The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) is a democracy assistance organization that supports political parties in developing democracies. Our approach is characterized by interparty dialogue: we bring parties together and encourage them to cooperate on political issues. This is crucial to establish the right environment for a country’s democratic development.
Furthermore, we assist political parties to become more responsive and policy-focused. We do this by strengthening the programmatic and organizational capacity of the parties. Special attention is paid to empowering members of marginalized groups.
To foster the democratic culture in a country, NIMD also provides political education programmes for (aspiring) politicians. These programmes focus on democratic values, knowledge and skills.
In general, politicians are much more interested in learning from fellow politicians than from project managers and consultants. Therefore, in all our programmes, we actively stimulate knowledge sharing between politicians by organizing international exchanges and networking events.
NIMD seeks to make an impact on three levels: political system, actor, and culture. These levels are interrelated. For instance, political parties can only take up their role if the political system and environment allow them to do so. At the same time, democratic systems need political parties and democrats in order to function and provide the stability and conditions needed for development. That is why the actor and culture level are also important.
We believe that real change can only be realized and sustained through country programmes. Currently, NIMD runs programmes in more than 20 countries in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. In the country programmes, we also incorporate international and regional developments because they also impact the socioeconomic development of countries.
