NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE (NDI) 

Strengthening and promotion of democratic processes

The National Democratic Institute (NDI), with headquarters in Washington D.C., was formed in 1983 with one general objective: to strengthen the democratic institutions and pluralistic values in the new democracies and the ones in development. Nowadays, NDI carries out its activity on four continents, in numerous local offices, responding to the needs of the newly-democratic societies and in that context, cooperating with the non-governmental organizations as a meaningful participant in the democratic processes.

NDI is a non-governmental, non-party and non-profitable organization independent organization which has a big influence in the USA and all around the world. This organization has been present in Macedonia since 1993. About its activities in our country we talked to Mrs. Sheila Fruman, a director of the local NDI office in Macedonia.

- Putting into practice our objective – democracy promotion in Macedonia, in this period of almost ten years, we have been cooperating with the parliamentary bodies, political parties, experts and non-governmental organizations in Macedonia. NDI was active in the period before and around the local elections in 2002 and we also have some activities related to the forthcoming, parliamentary elections 2002. In this period before the elections we have been working on several levels. We have been cooperating with the political parties carrying out training courses for the campaign and the candidates for members of parliament. We have also implemented a training course for parties’ controllers. Around 1000 parties’ activists and candidates have been trained on our training courses. On non-governmental and non-party level, we have been cooperating with the citizens’ association “Most”, supporting it financially, through giving advice, consultations and training courses. NDI has worked with political parties in order to develop the Codex of behavior for liberal and fair elections, signed by the leaders of 29 political parties in Macedonia. The “Most” association is working on monitoring the implementation in practice of this Codex, says Mrs. Fruman.

The activities of the National Democratic Institute in Macedonia are supported by USAID (United States Agency for International Development). NDI’s work directed towards strengthening and promotion of democratic processes in our country is going to continue after the electoral process and the cooperation with the non-governmental organizations is going to be one of its key elements.

M.I