Women are encouraged to voice their opinion also in public.

Democracy is a major prerequisite for achieving sustainable human development, i.e. development which particularly benefits poor and disadvantaged people. Democracy means assuring the right of the population to have a say, ensuring responsible action by the government in dealing with the people, and fulfilling human rights. The majority of DED partner countries are on the way to democratisation. Democratisation processes are time-consuming change processes which require learning new competences and attitudes on the part of individuals, organisations and society as a whole.

Through support for capacity development, DED encourages the creation and development of its partners’ skills so that they can expand their problem solving capacities and scope for action and can sustainably achieve their own goals. DED promotes democracy as a value in its own right and as a principle of political regulation. Promotion is not limited to one specific form of democracy; rather, it involves implementing democratic principles. These include fulfilling human rights, ensuring good governance, the rule of law and gender equality. DED promotes the implementation of democratic principles with around 400 experts (300 technical advisers and 100 local experts) in partner countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East by

• supporting decentralised government structures (local governments)
  
  and
  
  
• strengthening civil society.

Promoting local governments

Free elections – a core element of democracy.

In the course of the decentralisation process, local governments in partner countries acquire new responsibilities and functions. Local politicians and administrative employees are often not equipped to handle these. To meet the criteria of good local governance, local governments are called on to ensure participation by citizens in development planning and decision making processes, provide citizen-oriented services, ensure transparency in administrative procedures and be accountable to the population.

Citizens take an active part in municipal planning.

Strengthening civil society

Democracy depends on an aware, articulate and well organised civil society with the potential and possibility to influence government decision-making processes, even outside of election time. Supporting democratic processes at the local level ensures political participation by the population, and is an important element in a country's democratic development.

Besides political participation, civil society organisations play a special role in advocating for human rights, in actively claiming human rights against the state, and also educating people about human rights to raise general awareness of all individuals of how necessary it is to complying with these.

DED services

Advisory services by DED experts to promote democracy provide support to civil society structures while at the same time strengthening the capacity of local governments.

Thus, DED plays an important bridging role between state and civil society at the decentralised level by promoting the capability for dialogue between the various actors.

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