The right of NGOs to access funding is an integral part of the right to freedom of association, and without access to funds and resources, the daily work of NGOs is highly …

Newly emerging popular movements for reform were the driving force behind the Middle East’s major gains in democratic rights last year, according to Freedom in the World 2013, Freedom House’s annual report. But other regions experienced setbacks due to …

“Women take more readily to the ‘smart power’ approach to foreign policy,” pioneered by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, says a prominent analyst.

“In a nutshell, this approach entails using a wide spectrum of tools in addition to the …

Russia’s expulsion of USAID and Egypt’s prosecution of pro-democracy non-governmental groups are the most publicized cases of a concerted offensive against civil society and, more specifically, against the principles and practice of cross-border democracy assistance. Such actions violate not only …

There is little likelihood that Ethiopia will either reform or implode as its ruling party manages the transition from recently deceased Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to his designated successor Hailemariam Desalegn, a Washington conference heard yesterday.

The ruling party, the …

Ethiopia’s transition is an important opportunity for the country’s friends and foreign partners to pause and encourage a return to a democratic path, writes Ben Rawlence. But despite Meles’ passing, Ethiopia is continuing to conduct repressive policies, and …

The death of Ethiopian Prime MinisterMeles Zenawi raises fresh questions about the future of US aid to the country and the conundrum of focusing aid in countries whose leaders hang on to power, write the Center for Global Development’s …

Meles Zenawi “leaves much uncertainty in his wake,” the Economist notes.

“Ethiopia, where power has changed hands only three times since the second world war, always by force, now faces a tricky transition period,” while the manner of his …

“There was probably no leader on the African continent who exemplified the conflict between the American government’s interests and its highest ideals better than Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia,” writes the New York Times’s  Jeffrey …

Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s autocratic ruler, leaves a ‘tainted legacy’ following his death from an undisclosed illness. An important U.S. anti-terrorism ally and rare source of stability in a volatile region, the former guerrilla is widely credited with delivering developmental gains…