made available with the technical and legal characteristics necessary for it to be freely used, reused, and redistributed by anyone, anytime, anywhere.” Open data can help rebuild trust between people and government. The IFES Center for Anti-Corruption and Democratic Trust will continue to draw upon these sources and encourage IFES partners to do the same. Read the endorsement | |
| |  | | BE SOCIAL
Please click below to like and share! IFES President and CEO Anthony Banbury visited IFES staff and partners in Africa and Europe. |
| | | | | | | | |  | |  | | DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGES IN EUROPE: RECENT ELECTIONS IN SERBIA AND HUNGARY - WHAT LIES AHEAD? | | Where is democracy in Europe heading? Earlier this month, Serbian and Hungarian citizens went to the polls to cast their votes. As expected, Aleksandar Vucic remains President of Serbia while Viktor Orban remains Prime Minister of Hungary. What do these outcomes mean for these countries and the rest of Europe? What are the democratic challenges connected to the outcome of these elections and are we going to see more countries struggle to uphold democratic values and rule of law? Join us virtually for an in depth discussion on these issues Thursday, April 28 from 9-10:15 AM EST/UTC-5 | | Register for the event | |
|  | |  | | IFES WELCOMES NEW BOARD MEMBERS | | IFES is pleased to announce two new Board members: Garvin Brown, former Chairman of Brown-Forman Corp.; and Gregori Lebedev, Chairman of the Center for International Private Enterprise. IFES is also deeply grateful for the service of Rob Nabors and Denise Napier, who both stepped down from the IFES Board in December 2021.
Learn more about our board | |
|  | | | IFES WELCOMES NEW SENIOR COLLEAGUES | | IFES is pleased to announce its three newest experts: Emad Yousef, Country Director, Libya; Matt Bailey, Senior Cyber and Information Integrity Advisor, Center for Anti-Corruption and Democratic Trust; Jordan Shipley, Legal and Anti-Corruption Senior Officer, Center for Anti-Corruption and Democratic Trust. WORK WITH IFES IFES is a great place to work! IFES is hiring for a variety of positions at our headquarters in Arlington, Virginia and our field offices worldwide. Among the open positions are: - Deputy Director of Strategic Communications, Headquarters
- Communications Officer, Headquarters
- Chief of Party – Central Europe Program-Prague, Czech Republic
- Election and Civil Society Capacity Advisor / Angola Country Representative
Join us! | | | IFES MENTIONS | | IFES programs, experts and research are regularly featured in the media. We value the opportunity to highlight the importance of democracy assistance and further our mission to build democracies that deliver for all. Asia-Pacific: Pacific Community reported on its recent webinar on open data, which IFES participated in. Armenia: Armenian State Pedagogical University reported on IFES' Jérôme Leyraud visiting the university to give a guest lecture. Brazil: Reuters reported on the Supreme Electoral Court for the first time inviting the EU to observe its general elections, which IFES was also invited to observe. Colombia: El Colombiano interviewed National Registrar Alexander Vega about electoral security in the Colombian elections, in which he mentioned IFES' role as an observer. Democratic Republic of Congo: 7sur7 reported on CENI efforts to fix the under-representation of women in elections and mentioned IFES' Sylla Mountaga. Actualite reported on the Independent National Electoral Commission's workshop on gender policy and inclusion, which Mountaga participated in. Honduras: Canal 6 reported on IFES hosting a workshop on auditing campaign financial reports. India: Daiji World reported on the Election Commission's international poll visitors' event, attended by IFES. Indonesia: Antara News reported on Indonesia holding general elections and regional head elections simultaneously in 2024 and quoted IFES' Joanne McCallum. Papua New Guinea: Loop PNG reported on an election awareness training workshop for media personnel, hosted in partnership with IFES. Nigeria: Business Day Nigeria reported on the delay of printing of Permanent Voters' Cards for new registrants and quoted IFES' Seray Jah on IFES’ support of the INEC. The Guardian Nigeria reported on the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission and IFES partnering to hold a training on improving voter participation. United States: Google's the Keyword published an article on their plans to support the U.S. 2022 midterm elections and mentioned their collaboration with IFES. Visit Our Newsroom for More | | |
| | FOLLOW THE GLOBAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON ELECTIONS | | Elections around the world have been impacted by COVID-19. IFES continues to track the latest information on election postponements, adjusted election dates and risk-mitigating strategies adopted during elections. | |
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