The Nordic political party assistance organisations urge the Nordic Ministers for Development to keep democracy high on the agenda when negotiating the universal post-2015 sustainable development goals. The Nordic political party assistance organisations gathered in Finland last week and handed out a joint statement to the Finnish Minister for International Development, Mr. Pekka Haavisto.
The appeal is a response to a joint statement the Nordic Ministers published earlier this year. The Nordic organisations request the Ministers to live up to their promise ”to promote the inclusion of democratic governance and the rule of law as a sustainable development goal in the post 2015 framework”.
According to the original statement ”the starting point must be inclusive development partnerships, and the accountability of countries for their own development”. The Nordic political party assistance organisations agree with this view and strongly believe that supporting democracy – political parties and other democratic actors – is an effective and sustainable way to create development partnerships that value the will of the partner countries’ citizens and help them in taking full ownership of the development efforts.
Mr. Haavisto spoke at the Parliament of Finland in a seminar organised by Demo Finland as a part of the meeting of the Nordic political party support organisations. Mr. Haavisto told the audience about Finnish commitment to support a nurturing environment for political parties, civil society and the empowerment of women in developing democracies. Mr. Haavisto also stated that when working with non-democratic countries, condemning and isolating them may not be sufficient, but instead engaging them in a conversation could prove more fruitful.
Read the full statement signed by eight Nordic organisations here.