|
(June 28,
2007/ Manila) The Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD)
and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation jointly hosted a dinner in
honor of National Endowment for Democracy (NED) director for
South and Southeast Asia, Brian Joseph, and assistant program
officer, Jessica Gingerich yesterday at the FNF-CALD office.
Mr. Joseph
and Ms. Gingerich, who hold office at the NED headquarters in
Washington DC, are in the Philippines to assess the political
situation and explore opportunities for increased NED
involvement in the country.
NED is a
partner of the National Democratic Institute for International
Affairs or NDI.
Way back in
January 2002, NDI and CALD held a workshop on Political Party
Strategies to combat corruption in Bangkok. This groundbreaking
project was aimed at supporting political parties in their
efforts to implement internal anti-corruption reforms through
enhanced democracy, accountability, and transparency in party
structures and practices. In this workshop, political parties of
various persuasions from eight countries sat down together under
to candidly assess gaps and shortcomings or party structures and
organizations and the bigger political context where parties
operate. Political parties, especially in Asia, leave much to be
desired. But ever the optimists, CALD and NDI, fully cognizant
of the fact that political parties are part of the problem, but
they can also be part of the solution.
Another
workshop was held a year and a half later and this time, it was
expanded to include academia, civil society and mass media.
A result of
these two workshops was CALD and NDIs electoral missions in 2004
where Asia had a record number of elections. The mission covered
Taipei, Jakarta, Seoul and Manila.
Earlier the
two NED officials met with CALD and FNF’s Resident
Representative Siegfried Herzog for a briefing on each others
key areas of concern and work and opportunities for closer
cooperation.
CALD
Secretary General Neric Acosta, MP; CALD Executive Director John
Coronel and CALD Program Officers Paolo Zamora and Carlo
Religioso attended the meeting.
The meeting
focused on the democratic works and advocacies of the two
organizations and possible areas for cooperation in the future.
The NED is a
private, non-profit organization that strengthens democratic
institutions around the world through non-governmental efforts.
It offers hundreds of grants each year to support pro-democracy
groups in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin
America, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union.
 |
