The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

NDI recently established a partnership with the Algerian Muslim Scouts (SMA) to encourage members to participate in public life. The SMA counts some 15,000 young men and women as leaders and 130,000 members across Algeria. By working together and building on a previous joint initiative to encourage civic education among young people, NDI and the SMA hope to inspire members to channel their energy into positive community action.

Responding to calls for electoral reform from civil society organizations in Jordan, a national grassroots coalition led by the National Center for Human Rights (NCHR) has launched a first-of-its-kind media and advocacy campaign to push for improvements in the country's election system. Over the past year, NCHR partnered with NDI to build the coalition, which is made up of more than 200 grassroots organizations and is the largest civil society coalition in Jordan.

The National Platform for Women, the culmination of a three-month collaboration and consensus-building effort by political party members, civil society activists and government officials from across Iraq, was launched in Baghdad last month in anticipation of Iraq's March 7 parliamentary elections.

Leveraging new media tools to extend an issue or candidate's reach is now a necessary component of campaigns of all kinds. In order to help the next generation of activists in the Middle East and North Africa adopt new media tools effectively, a group of civil society activists representing 11 countries gathered in Istanbul in November at an event organized by Aswat, an Arabic language website for Middle Eastern democratic activists.

Strengthening the building blocks of democratic legislatures – transparency, accountability, oversight, responsiveness and effective legislation – is among the goals of the House Democracy Partnership (HDP). HDP currently has 14 partner countries on five continents. Members of Parliament and staff members from four of those countries were involved in two programs that NDI organized with HDP this fall.

For the first time since Tunisia started holding multi-party elections a decade ago, political parties united to observe voting around the country. After months of preparation, with assistance from NDI, senior members of the Ettajdid (Renewal) Movement and the Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties (FDTL) deployed 400 party agents to polling stations on election day.