The Danish Social Democrats and Ghana’s National Democratic Congress
The Danish Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne) has as of March 2012 entered into a partnership with the National Democratic Congress in Ghana. The project seeks to strengthen the internal party democracy of NDC through a focus on policy development, communication and promotion of gender equality.
Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, General Secretary of Ghana’s National Democratic Congress and Jeppe Kofod, MP for the Social Democrats and Deputy Chairman in the DIPD Board. Photo: The Social Democrats
About the Partnership
By supporting the National Democratic Congress with capacity building at local and national level the intention is to strengthen the party’s internal democracy, gender equality and policy development, thereby assisting it in consolidating the democratic process in Ghana.
More specifically through a focus on:
- Policy Development: To improve the quality of the NDC’s ideological discussions and the quality of the policy preparations and development
- Organization and communication. Strengthening the organization of NDC focusing explicitly on improving the communication structures and skills in NDC.
- Gender equality: Strengthening the position of women in NDC and in Ghanaian politics. This is also pursued by thinking in the gender dimension in component a and b.
The first phase in the project was approved by the DIPD Board in March 2012, while a second phase was approved in December 2012.
Activities in 2013 build on conducted activities in 2012 where women, youth and local party cadres were trained in advancing their interests. The internal and external communication in NDC sought to be strengthened by seminars with party communicators, while a central component in the policy strengthening component was an ideology conference with 200 parliamentary candidates aimed at strengthening their understanding of social democracy and its political and organizational consequences.
In 2013 the cooperation will continue with training sessions supplemented by strategic organizational development efforts.
The National Democratic Congress
The political party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was formed in connection with the return of multiparty democracy in Ghana in 1992. Formed as a social democratic party, NDC is supportive of a market economy, but countered by a policy of redistribution from rich to poor.
In its Constitution, NDC states its philosophy in the following terms: “ The party is a Social Democratic Party that believes in the equality and egalitarian treatment of all persons irrespective of their social, cultural, educational, religious and economic relations in a multi-party environment. “ Since 2005 the NDC has been a full member of the Socialist International, where also Socialdemokraterne are members.
The Danish Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne)
Formed in 1871 on a social democratic ideology. With 44 of 179 seats, the Social Democratic Party is the second largest party in Parliament and has since the Danish Parliamentary election in 2011 held government power in coalition with the Social-Liberal Party (Radikale Venstre) and the Socialist People’s Party (Socialistisk Folkeparti). Party Leader is current Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Through DIPD, the Party also collaborates with the Egyptian Social Democratic Party (ESDP) and the Swazi Democratic Party (SWADEPA)
See also: Party-to-Party cooperation: the Danish and Egyptian Social Democratic Parties
More Information
The Danish Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne)
Contact International Consultant for the Danish Social Democrats, Simon Redder Thomsen, at simon@partikontoret.dk
