UNDEF funds, helps design, manages, mentors, and generates projects that contribute to strengthening democracy
Launched early in 2019, an UNDEF project seeks to amplify the rights and voices of Syrian women and girls and increase their participation in social, political and cultural life. Tools include radio programmes that discuss violations of basic rights as well as economic and psychological challenges. Beneficiaries include 500,000 diaspora Syrians across Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
In Colombia, Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa is working to improve the quality of news from rural areas or so called information deserts, particularly those affected by armed conflict. Supported by UNDEF, a mobile Journalism Lab provides training in journalism skills for local leaders and active citizens in towns where a decades long armed conflict has established the ideal conditions for silence and censorship.
The annual Athens Democracy Forum was held on 9-11 October 2019, in association with The New York Times, the UN Democracy Fund and the City of Athens. This year’s programme centred around the theme Reinventing Democracy: New Models for our Changing World...
UNDEF joined forces with International IDEA and the Inter-Parliamentary Union on 16 September 2019 to mark the International Day of Democracy with an event at UN Headquarters focused on participation and inclusion.
Almost 50 two-year projects totalling almost ten million dollars have been approved for UNDEF’s 13th Round of funding. In this Round, UNDEF received 2,307 project proposals from organizations in 141 countries, the vast majority local civil society organizations in Africa, Arab States, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean...
UNDEF Executive Head Annika Savill chaired a session of a Chatham House conference on Kofi Annan's legacy in June 2019, in which panellists included Raila Odinga, Kenya's former Prime Minister.
