Paul Graham

Paul Graham "is Executive Director of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) which is a non-profit public interest organization headquartered in Pretoria. Founded in 1987, IDASA is committed to promoting sustainable democracy in South Africa and elsewhere by building democratic institutions, educating citizens, and advocating social justice. It was one of the local partner organizations for the World Movement for Democracy’s Third Assembly held in Durban, South Africa, in February 2004.  Mr. Graham joined IDASA as Regional Director of the KwaZulu/Natal office in 1988 and was Director of the Training Centre for Democracy in Johannesburg between 1992 and 1996.  At IDASA, Mr. Graham has been responsible for its election support program, developing its public education work, designing various conflict prevention, mitigation and resolution activities inside and outside South Africa, establishing the local government center, and its civil society strengthening work.

"Mr. Graham has served or continues to serve on the councils of Diakonia Council of Churches, the Independent Projects Trust, Vuleka Trust, the World Methodist Assembly, Joint Education Commission (JED/JEC), Impumelelo Innovations in Government, the Centre for Public Participation, the SA Anti-Discrimination Forum (Faze 2) and the Open Democracy Advice Centre. He is also a member of the management committee of the African Democracy Forum and the International Steering Committee of the Community of Democracies NGO process.

"Mr. Graham observed the Angolan elections in 1992 for AWEPA, the 2002 Jamaican elections with the Carter Centre, and the 2004 Presidential elections in Taiwan for the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. In 1996, he was part of the Commonwealth group which evaluated the 1995 South African local elections in the report “The end of the beginning.”  In 2002 he co-authored the Electoral Commission of Kenya’s report on ending electoral and political violence in Kenya. He is the editor of two introductory texts on democracy: “Preparing for Democracy” and “Governing at Local Level,” the IDASA democracy index “Democracy in the time of Mbeki,” and he has authored the Civic and Voter Education Section on www.aceproject.org."


 * Steering Committee, World Movement for Democracy