| ISBN | 9781920409791 |
| Pages | 172 |
| Dimensions | 244 x 170 mm |
| Published | 2012 |
| Publisher | Idasa, South Africa |
| Format | Paperback |
Unfinished Business: Democracy in Namibia
edited by Bryan M. Sims, Monica Koep
Idasa's Democracy Index - initially developed for South Africa - is being expanded into Southern Africa in an effort to broaden the capacity of individuals and organisations monitoring and supporting democratic governance efforts in the region. This inaugural Democracy Index for Namibia is intended to set a benchmark for democracy to be measured against. The tool assesses the country's depth of democracy through five focus areas: participation, elections, accountability, political rights, and human dignity. The research relies on expert analysis to answer a set of questions that interrogate how closely, in practice, democracy meets the broad ideal of self-representative government. More specifically, to what extent can citizens control elected officials and government appointees who make decisions about public affairs? And how equal are citizens to one another in this accountability process? The purpose of the scores is to assist citizens in making their own judgements, based on the information made available, to stimulate national debate and to provide democracy promoters with a tool for identifying issues and needs that can be addressed by education, advocacy, training, institution building and policy revision.
About the Editors
Bryan M. Sims is an analyst with the States in Transition Observatory (SITO) unit at Idasa. He previously worked for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Washington, DC. Sims is a founding member of the South Africa-Washington International Program (SAWIP), and has served on its board of directors since 2006. He holds an MA, with honours, in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, and a BA in both International Relations and Political Science from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Monica Koep currently practises as a democracy and governance consultant, having previously worked as a senior advisor to the Director General of the National Planning Commission in the President’s Office; senior technical advisor for democracy and governance for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Namibia; lead researcher for Namibia under the African Legislatures Project (ALP); and as a consultant for USAID Southern Africa. Koep has been a board member of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) since 2000, and its chairperson since 2007. She currently serves as a public member of the Media Complaints Committee, and has been on the board of the Namibia Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Trust Fund since 1999. She had previously been a board member of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) from 1990 to 1994, and an elected member of the Media Council in the early 1990s. From 1988 until 1994, Koep was an executive committee member of Namibia Peace Plan 435 (NPP 435), which campaigned for Namibian independence under the terms of UNSCR 435. She holds Bachelor’s and Honours degrees from the University of Cape Town, and an MPhil in Policy Studies from Stellenbosch University.
