Africa Liberal Network

The Africa Liberal Network (ALN) is an organization composed of 16 political parties from 14 African nations, and is an associated organisation of Liberal International, the political family to which Liberal Democratic parties belong. The ALN serves to promote liberal democratic objectives and principles throughout the African continent.

Parties involved in the ALN are bound by a policy stating that they: exist to ensure the freedom and dignity of all people through; establishing political and civil rights, ensuring basic freedoms, the rule of law, democratic government based on free and fair elections with peaceful transition, ensuring religious, gender, and minority rights, fighting corruption, and establishing free market economies.

Development

The network developed from what was originally the Organisation of African Liberal Parties and was established during an initial meeting of parties in Mombasa, Kenya in July 2001. It was formally launched at a subsequent meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa in June 2003. This meeting adopted the [http://www.africaliberalnetwork.org/aln/content.php?id=4 Johannesburg Declaration] , committing the parties to core liberal democratic principles. In February 2007, M. Aly Touré of Cote d'Ivoire was elected President of the ALN. The network is now run from the Liberal Democrats headquarters in London, England, but the hope is to have more regional based representation of the Network in Africa in the future. At present, however, the focus is on laying the foundation for the network and ensuring that it is sustainable before such a move is contemplated.The Westminster Foundation for Democracy primarily supports the ALN and since its inception it has maintained a mutually beneficial relationship with other partners. To ensure sustainability the ALN is seeking to diversity and broaden its support and partnership base to include other institutions.

Objectives

The Africa Liberal Network's objectives are:
* Facilitate the development and growth of Liberal Democratic parties.
* Encourage solidarity among member parties with the aim of assisting them to achieve power through democratic means.
* Establish an alliance of like-minded Liberal Democratic parties in Africa for sharing information and experiences.

Projects and Activities

The ALN's projects focus on: coordination and leadership meetings; election/campaign support; policy development; party organisation and development; political education, civic awareness, voter education and registration; joint policy positions; training seminars, workshops; gender and youth mainstreaming; information and Skills exchange through visits, website, bulletin, publications, research.

External links

* [http://www.africaliberalnetwork.org Africa Liberal Network]