The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

When a Roma camp in the northern, Serbian part of Kosovo’s divided city of Mitrovica was found to have lead contamination, the government built new houses for those affected in the south of the city. Once built, however, no Roma would move into the new housing, fearing reprisals from the Albanian majority there.

This is the sort of well-intentioned but less than effective initiative that government agencies tasked with Roma relations are trying to learn from and avoid in the future. A recent summit in Bucharest, Romania, attempted to do just that, convening policymakers from eight countries in Central and Eastern Europe who are responsible for carrying out national strategies for inclusion of Roma minorities, also known as Gypsies.

A group of politicians, civil society leaders and academics from the transatlantic community and emerging powers – including Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa – convened recently in Washington to discuss the potential for greater cooperation on democracy support.

The Washington roundtable gave participants the opportunity to share perspectives and experiences on how emerging powers support democratic development beyond their borders. It also explored the challenges to greater engagement by emerging powers in democracy support and ways that the traditional donor community could better support these efforts.