October 11, 2017 was International Day of the Girl Child. This year’s theme was ‘EmPOWER Girls: Before, during and after crises.’ According to the United Nations, adolescent girls in conflict zones are 90 percent more likely to be out of school compared to their peers in conflict-free countries. We know, from experience, that although women often make […]
October 11, 2017 was International Day of the Girl Child. This year’s theme was ‘EmPOWER Girls: Before, during and after crises.’ According to the United Nations, adolescent girls in conflict zones are 90 percent more likely to be out of school compared to their peers in conflict-free countries. We know, from experience, that although women often […]
Guest blog by Shannon O’Connell. An edited version of this article on gender equality in political parties appears in an upcoming publication of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs on 21st Century political parties. Gender equality. It’s a phrase that has influenced much of the political debate in recent years, and it’s an important […]
Guest post by Eva Maydell (Paunova), MEP A crude piece of graffiti adorns a street wall in Sofia, Bulgaria. ‘If elections changed anything, they’d be outlawed’ it reads. It has been there since the early 90s, back when the country’s sharply bi-polar political system and its tokens were ripe for parody. 25 years later, the […]
BCI consultants have a long and fond relationship with the Balkans. Both Carlo and Francesca have been engaged again on client projects in Kosovo and Macedonia so we’re paying close attention to elections this week in Macedonia. It’s complicated and messy, but worthy of scrutiny. For a comprehensive review of the background to these early parliamentary […]
Guest post: Siham Bojji is a Moroccan political expert working on democracy and development programs in the Middle East and North Africa. Francesca Binda contributed to this post. After more than a dozen years of working with political parties in Morocco and continued direct interaction with politicians in Morocco, I still have a fundamental question: what […]
Last month we invited a Labour British member of the European Parliament to tell us why UK citizens should vote to stay in the European Union. This month we invited Conservative Member of Parliament, Tom Pursglove to give us the opposite view. Mr. Pursglove is the Member of Parliament for Corby & East Northamptonshire Would you […]
As much European chatter these days is about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP), another trade agreement between Europe and Canada is close to being finalised. While the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) has opponents on both sides of the Atlantic, the new Canadian Liberal government has called it a “gold-standard” agreement. We invited […]
Guest Blog by Philip Eliason There are current and rapid changes in Libya. The arrival of seven of nine members of the Government of National Accord’s (GNA) Presidency Council in Tripoli on 30 March 2016 is the most significant of them. The statement from Tripoli by Martin Kobler, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to […]
Paul Brannen is a Labour Member of European Parliament for the North East of England. Paul is a member of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee and the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee in the European Parliament. Knowing the exact meaning of some words can be a challenge. For example the word ‘literally’ has […]