Dr. Magnus Ohman, IFES senior political finance advisor, participated in Wilton Park's conference Delivering Effective Political Party Assistance: Challenges for Policy Makers and Practitioners. The invitation-only event took place on March 15-18, 2010 at Wilton Park's headquarters in West Sussex, England. The gathering focused on how best to support political parties. It explored issues such as how effective aid is in strengthening political parties and how political strengthening fits into overall development plans and poverty eradication.
Dr. Ohman spoke about the connection between money and political parties, and gave advice on how to lessen corruption. Among Dr. Ohman's suggestions were fixing the overall political structure and the political party systems so that individual parties can break free from the cycle of corruption; regulating political party spending and disclosure; and build the capacity of domestic observer groups so they can better monitor their country's political party behavior.
The conference was held in conjunction with the Department of International Development, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and International IDEA. Experts from a wide range of organizations participated in the conference, including the Norwegian Ambassador to Nairobi, a Senior Adviser with the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, and a South African member of parliament.
IFES is currently assisting political finance regulators and civil society groups to oversee political party and campaign finance in countries such as Afghanistan, Georgia, Jamaica, Pakistan and the Philippines.