About GPMD
The Global Partnership for Multiparty Democracy was founded in 2016. The work of the members aims to assist political parties and promote a political culture of cooperation, consensus and dialogue.
The GPMD’s members are political party support organizations that work with the full political party landscape in a country. Because parties are the linking pin between state and society, many activities also involve civil society organizations. Political parties themselves are not members of the GPMD.
The objectives of the network are twofold:
The first objective is to draw the international donor community’s attention to the role of political parties in democratization processes and advocate for political party support.
The second objective is to share knowledge and information among the members. By jointly working on tools and best practices, we want to continuously improve our approach and make sure that our work contributes to well functioning democracies around the world; democracies in which all citizens feel represented and can participate.
Structure
The Board of Directors consists of all GPMD member organizations. The Board convenes yearly to decide upon the strategy and activity plan of the GPMD.
The day-to-day operations of the GPMD are managed by the Working Group, consisting of representatives of the member organizations. The Working Group’s main tasks are drafting budgets and activity plans and coordinating the implementation of activities.
The Working Group is supported by a Secretariat. Until the end of 2018, the Secretariat will be based in the Netherlands, hosted and staffed by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD).
The need for political party support
Political parties are often forgotten or ignored by policy makers and donors. And when they do think of them, the focus is primarily on elections.
Although free and fair elections are fundamental for a democracy, elections alone are not sufficient to guarantee the consolidation of a democracy. For democratic consolidation it is necessary to have politicians and political parties that work on the public good in between elections, and who are responsive to the people’s interests.
Unfortunately, political parties often struggle to fulfil their democratic roles, especially in developing democracies. That is why the GPMD members support political parties. We bring them together to develop the trust and willingness to work together. We also help them acquire organizational skills and the skills to develop solid party programmes. This will lead to better functioning democracies and – ultimately – to improved governance and sustainable development. Moreover, it will enhance stability: it will enable societies to manage conflicts internally and peacefully through dialogue in a multi-party framework. So political party support matters!
Our charter contains more information on our advocacy positions.
Read the GPMD Charter
GPMD membership
As a global network organization, we are always open to new members. Organizations wishing to sign up as a member need to meet the following criteria:
- Your organization is a non-governmental organization
- Your organization has political party support programmes as its core activity
- Your organization works exclusively from a multiparty perspective
- Your organization is explicitly non-partisan and not affiliated with any single political ideology
- Your organization underwrites the GPMD Charter
How to apply
If you would like to apply for membership, please contact the GPMD Secretariat.