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Watch Highlights from the Global Conference

On September 9-13, 2017 Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law convened over 40 fellows of our Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program who are part of the Omidyar Network Leadership Forum’s (ONLF) global community in Tunis, Tunisia. The Program marked its 13th year this summer and has 325 alumni members located across 81 countries. To date, we have convened 8 ONLF workshops, but this was our first global meeting of the ONLF community and is an exciting opportunity to bring together all our generations of fellows to connect, engage and envision ways of advancing democratic development.

Thanks to a successful partnership with a local events production firm – Wasabi – the conference proceedings were livestreamed to reach a much wider audience and recorded for more permanent distribution. CDDRL is happy to share and post our workshop content in an effort to share this rich experience with our alumni community and beyond.

Visit the conference page to learn more.

Keynote Address

The keynote address was delivered by Rached Ghannouchi, who is the current leader of the Islamist party – Al Nahda – which currently holds one of the largest majorities in the Tunisian parliament.

Keynote Talk on Islam and Political Development

Houssem Aoudi ('16, Tunisia)

Houssem Aoudi is an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in media, civic engagement, and social innovation. His work specializes in bringing together diverse stakeholders to tackle today's most pressing issues. He is the co-founder and CEO of Cogite Coworking Space, Tunisia's first coworking community and Wasabi, a company that endeavors to create platforms for public debate, community building and open expression. Aoudi was appointed to serve as director of the Media Center for the Independent High Authority for Elections, a government agency in charge of organizing and supervising elections and referendums in Tunisia.

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Andriy Shevchenko ('09, Ukraine)

Andriy Shevchenko is the Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada. He is a prominent Ukrainian politician, journalist and civil activist. He was a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, winning seats in 2006, 2007, and 2012. He served as the Chairman of the Free Speech Committee and the 1st Deputy Chairman of the Human Rights Committee. Shevchenko is the author of the Law on Access to Public Information. He was an active participant of the Euromaidan Revolution of 2013-14.

Selima Ahmad ('12, Bangladesh)

Selima Ahmad is president and founder of the Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI), which represents the interests and supports the initiatives of women entrepreneurs. As a successful businesswomen herself with long-standing experience in the private sector, Ahmad took the initiative to form a chamber of commerce devoted exclusively to facilitating the advancement of women entrepreneurs. Ahmad convinced and mobilized women entrepreneurs, the government, and development partners of the need to create the BWCCI. She has developed 3,000 women entrepreneurs by planning, designing and facilitating different programs.

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Rafael Marques de Morais (‘16, Angola)

Rafael Marques de Morais is a multi award-winning journalist and human rights activist in Angola working to investigate corruption and abuse of power by the country’s ruling family. He founded Makaangola in 2009, a watchdog website dedicated to exposing corruption and human rights abuses in the country.

Morais has authored various human rights reports, including a book titled Diamantesde Sangue: Corrupção e Tortura em Angola (Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola), in which he exposed corruption and human rights abuses in the diamond industry.

Belabbes Benkredda (‘16, Algeria)

Belabbes Benkredda is an award-winning social innovator and the founder of the Munathara Initiative, the Arab world’s largest online and television debate forum highlighting voices of youth, women, and marginalized communities. Today, Munathara operates in 11 Arab countries and counts a community of some 170,000 members on its online debate platform. Its monthly prime time TV debates are the only civil society-run, independent political talk programs on Arabic television, syndicated across several channels. Previously, Belabbes held roles in the German Foreign Office, the League of Arab States, and the Council for Arab-British Understanding.

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How I Disrupt 1

Belabbes Benkredda (‘16), Algeria

"My work is focused on creating alternative spaces for public conversation to disrupt the existing information space - which is largely controlled by autocrats, certainly in the Arab world. It has become increasingly clear in recent years that the single most important obstacle towards freedom and democracy in the Arab region is control of the public sphere by unelected leaders. Therefore, in order for citizens to emancipate themselves from imposed narratives, we must empower citizens to connect directly with each other to form popular will."

Belabbes Benkredda is a Senior Research Scholar at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. Benkredda is the founding director of The Munathara Initiative, the Arab’s world’s largest debate organization. He was named a 2016 Yale World Fellow and received the 2013 NDI Democracy Award.

Rafael Marques de Morais (‘16), Angola

"Corruption is the main weapon of oppression in Angola, and it has been institutionalized and glamorized. I disrupt it by investigating top corrupt officials. I expose their delinquency through social media, by reminding people of the laws of the land such individuals break, and how they have destroyed the social fabric of Angola. I have helped to change the narrative on corruption, by creating a public space where it is viewed for what it is: a crime."

Rafael Marques de Morais is a CDDRL Draper Hills Summer Fellowship alum (Angola, '16). Morais is an investigative reporter and anti-corruption activist, founder of http://www.makaangola.org.

How I Disrupt 2

How I Disrupt 3

Oludotun Babayemi (‘15), Nigeria

"Connected Development's “Follow The Money” project started in Nigeria in 2012, and is an initiative that tracks government spending and international aid to rural communities. Since 2012, it has had a direct impact on 152,822 lives in 31 rural communities in Nigeria through demanding government accountability from its growing network of 1,256 members. Using a combination of grassroots (town hall meetings, focus group discussions, advocacy meetings) and online activities (online and social media storytelling -Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp), it tracks whether government funds officially allocated to health, education and development projects do in fact reach their targets."

Oludotun Babayemi is the co-founder of Connected Development [CODE], an organization that uses online and offline tools to put pressure on governments and organizations in Nigeria to be more accountable and transparent.