World Movement for Democracy
The participants adopted a Founding Statement[3] launching the World Movement "to strengthen democracy where it is weak, to reform and invigorate democracy even where it is longstanding, and to bolster pro-democracy groups in countries that have not yet entered into a process of democratic transition."It is intended to unite the global community of democracy advocates and practitioners; to facilitate exchanges of information, knowledge, and experiences; and to build cross-border solidarity.The World Movement is led by an international steering committee, and NED currently serves as its secretariat.The World Movement has held eleven global assemblies[2] including its founding in New Delhi in 1999: São Paulo, Brazil (2000); Durban, South Africa (2004); Istanbul, Turkey (2006); Kyiv, Ukraine (2008); Jakarta, Indonesia (2010); Lima, Peru (2012);[5] Seoul, South Korea (2015); Darkar, Senegal (2018); the tenth global assembly was held virtually in 2021; Taipei, Taiwan (2022).[7] It has also initiated two major projects[8] as a result of assembly discussions: The Defending Civil Society project was launched in 2006 in collaboration with the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) to respond to efforts among an increasing number of governments to close down civil society space, particularly for democracy and human rights groups, through new “NGO laws” and restrictions on international funding.