Page 387 - A READY RECKONER

Brief Profiles of Countries, EMBs and Partner Organisations of A-WEB

by supplementing existing sources of capital assistance tion-building, political participation and representation.
by means of grants and loans; and UN Volunteers, which We also address issues of gender, diversity, and conflict
fields over 6,500 volunteers from 160 countries, serving and security.
with 38 UN partners in support of peace, security, human
rights, humanitarian delivery and development through Namibia as the current Chair of the Council of Member
volunteerism worldwide. States of International IDEA, in conjunction with the Inter-
national IDEA Secretariat, is hosting the 2018 Annual De-
mocracy Forum (ADF). The ADF is a global event in which
International IDEA Member States and partners, policy-
makers, civil society organizations and representatives of
academia come together to discuss a specific theme and
formulate recommendations and proposals with the ob-
jective of promoting a specific democracy-related issue.

INTERNATIONAL IDEA

International IDEA is a global organization of nearly 200
staff members. There are people who are working across
offices in 18 countries to support stronger democratic in-
stitutions and processes, and sustainable, effective and
legitimate democracy.
THE INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR
The organization is governed by its Statutes, the latest of ELECTORAL SySTEMS (IFES)
which entered into force November 2008. Membership in
International IDEA is open to governments which demon- The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)
strate, by example in their own state, their commitment is an international, non-profit organization founded in
to the rule of law, human rights, the basic principles of 1987. Based in Arlington, VA - this organization helps de-
democratic pluralism and strengthening democracy. velop and provides assistance and support for elections
in new and emerging democracies. Since 1987, IFES has
Since our founding in 1995, International IDEA has helped provided assistance in 145 countries and currently has
election management bodies (EMBs), civil society orga- programs in more than 20 countries throughout Asia-Pa-
nizations (CSOs), and other state and non-state actors to cific, Africa, Eurasia, Middle East and North Africa, and
support and restore the integrity of electoral processes Americas.
and institutions.
According to IFES. They works to advance good gover-
Kevin Casas-Zamora, PhD is the Secretary-General of In- nance and democratic rights by:
ternational IDEA since 1 August 2019.
 Providing technical assistance to election
Casas-Zamora brings more than 25 years of experience officials;
in democratic governance as a researcher, analyst, ed-
ucator, consultant and public official. He embodies the  Empowering the under-represented to
rare combination of a distinguished academic career— participate in the political process;
strongly focused on electoral systems and democratic  Applying field-based research to improve the
institutions—with practical experience as a high-level electoral cycle.
public official in his home country as well as multilateral
organizations. IFES is supervised by a Board of Directors made up of
Democrats, and Republicans politician and members of
We develop comparative knowledge, assist in democrat- the international community. The current president of
ic reform, and influence policies and politics, focusing in IFES is Anthony Banbury. He replaced Bill Sweeney in
three main impact areas: electoral processes, constitu- 2018.

367

00 A-WEB Book-1.indb 367 18-09-2020 15:43:20