Council for a Community of Democracies

Robert LaGamma Elected President of the Council for a Community of Democracies

October 14, 2008 The Board of Directors of the Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD) has elected Robert R. LaGamma as President of CCD, a nongovernmental organization, which established its headquarters in Washington, D.C. in January of 2001 following the founding of the 120-nation, Community of Democracies in Warsaw, Poland, in 2000. Mr. LaGamma succeeds Dick Rowson whose retirement after serving five years as President was announced by CCD Chair, Robert Hunter, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, at a CCD Board meeting earlier this month.

Bob LaGamma has been Executive Director of CCD since the opening of its office in January 2001. He served for 36 years in the Foreign Service of the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and was Director of USIA’s Office of African Affairs. He is a recipient of USIA’s Edward R. Murrow award for excellence in public diplomacy. Since his retirement he has been a senior fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, managed the Carter Center’s election monitoring project in Nigeria, consulted for the National Democratic Institute in the Congo and was a member of a U.S. Department of State team inspecting the American Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. He is a member of the U.S. National Commission on UNESCO and of the nongovernmental International Steering Committee of the Community of Democracies. During his years with CCD he has led the organization’s initiative on democracy education, organized regional roundtables on issues of democracy in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas and been responsible for a major conference in Budapest on democracy transitions with implications for the Middle East and North Africa.

Chairman Hunter also announced the appointment of Dick Rowson as Vice President of the Board of Directors. He praised Rowson’s remarkable accomplishments including CCD’s transition from a U.S.-based NGO into the leader of a global network providing a strong “voice” for civil society within the Community of Democracies through a nongovernmental International Steering Committee, which CCD organized and leads and which acts on behalf of democracy activists in the five main regions of the world by linking their needs to government action. Other CCD initiatives on democracy include:

Formulation of a “Global Strategic Plan for Democracy Education,” which CCD is now helping the Community of Democracies implement, worldwide
Production of A Diplomat’s Handbook for Democracy Development Support and promotion of its use by diplomats working with civil society leaders
Advocacy of a UN Democracy Caucus comprised of the 120 democracies participating in the Community of Democracies, established in 2004 at the UN
Organization of an International Centre for Democratic Transition in Budapest, which CCD envisaged and the Community of Democracies endorsed
Creation of a Permanent Secretariat for the Community long advocated by CCD and now established in Warsaw, Poland with links to the CCD-led Secretariat of the nongovernmental International Steering Committee
Conception of the UN Democracy Fund founded in 2006, capitalized by over 40 democratic governments; it has dispensed over $70 million in grants in 2007/08 primarily to civil society organizations, including to CCD’s civil society program

Contact Person:
Joshua Silva, Former Administrative and Program Officer
(202-789-9771)