“Former Legislators Strengthening Democracy Worldwide”
The purpose of the Global Democracy Initiative is to organize, train, and deploy Former Parliamentarians of Canada, Former Members of the European Parliament, and Former Members of the U.S. Congress as participants in democracy building activities such as election observation, democratic institution building, and supporting elected representatives in emerging democracies as they strive for free and transparent forms of good governance.
GDI intends to engage in several missions per year, and will play an active role in pre- and post-election democracy-building endeavors by itself and in cooperation with other international democracy-building institutions.
Founded in 2005, IEMI, now GDI, was created out of the universal idea that an international group of former legislators can add an important dimension to democracy building work in the many nations trying to set up a government based on transparency and rule of law. IEMI engages in three areas of expertise:
Meeting in Washington, the US Association of Former Members of Congress (FMC), the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians (CAFP) and the Former Members of the European Parliament Association, established the Global Democracy Initiative (GDl). Building on five successful years utilizing the unique skills of former legislators in overseas election observation as the International Election Monitors Institute, the partners have decided to expand the scope and outreach of the program by creating GDl.
The mission of this new initiative is to promote democracy around the world and to increase our portfolio of activities from election monitoring to working with countries before, during, and after elections, according to GDI’s new President, Leo Duguay, who is also president of the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians.
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