Countries gathered in Seoul differ on many aspects. They have one fundamental thing in common though: they all believe democratic systems and societies are the ones that do more for the people, that achieve the highest levels of social and individual development.

Democracy has to start and grow from the grass root level. It often does, even in those countries that have not experienced democracy, or that are not experiencing it for the time being. Even in such countries, peoples aspire for democracy and freedom, for the chance to feel they are part of their countries’ progress.

Nevertheless, foreign assistance is often, if not always, needed to convert the plea of a people for democracy in a living reality.

Democracy assistance focuses on main aspects such as the judiciary, public administration and electoral processes. The rule of law, the respect for human rights, the independence of the judiciary, a reliable, capable and well-structured public administration are foundations of a sound and successful democracy. In countries where democracy is taking its first steps electoral assistance is also very important for it provides guidance thus allowing that well established standards can be complied with.

Democracy Assistance has been on the top of the Community of Democracies’ agenda since the Warsaw Conference. In the UNDP Planning Meeting, under the auspices of the Community, it was again the object of thorough discussions. Our goal today is to pursue this path, thus discovering new options and solutions for the future.

I. The role of multilateral and regional organisations

Regional and multilateral organisations are privileged fora for promoting and defending democracy. They have the means that countries, when acting isolated, do not possess. Therefore, they play a key role in coordinating democracy assistance.

The UN is of course, due to its universal inspiration, the first organisation that should be mentioned and the most important one. Although the UN does not profess a particular type of government, its work for peace and good relations among countries, as well as for development and the eradication of poverty, has to be considered as crucial. Besides that, the UN through its agencies and missions has supported democratic processes throughout the world. The UNDP has even recognized the importance of democracy in meeting its central objective of poverty reduction and allocates 50% of its resources to democracy-based programmes.

Organisations like the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the EU and within it the European Commission, the IDEA, the AU, the SADC, the Commonwealth, the Organisation of Francophone States, the Community of Portuguese speaking countries, the ASEAN, the OAS, the Andean Community, the Caribbean Community, amongst others, are regional and multilateral organisations that in a variety of ways contribute to promote, to defend and to consolidate democracies within their ranges of action.

These organisations have acted in the past in such a way that their role should be considered as a pivotal one.

a) How can these organizations better cooperate to maximize the impact of their actions?

Efforts to improve the communication and the exchange of ideas between these organisations are already undergoing in order to make the best use of the available resources. Concrete steps have been taken by some of them to achieve that goal. This might be a path worthwhile to further explore.

II. The role of donor countries

Although countries might not have some of the know-how that organisations possess, they also benefit a lot from their close relation with a country or region. Historical and cultural ties often close that gap and create relations of close cooperation.

Therefore, bilateral assistance continues to play an important role.

a) How can countries also work together to create synergies?

The fact that more than one player is usually involved in assisting a country is a positive one. It is not unusual to find a country where there are different projects ongoing, led by different entities – countries and organizations. That factor should be capitalized on.

One possibility would be that one of those entities could lead the process, by identifying the specific needs of a given country and by making sure that the individual projects would be integrated in a wider and consolidated plan.

III. Identifying priorities

This item is in close relation to the previous one. Both result from the need to make the most of the available resources and to rationalize them in the most effective way.

Whereas many countries have a need for different kinds of assistance and cooperation in many different fields, it is obvious that democracy assistance has to focus on some of them. The identification of countries that need this assistance the most is therefore essential. Young and restored democracies could constitute the core of this assistance. Countries facing transitional processes are also of particular sensitivity and should be given close attention. This panel could find ways of avoiding that a country in need is forgotten just because it has not captured the media attention.

IV. Making the most of the available resources

The international community faces big challenges today. Countries and organisations, in their quest for global stability and development, have to respond to a multiplicity of situations.

In trying to promote and consolidate democracies around the world, we are not only acting in accordance to our interests but also with our beliefs and values.

Nevertheless resources are not unlimited. Our challenge today is how to enhance democracy assistance with the available resources and to find new and inventive ways of doing it.

a) Creating lasting conditions and structures

It is no secret that part of the solution is to provide young democracies with adequate structures that will allow them to resolve the difficulties, the obstacles and the setbacks that always happen in the process of consolidating a democracy.

b) Identifying the problems

It is important to identify specific areas where assistance is more needed. This has to be done on a case-by-case basis. Whereas a country might have a specific problem with the unpreparedness of its administration, on another case the lack of progress and economic difficulties could generate a sense of disbelief.

Those that provide assistance should be prepared to respond to these different challenges while keeping sight of the wider perspective.

V. Acting

All said, there comes the moment when action is needed. All the principles that have been stated have to be translated into concrete measures and actions. Some of them have already been referred or suggested: sharing experiences and best practices; providing assistance in terms of the legal system, of the judiciary, of the military and of the police; providing assistance to the public administration, not only in terms of its structure but also of the training of the personnel; electoral assistance; human rights education.

The role of the civil society, of NGO’s and the people in general is also a pivotal one. An educated, interested and active civil society is essential for the consolidation of democracy.

The links between economic development and equality of opportunities, the freedom of the press, the rights of minorities, the respect for international law and standards and democracy are also obvious. Countries with democratic experience can do much in order to help those that are taking its first steps on this field.

Cooperation between parliaments can also bring an added value into this process.

In the referred UNDP Planning Meeting some constructive proposals were put forward, that can be further discussed here:

• establish a ad-hoc committee that looks at existing mechanisms of cooperation at the global level,
• commit to develop country level mechanisms, led by a particular donor,
• formalise like minded countries into a working group that is action-oriented and provides products to be picked up by others,
• create a venue for lessons learned to be discussed and transmitted to the country level, which can be done in coordination/cooperation with the DAC, GOVNET and UNDP.