The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED is funding hundreds of projects around the world, several of them in Turkey. The project called Gencnet is designed especially for young people.
?In Turkey, literally means youth. And Gencnet is a three-part project and it?s been going on for four years now," says Thayer Scott, director of communications at the International Republican Institute, an affiliate of the National Endowment for Democracy. He says the Institute uses NED funds to send trainers and set up programs for the youth in Turkey.
?Throughout the year, they have a series of regional workshops and it happens in cities and provinces throughout Turkey, mainly with students. And they bring in trainers to talk about ways that students or young people can get involved in their own local towns or cities and communities to make them solve problems and the like,? says Mr. Scott.
The training is used in practice as soon as possible, he says. For example, students in one small Turkish community learned they can appeal to their local government to improve lighting on the road from their school to the bus stop. The institute also helped create the Gencnet website, which enables young people throughout Turkey to communicate and learn from one another.
Thayer Scott says this is just one example of the kinds of support the International Republican Institute gives to pro-democratic activities in some 50 countries.
?So this can include anything from teaching people in political parties how to make a member list and organize their party and vote for party leadership, how to run a campaign, how to send out press releases, how to take opinion polls to find out what the voters think and want, how to do communications with the news media and advertisements on TV and so on,? he adds.
Much of this work is funded by grants from the National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, a foreign-aid program established in 1983 to advance democracy abroad. Nominally, the Endowment is a private organization, but most of its budget, currently about $40 million per year, comes from the federal treasury.
?It passes much of its funds through to four other institutions who are engaged in pro-democracy work: the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, and also a business and a labor institute," says Robert Pastor, director of the Center for North American studies at American University in Washington. "But it also supports directly through hundreds of grants each year to pro-democracy groups in Africa, Asia Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and also the former Soviet Union,? says Professor Pastor.
The National Endowment for Democracy was established as a private group to overcome the restraints that limit the activities of a government agency. It works under supervision of a board of politicians from both the Republican and the Democratic parties to ensure the non-partisan nature of its work. Professor Pastor says the Board has a sizable staff that reviews proposals and approves of the grants.
?Undoubtedly any grant that it gives may be subject to some controversy, particularly in highly polarized situations," says Professor Pastor. "But, I think overall, they do have many layers before they make a final decision.?
The Endowment gives out some 300 grants per year, ranging from $50,000 or less to several hundred thousand. It currently funds projects in 90 countries. In Africa it helps groups struggling for peace and a civil society. In Congo, it is credited with a major role in pressing belligerents to negotiate an end to war. In other African countries, such as Kenya and Nigeria, NED grants have helped prevent erosion of democratic gains. In China, the Endowment has used the country?s opening to support programs designed to increase the free flow of information, including intellectual exchange, and to support Tibetan civic education and democracy projects. In Latin America NED grants have helped create networks for journalists.
In countries that do not allow pro-democracy groups, such as North Korea, the Endowment sometimes supports efforts to raise international awareness of human rights conditions in the country.
In the past, it supported the Polish labor union Solidarity in its struggle against the communist government. More recently it has funded the Serbian Radio B92, one of the few media outlets opposing the regime of former President Milosevic. Since both the Polish and Serbian regimes were toppled, the National Endowment for Democracy has taken some credit for this.