About Vidar Helgesen
Vidar Helgesen is minister of EEU and EU affairs in Norway. He formerly served as special advisor to the president of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva (1998-2001), as deputy minister of foreign affairs of Norway (2001-05), and as secretary-general of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) (2005-13)
Articles by Vidar Helgesen
This week’s front page editor
Michael Edwards is editor of Transformation.
Housing
No to TTIP
Constitutional conventions: best practice
The future of democracy (-support)
The global landscape of democracy is changing amid geopolitical shifts and new critical assessments. The financial crisis and the election of Barack Obama have further transformed the context in which democracy-assistance functions. In this emerging era, what do democracy-support practitioners need to do to keep their projects and ideas fresh, relevant and effective? Vidar Helgesen, secretary-general of International IDEA, reflects.
(This article was first published on 15 September 2009)
Democracy support: where now?
The extension of democracy has been central to the experience of much of the world in the last three decades. But the mixed record and complex challenges of democracy support in the 2000s makes this a propitious moment for a debate on the topic, says Vidar Helgesen of International IDEA.
