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The Carter Center Health and Peace Programs appreciate the continued support of our foundation, government, and corporate donors and are pleased to highlight their contributions in these regular Web features.

Featured July 2012

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), a government agency under the Swedish Foreign Ministry that is responsible for the administration of more than half of the Swedish development aid budget, has been a vital partner of the Carter Center's Peace Programs since 1991. Sida has contributed more than $3 million to advance the Center's work on democracy, conflict resolution, and human rights.

Democracy
Democracy is a primary target of development aid for Sweden. Sida not only defines poverty as a lack of basic survival needs, but also as the suffering caused by a lack of power and choice. As such, Sida is a crucial supporter of our recent election observation mission in Egypt and our upcoming mission in Libya.

The transitional elections in Egypt, including the presidential elections and the constitutional referendum, are of critical national and regional importance. The Carter Center has had a presence in Cairo since May 2011. With the generous financial support provided by Sida, the Center deployed long- and short-term observers to witness the presidential elections and the subsequent runoff elections.

In Libya, the July 7 elections for the National Congress are a pivotal process, as the elections may result in the first peaceful transfer of political power in Libyan history. The Carter Center is currently the only international organization that will monitor the electoral process in Libya. Sida's contribution to the elections will help the Center's deployment of medium- and short-term observers for observation of the prepolling preparations, as well as the polling, counting, and tabulation processes.

Human Rights
Sida is also a chief supporter of our work with human rights defenders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. More specifically, Swedish support aids the Center in its creation of an enabling environment for human rights defenders and civil society organizations. Since 2007, the Center's Human Rights House in Kinshasa has focused on strengthening the capacity of Congolese civil society organizations, assisting them with a wide range of human rights programming and organizational development themes. The network of 194 local civil society organizations that the Human Rights House has established and fostered is an essential element in protecting human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo and helping develop democratic governance. Most recently, the Human Rights House served as the technical and logistical headquarters of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace/National Conference of Bishops of Congo (CEJP/CENCO) domestic election observation mission. The CEJP/CENCO mission deployed roughly 6,400 domestic election observers in all 11 provinces to observe polling and counting for the November 2011 national elections.

Sida's support of The Carter Center reflects its commitment to development assistance, democracy, and human rights. The Carter Center is grateful for Sida's assistance, and we look forward to strengthening our partnership in the future.

Featured donor and supported programs:

Carter Center Peace Programs