By Jhr. mr. Alexander W. Beelaerts van Blokland, Justice (Judge) in the (Dutch) Court of Appeal and honorary Special Advisor International Affairs, appointed by the City of The Hague.
On Tuesday September 15th, the first day of the political year 2015 / 2016 (‘Prinsjesdag’), at 3.30 pm all ambassadors, members of Dutch Parliament and policy makers have been invited for a network event organized by two organizations: ProDemos and The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD).
The venue will be ProDemos, Hofweg 1 in The Hague, just across the Binnenhof (Parliament Building). At 4.15 pm the very well known Dr. Paul Scheffer, professor of European Studies at Tilburg University, will talk about the issue of immigration, a hot topic in the Netherlands and in Europe. Ambassadors can apply by sending an e-mail to aanmelden@prodemos.nl.
ProDemos is the House for Democracy and the Rule of Law and quite well known, but the other organizer NIMD is perhaps of more interest for diplomats, especially for those from developing countries.
NIMD stands for ‘The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy’. It is a democracy assistance organization that supports political parties in developing countries. NIMD was founded in 2000 by seven Dutch political parties.
This multiparty identity provides NIMD with the legitimacy and unique opportunity to work on a impartial basis with all parties in a country and encourages dialogues between them. NIMD’s work is indeed characterized by interparty dialogue: NIMD brings political parties together and encourages them to cooperate on political issues.
This is crucial to establish the right environment for a country’s democratic development. Furthermore, NIMD assists political parties to become more responsive and policy-focused. NIMD does that by strengthening the programmatic and organizational capacity of the parties. Special attention is paid to empowering members of marginalized groups. And 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.
NIMD always works with local partner organizations or country offices. They have knowledge of the people and the political culture of a country and are perceived as trustworthy by the politicians. This allows them to advise and bring politicians together. Currently, NIMD works in more than twenty countries in Africa, Latin America, South East Asia and Eastern Europe.
