"What's Being Done On...?"

For three months at a time, we highlight the activities of various organizations in different global regions, and links to important resources, that are focused on a particular theme or area of democracy work. Each new theme is announced via DemocracyNews, and the information from the previous installment is placed in the archives below. We hope to receive and post information about the work you or others may be doing that is focused on these issues. Send information via e-mail to the or by fax to (202) 378-9889.

Past Issues:

• (Aug. '07) Democracy NGO Participation in Formal Peace Negotiations?
  This installment highlights the emerging trend of NGO participation in formal peace talks and emphasizes the intrinsic value of inclusive and democratic processes when negotiating a country's future.
  
  
• (Feb. '07) Effective Networking
  This issue focuses on how networks emerge, how they work, and under what conditions they are able to operate most effectively.
  
  
• (Aug-Sept, '06) Memory Projects
  This installment features five case studies, each of which profiles an organization that maintains a physical site of memory, and provides information about its mission, the work it does, and the programs it runs. Interviews with representatives of these organizations present analyses of the challenges of constructing a memory site, strategies for confronting those challenges, and how the sites promote democracy through their work.
  
  
• (March-May, '06) Human Rights and Democracy in Turkey
  The Fourth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy took place in Istanbul in April 2006, and this installment thus focuses on Democracy and Human Rights in Turkey and how organizations within the country utilize different approaches to promote democratic values.
  
  
• (March-May, '05) Human Rights Networking
  This issue highlights different approaches to networking among organizations promoting and protecting human rights. Sections of this installment includes case studies that describe four different approaches to human rights networking.
  
  
• (Nov.-Jan, '05) Promoting Labor Rights
  This installment features four case studies of labor movements in countries with different levels of democratic development and in various regions of the world.
  
  
• (Aug-Oct, '04) Using Advocacy to Achieve Democratic Reform
  This installment highlights projects and organizations around the world whose work demonstrates how groups can advocate and interact with government to achieve institutional reform. Sections of this installment feature interviews with five World Movement participants who describe how they use advocacy to promote reform in their respective sectors, as well as a list of online publications on advocacy, including manuals, toolkits, resource web pages, and articles.
  
  
• (May-July, '04) Political and Civic Participation of Youth
  This issue highlights projects and organizations around the world that work to promote youth political and civic participation and build the capacity of young activists.
  
  
• (Oct-Nov, '03) Transparency, Accountability, and Access to Information
  This issue highlights projects and organizations around the world that work at the local, national, regional, and international levels to promote democratic governance, transparency, and accountability, and to fight corruption.
  
  
• (Jul-Aug, '03) Civic Education for Democracy
  This issue highlights projects and organizations around the world whose work reflects the important connections between democracy and civic education.
  
  
• (May-June, '03) Peace Building and Democracy
  This issue highlights projects and organizations around the world whose work reflects the important connections between conflict resolution and democracy, given that many of the same skills and much of the same knowledge, are crucial to both fields of work.
  
  
• (Oct-Nov, '02) Strengthening Local Governance
  This issue highlights democracy-building organizations and groups around the world that work to empower local communities to participate in local decision-making processes by promoting accountable, participatory, transparent, and efficient local governments.
  
  
• (Aug-Sept, '02) Women's Participation in Politics
  This issue highlights democracy-building organizations and groups around the world that promote women's access to leadership and decision-making positions, advocate for women's human rights, encourage equal participation, and provide voter education for women.
  
  
• (June-July, '02 ) Internet and Other Media
  This issue highlights organizations that utilize the Internet and other media as effective tools for conducing their democracy-building activities (advocacy, capacity building, civic education, news and information, and research).
  
  
• (Apr-May, '02) Cross-Border Assistance
  This installment hightlights he dynamic interaction among NGOs from different countries is an important means of promoting democracy, disseminating information, defending human rights, broadening understanding of democratic values, and building civic society and democratic institutions.
  
  
• (Feb-Mar, '02) Breakthrough Elections
  This issue focuses on elections that hold, or may hold, the potential for a significant "breakthrough" in defeating a nondemocratic regime.