Democracy That Delivers

Thida Khus is the founder and executive director of Silaka, a non-profit organization in Cambodia.  Khus and her family migrated to the United States in 1979 to flee the Khmer Rouge regime. From 1993 to1996, she organized 80 Cambodian-Americans to move to Cambodia to counteract the lack of human resources. Khus states that Cambodia's government continues to suffer from corruption, lack of good gov...

Christina Bain, director of the Initiative on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at Babson College in Massachusetts, discusses the role of business and entrepreneurship in combatting human trafficking. As a college professor, Bain teaches her students about the types of human trafficking and how to prevent trafficking in their respective fields. In addition, Bain raises awareness of human traffi...

Henry LaGue sits down with Mark Oxley, a CIPE consultant in Zimbabwe. Oxley explains how he became involved with the country's National Chamber of Commerce and CIPE, and he discusses the economic challenges facing Zimbabwe. Specifically, the country has a large number of highly educated individuals who are either unemployed or working in the informal sector. Despite economic difficulties, there ar...

Mauro DaCunha, the chief executive officer of Brazil's AMEC (Capital Market Investors Association), discusses the importance of democratization of capital in Brazil. DaCunha credits CIPE's partnership with Brazil with increasing public awareness of capital markets and its correlation with economic growth. The development of capital markets in Brazil would positively influence the country's economy...

Majdi Hassen, Executive Director of Tunisian think tank Institut arabe des chefs d'entreprises (IACE) talks with CIPE's Anna Kompanek about the economic reform initiatives his organization is undertaking in Tunisia. IACE is an independent, non-profit think tank based in Tunis. Since Tunisia's revolution, Hassen has overseen IACE's growth into a "think-and-do" tank that plays a vital role in conven...

Randa Al-Zoghbi, CIPE's Program Director in Egypt, discussed the release of their new app, Tamweely. The app is designed to connect financiers to small businesses and entrepreneurs in Egypt seeking start-up funding, as well as to provide business education tools and information about the institutional and legal environment for entrepreneurs and startups. Al-Zoghbi also discusses the economic situa...

Two CIPE-supported entrepreneurship club graduates in Uganda discuss how the skills they learned through the club have helped them to be successful. The conversation covers how the guests took what they learned in the club to start their own businesses and tackle the challenges they have faced along the way. Muwanguzi talks about how his work as a youth advocate helps Ugandan youth to develop the...

The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) and OEF Research, a program of the One Earth Future Foundation (OEF) co-hosted a presentation and panel discussion on the role of local business communities in repairing fragile states. Fragile States continue to garner international attention, and the need to overcome this problem cannot be ignored. They put pressure on the global community b...

Director of the Al Quds Center for Political Studies, Oraib Al Rantawi, talks about how he moved from being a journalist to the head of the Al Quds Think-Tank. Al Rantawi was a reporter and journalist from 1978-1993, covering a wide array of topics for pan-Arab newspapers, including the civil war in Lebanon and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Al Rantawi and guest host Anna Kompanek further discuss Al Q...

Senior Manager for Strategic Partnerships at the Alliance for Peacebuilding Stone Conroy discusses the processes and vehicles that organizations can use to resolve conflict. He also discusses the need to engage a wide range of players in these efforts including businesses, non-profits, governments, the media, military, academia, and others. Conroy also talks about the drivers behind conflict, and...

Recording of an event CIPE recently co-hosted with the International Real Property Foundation on the topic The Role of Property Rights and Property Markets in Sustainable Urbanization and Economic Growth . Listen to experts discuss how property rights and the institutions that support them –ranging from appropriate regulation to transparent financial markets– are key to sustainable development. Ro...

Maya Eristavi, CIPE's representative with USAID's Governing for Growth (G4G) Project, talks about the role of women in Georgian society and how women in business have been taking on a larger role in society, especially since the fall of the Soviet Union. She also talks about the young entrepreneurs and businesswomen who have benefitted from the comprehensive free-trade agreement Georgia has with E...

National Coordinator of the Association of Nigerian Women Business Network, Nikiru Joy Okpala, talks about how she went from being a young lawyer interested in women's issues to working in the field of business association management. She discusses the importance of economic empowerment for women and the barriers that make it difficult for women in Nigeria to succeed in business. One of those barr...

Ambassador of the Republic of Albania, Floreta Faber, discusses her previous role as head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Albania and how she built the institution into one of the strongest associations in the country. She talks about establishing forums for public-private dialogue to present governments with business community perspectives. She also discusses the importance of focusing on...

Editor of the Washington Post's DemocracyPost blog, Christian Caryl, discusses the challenges facing democracy around the world and whether we are at a major inflection point in history. He talks about the current crisis facing western democracy and why its implications are vitally important for Americans. Caryl, a self-described "troll magnet," also talks about the difficulty of countering fake n...

Ayesha Bilal, Chief Operating Officer of Pakistani think tank PRIME (Policy Research Institute of the Market Economy), discusses PRIME's work encouraging citizen involvement in public policymaking in Pakistan. She talks about PRIME's highly successful Scorecard project to track how well the government has met its economic reform promises. Bilal shares how PRIME included the government as a stakeho...

This week on the Democracy that Delivers podcast, Craig Fagan, policy director of the World Wide Web Foundation and Sonia Jorge, the executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Internet discusses how over 60 percent of the world is still not connected to the internet and how this digital divide is keeping billions from prospering economically and socially. They talk about how their mission i...

This week on the Democracy that Delivers podcast this week, AARP Chief Communications and Marketing Officer Martha Boudreau stopped by to discuss the importance of messaging and branding in the world of non-profits. A CIPE board member and top communications strategist in the DC area, Boudreau also talks about her years at FleishmanHillard where she was president of the mid-Atlantic and Latin Amer...

Founder and President of the Bangladesh Women's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) Selima Ahmad returns to the Democracy that Delivers podcast to talk about helping women move beyond micro-enterprise to larger businesses. She also discusses how when women become economically empowered they become more engaged in policy making and seeking accountability in governance. Ahmad also explains the...

CIPE Country Coordinator in Papua New Guinea Eli Webb discusses the challenges facing women in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the work being done to empower women from all levels of society. Web talks about efforts being made to bolster women's rights in the country where she says 98 percent of women have been victims of gender-based violence. She discusses legal reforms and development programs that...

President and CEO of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council Karen Kerrigan discusses why it is important for the United States to support entrepreneurship around the globe. Kerrigan discusses challenges faced by entrepreneurs the world over and how the private sector can engage government on innovative solutions.   She also discusses her work helping fledgling business associations develo...

Aurelio Concheso, President of the Advisory Board of Venezuelan think tank Centro de Divulgación del Conocimiento (CEDICE), discusses populism in Latin America and the challenges to democracy in that region. He uses the example of Chile to discuss the importance of a free market for meeting citizen demands. He also discusses the need for a social context for market reforms, and how open markets an...

This week's podcast is a recording of an event CIPE recently co-hosted with the National Endowment for Democracy titled "Defending Liberal Democracy in Emerging Markets: The Role of Free Markets and Rule of Law." Specifically, the event explored whethe r liberal economic reforms and accountability in economic policy can help bolst er the consolidation of democracy and, if so, under what conditions...

Secretary General of the International Real Estate Federation – USA Bill Endsley discusses the importance of property rights for economic growth and prosperity. Endsley talks about how a lack of property rights, or inadequate access to information on property rights, can undermine markets and impede business development. He highlights trends in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and...

European Endowment for Democracy (EED) Executive Director Jerzy Pomianowski discusses how the EED came about and the focus of its work today. He shares his philosophy that democracy can only truly be generated from within society, not imposed from outside, which is the basis for EED's demand-driven model of support. He also talks about the importance of flexibility when adjusting to a rapidly chan...