Bringing South Asian Women Activists Together to Influence Their Governments, Improve the Status of Women

The success of WomenPowerConnect in India, formed with support from IFES’ Gender and Law Projectm, demonstrated the importance of giving women the power and advocacy skills to improve their status and influence legislation that affects them. This network of women and women’s groups successfully lobbied parliament to revive and pass a domestic violence bill in the fall of 2005, thanks to a closely coordinated and organized approach.

In partnership with the European Women’s Lobby and WomenPowerConnect, IFES proposes to bring together leaders of diverse women’s organizations from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for a three-day lobby training conference, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. During the conference participants will receive training in public interest lobbying and form a network of South Asian women’s organizations to continue sharing best practices and lessons learned as they apply the training in their home countries and work to influence policy.

Teaching Tolerance and Responsible Citizenship to Liberian Students

Following 14 years of civil war, Liberia held its first democratic elections in 2005. As the country emerged from these historic elections, the real challenge of rebuilding Liberia’s physical, economic and civic infrastructure is emerging. Signs of recovery in all these areas are evident. Sustaining or increasing this momentum, however, depends on the commitment of Liberian citizens to participate in the country’s recovery and to develop leaders, in this generation and the next, to ensure sustainable peace and democracy.

IFES will organize a 10-day Democracy Camp in Liberia for approximately 100 primary students (grades 7-8) from throughout Liberia. The camps will encourage leadership, skills-building and volunteerism among promising students who can transfer those skills to their peers. The camp’s curriculum and materials draw on IFES’ extensive experience organizing camps in Central Asia over the past several years. The camp in Liberia will be led by local organizations.

Answering the Call of the Supreme People’s Court to Assist with Adding a Mediation Component to the Chinese Court System

Government confiscation of real or personal property in both rural and urban areas has become one of China’s most sensitive, high-profile issues. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that mediation is not allowed under the law, and many courts refuse to accept property rights cases involving disputes against the government or party officials. The Supreme People’s Court has deemed it a high-priority initiative. As a result, the High Court in Jiangsu Province and the Soochow Law School sought immediate international technical assistance on the issue from IFES.

IFES will assist in drafting legislative amendments for the National People’s Congress to reform current Administrative Law to allow all courts in China to resolve complaints by citizens and businesses against government entities through mediation, particularly those relating to government confiscation of real or personal property. Through this project, funded by the Wallis Foundation, IFES hopes to empower the courts to enforce mediation agreements through traditional enforcement procedures; make courts more user-friendly, more efficient and less costly; reduce case backlogs; and enhance public and business community trust in the judicial system.

Capturing Historical Electoral Documents for Worldwide Online Access

The F. Clifton White Resource Center at IFES headquarters includes more than 10,000 historical electoral items collected worldwide by professional staff and consultants since 1987. Through this proposed project, library staff will work with IFES’ program staff to select sections of this collection, provide full bibliographic records for each item, digitize selected materials into an accessible electronic format and distribute that information online. This newly created online collection will be a valuable source of knowledge and tools for researchers, schools, public libraries, legislators, academics, the corporate community and others around the world.