World Movement for Democracy is an international network of individuals and organizations who share the common goal of promoting

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

. The World Movement was launched in February 1999 when the

National Endowment for Democracy The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is an organization in the United States that was founded in 1983 for promoting democracy in other countries by promoting political and economic institutions such as political groups, trade unions, ...

(NED) and two nongovernmental organizations in India brought together a cross-section of democracy activists, practitioners, and scholars from over 80 countries in New Delhi for discussions of ways to advance democracy. The participants adopted a Founding Statement launching the World Movement "to strengthen democracy where it is weak, to reform and invigorate democracy even where it is longstanding, and to bolster pro-democracy groups in countries that have not yet entered into a process of democratic transition." It is intended to unite the global community of democracy advocates and practitioners; to facilitate exchanges of information, knowledge, and experiences; and to build cross-border solidarity. The World Movement is led by an international steering committee, and NED currently serves as its secretariat. A "network of networks", the World Movement has led to the establishment of regional networks, including the

African Democracy Forum The African Democracy Forum (ADF), is a regional network launched in Abuja, Nigeria in October 2000. It comprises civil society organisations, media institutions, community based organisations, academic institutions and donor entities that work on d ...

(ADF), the Latin America and Caribbean Network for Democracy (LAC Network), and the World Forum for Democratization in Asia (WFDA), as well as functional global networks, including the Global Network on Local Governance (GNLG), the International Women’s Democracy Network (IWDN), the

Network of Democracy Research Institutes Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

(NDRI), and the

World Youth Movement for Democracy The World Youth Movement for Democracy (WYMD) was created in 2004 at the Third Assembly of the World Movement in Durban South Africa by an international body of young democracy and human rights activists. WYMD is a branch of the World Movement for ...

(WYMD). The World Movement has held five global assemblies since its founding in New Delhi in 1999: São Paulo, Brazil (2000); Durban, South Africa (2004); Istanbul, Turkey (2006); Kyiv, Ukraine (2008); and Jakarta, Indonesia (2010). It has also initiated two major projects as a result of assembly discussions: The Defending Civil Society project was launched in 2006 in collaboration with the

International Center for Not-for-Profit Law International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

(ICNL) to respond to efforts among an increasing number of governments to close down civil society space, particularly for democracy and human rights groups, through new “NGO laws” and restrictions on international funding.

References

External links

* {{Election Organizations Organizations based in Washington, D.C. National Endowment for Democracy