Experts to Devise Global Strategy on Teaching Democracy

Washington -- Thirty-five educators, civic leaders and officials from around the world will meet with representatives of international organizations at the Rockefeller Estate, Pocantico, in Tarrytown, New York June 8-10 to devise a global strategy to advance teaching about democracy.

The Pocantico Conference is being organized by the Washington-based private organization, the Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD), and is co-sponsored by the American Forum for Global Education, headquartered in New York City.

Participants in the conference will include experts in the field from India, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Ghana, Mexico, Chile, Tunisia, Morocco, Russia, Poland, Latvia and the United States. Also attending will be education and democracy specialists of the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program, UNESCO and the Organization of American States.

They will be joined by counterparts from U.S. Government agencies including the Department of State, USAID and the Department of Education, as well as a dozen leaders of American non-governmental organizations with substantial experience in developing programs with overseas partners.

During their three days of deliberation, participants will examine regional barriers to democracy education found in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Americas and Europe. They also will explore cultural and religious problems confronting the teaching of democratic ideals. And they will explore ways to assure better donor coordination and greater funding to meet a variety of international needs and to find ways of sharing some of the more successful lessons learned over the past decade.

The conference grows out of the Community of Democracies movement that first met in June 2000 in Warsaw, where over 100 governments and democracy activists and advocates pledged themselves to a declaration of principles in support of democratic values. At the time of the Warsaw Conference and ever since, the Community of Democracies has consistently voiced strong support for education for democracy as an important tool in the effort to consolidate democratic expansion.

The Pocantico Conference was called for by a panel on democracy education of the Non-Governmental Forum of the Community of Democracies held in Seoul, Korea in November 2002. At that forum, 52 participants from 27 countries concluded that the spread of democracy around the world since the Cold War's end had been an historic achievement. However, many of them noted that while that historic process has rid the world of many despots, it also has resulted in the creation of fragile and feeble democracies that have not fully met citizen expectations.

At the close of the Seoul Ministerial gathering, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky cited agreement to move ahead on education for democracy as one of the Conference's most enduring achievements.

At Seoul, panelists concluded that to shore up many new democracies it is urgent that political cultures be transformed and that the culture of democracy be taught to the citizens of those countries. They argued that more resources are needed to carry out that transformation through the schools as well as through the efforts of civil society. They also called for a more concerted, sustained effort on the part of donor countries and multilateral institutions in partnership with community groups and other non-governmental organizations.

In describing the Pocantico Conference, Robert LaGamma, Executive Director of the sponsoring organization, observed, "We live in an age in which people around the world are insisting that they participate in shaping decisions that affect their lives. Only democratic institutions can give them the participation they seek in public life. But so often free elections alone fail to do the trick." He added, "Citizens in new and fragile democracies must learn how to participate in building representative government. They must understand the democratic ideals enshrined in their constitutions and they must get involved in the process of perfecting their democracy."

Participants in the Pocantico Conference expect to work together to forge a plan that will implement the Seoul recommendations so that a major international campaign can be waged to instill democratic values in the minds of children and other citizens on all continents. Council for the Community of Democracies President Dick Rowson noted that "for the first time in history, nations have committed themselves to strengthening democracy through an education for democracy global initiative."

The conference is funded with the help of a grant from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the U.S. Department of State. It is hosted by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.