The Project provided peer advice, peer support and capacity building to political leaders and policy makers in Eastern Europe and North Africa.
On March 27, 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet announced that the United States and Estonia will co-chair a Working Group within the Community of Democracies (CD) to support a groundbreaking new effort to support leaders in emerging democracies – the LEND Network.On March 27, 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet announced that the United States and Estonia will co-chair a Working Group within the Community of Democracies (CD) to support a groundbreaking new effort to support leaders in emerging democracies – the LEND Network.
The LEND Network (for Leaders Engaged in New Democracies) leveraged expertise from the World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid, the world’s largest forum of democratically elected former presidents and prime ministers, and 21st century technologies developed by Google, OpenText, and Dialcom to connect leaders who have successfully navigated the challenges of democratization with leaders in emerging democracies.
Beginning in 2012, the project provided peer advice, peer support and capacity building to political leaders and policy makers in Moldova and Tunisia. The LEND Network generated the following outputs:
- A secure community that operated in a largely virtual setting with the goal of sharing information and expertise about democratization.
- The project deployed tools for online voice, video, and text communication along with new translation technology to address the cost and logistical barriers that have limited such efforts in the past.
- Sustained participation from a user base that brings together world class experts representing more than twenty countries.
- Four face-to-face meetings that brought together members of the Club de Madrid and participants of the LEND Network.
The Network provided a global forum for exchanging information and expertise on democratization from more than twenty countries and supported leaders as they work to build strong, accountable institutions and establish the rule of law.
The project has received generous financial support from the Government of Sweden and the United States Agency for International Development.
