2 Steps Back for Pakistan’s NGOs

August 4th, 2008 by Sarah

Pakistan’s Commission for Human Development (NCHD),  has been closed down due to financial constraints, leaving 80,000 employees jobless. The Commission sought to strengthen Pakistan’s Government Line Departments and non-governmental organizations while improving education, literacy and the provision of basic healthcare services.

Many, including Uzma Zafar in The Daily Mail, strongly oppose the decision, and claim that Pakistan’s government’s refusal to fund the Commission proves that “democracy is nothing more than a fad.”

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Posted in Democracy Promotion, NGOs, Pakistan | Comment »

Democracy Promotion By American NGOs

August 1st, 2008 by Sarah

An April 2008 paper, entitled “U.S. Interests in the Arab World: Democracy Promotion By American NGOs,” by Zoe Nautre has just been made available in English translation.  Nautre analyzes the change in U.S. foreign policy toward the region, from having little interest in shaping the political and social realms of Arab countries to using democracy as a tool to neutralize terrorist threats. After reviewing the the key NGO players, Nautre argues that their work in promoting democracy was undermined from the get-go by the State Department and USAID because “short-term gains in the War on Terror were for the most part regarded as more valuable than a long-term approach.”

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Posted in Democracy Promotion, NGOs, US foreign policy | Comment »

Steve Coll to head New America Foundation

July 24th, 2007 by Shir

On the Washington Note, Steve Clemons lauds the appointment of Steve Coll to head the New America Foundation. He says of Coll, “[He] gets the big picture need to tilt foreign policy and national security work towards the empirical and pragmatic rather than positions fashioned mostly by ideology or inertia.”

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