Podcasts about vanguard africa

Pedro Pizano and Jeffrey Smith, with the McCain Institute and Vanguard Africa respectively, discuss the reputation laundering that musicians, actors and athletes facilitate when they agree to perform for dictators and kleptocrats. They also describe how these same artists can use their platforms for good instead and show support for the citizens living under brutal regimes. Originally Posted: Sep. 15, 2020

What’s Happening in Uganda? Jeffrey Smith, Executive Director of Vanguard Africa and a veteran of human rights and pro-democracy work throughout much of Africa, speaks with co-hosts Richard Levick, of LEVICK and Julian Pecquet, editor of Foreign Lobby Report, on their weekly show, The Influencers. What would make a famous actor and musician, Robert Kyagulanyi – aka Bobi Wine – risk it all to run for the presidency of Uganda and to support democracy?

Welcome to “Future Positive,” a podcast from XPRIZE. We convene the world’s brightest minds, across a kaleidoscope of cultures and points of view, revealing their inspirations, and how and why they will change the world. The views on this podcast are not those of XPRIZE.Democracy’s obituary? Part 1: The Dark Side of Technology The end of the 20th century saw the implosion of communist dictatorships across the globe. In 1989 with the fall of the Berlin wall, we saw democracy greatly expanding, and in the 1989 essay “The End of History’’ American academic Frances Fukuyama declared a victory and the universalization of western liberalism. Fast forward to today, where we have Turkey and Venezuela sprinting away from democracy and even the American experiment hangs in the balance with the rise of fake-news, misinformation and lack of leadership. The gloves are off. We join political educator, social commentator, and Chief Advancement Officer Shlomy Kattan as he gathers Susan Herman, head of ACLU, political innovator Joe Trippi and “professor in exile” Bret Weinstein, for a special two-part episode that rips the band-aid off taboo topics like campaign corruption, UNITY 2020 and the conversation du jour - changing the system of government with a courageous, capable, patriotic bi-partisan team. Oh, and we get deep on tools, teams and techniques on election hacking. Fireworks. Susan N. Herman was elected President of the American Civil Liberties Union in October 2008, after having served on the ACLU National Board of Directors, as a member of the Executive Committee, and as General Counsel. Herman holds a chair as Centennial Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, where she teaches courses in Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure, and seminars on Law and Literature, and Terrorism and Civil LibertiesShe writes extensively on constitutional and criminal procedure topics for scholarly and other publications, ranging from law reviews and books to periodicals and on-line publications. Her most recent book, Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy, (Oxford University Press 2011; 2014 paperback), is the winner of the 2012 Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize.Herman has also discussed constitutional law issues on radio, including NPR shows around the country; on television, including programs on PBS, CSPAN, NBC, MSNBC and a series of appearances on the Today in New York show; and in print media including Newsday, TIME, the Huffington Post, and the New York Times.She has been a frequent speaker at academic conferences and continuing legal education events organized by groups including the Federal Judicial Center, and at numerous law schools, colleges (including the U.S. Army War College), universities, and high schools. She has also spoken at dozens of non-academic conferences, including recent appearances at the 2017 Web Summit in Lisbon, Wikimania, the Brussels Forum, the National Archives, etc. She has received awards from groups as disparate as the Japanese-American Bar Association, the United Sikhs, and the Theatre of the Oppressed NYC.Herman has also participated in Supreme Court litigation, writing and collaborating on amicus curiae briefs for the ACLU on a range of constitutional criminal procedure issues, most recently in Riley v. California, 134 S. Ct. 2473 (2014), where the Supreme Court accepted the argument that cell phones cannot be searched “incident to arrest” without a search warrant.Herman received a B.A. from Barnard College as a philosophy major, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was a Note and Comment Editor on the N.Y.U. Law Review. Before entering teaching, Professor Herman was Pro Se Law Clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Staff Attorney and then Associate Director of Prisoners' Legal Services of New York.Heralded on the cover of The New Republic as the man who “reinvented campaigning,” Joe Trippi has been at the forefront of movement politics for nearly 40 years. Trippi began his political career working on Edward M. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1980 and has worked on numerous presidential, gubernatorial, senate, and congressional campaigns ever since.Most recently, Trippi was a senior strategist on Doug Jones’ historic victory in Alabama, helping elect the first Democrat U.S. Senator in Alabama in 25 years. Trippi wrote the ads and helped build the campaign strategy which was recognized with 7 Reed Awards and 3 Pollie Awards, including the “Best in Show” award for a Democratic Campaign.Trippi helped engineer a number of groundbreaking House victories for Representatives Ro Khanna, Tulsi Gabbard, Mark Takano, and Seth Moulton. In 2014, Trippi advised and produced the ads for Seth Moulton in one of the biggest upsets of the year, beating 18-year incumbent John Tierney. One ad, “Re-elect,” propelled Seth to victory and was named “the best […] of the primary ads.”In 2010, Trippi was a senior strategist and media consultant in Jerry Brown’s successful run for California Governor. The campaign’s ads were described as “clever” and “amazing,” and they were widely considered some of best of 2010. TIME magazine named one ad, “Echo,” the best ad of 2010, and the Brown ads received four “Pollie” awards for excellence in political media.In 2004, as the National Campaign Manager for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, Trippi pioneered the use of online technology to organize what became the largest grassroots movement in presidential politics. Through his innovative use of the Internet for small-donor fundraising, “Dean for America” raised more money than any Democratic presidential campaign to that point – all with donations averaging less than $100.Trippi and his team pioneered the empowerment message and the online community tools that President Barack Obama used, which inspired a movement of supporters and has now become the basis for movement politics all around the world.Trippi has an extensive international resume. In 1993, he worked for then-PASOK leader Andreas Papandreou’s successful campaign of Prime Minister of Greece, as well as for his son, George Papandreou in 2007. Trippi advised former British Prime Minister Tony Blair during his successful election. In 2006, he worked for Romano Prodi on his winning race for Prime Minister of Italy. In 2008, Trippi helped Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change receive the most votes and helped garner international media attention to Robert Mugabe’s democratic subversion and violence. These efforts led to a ‘unity’ government and Tsvangirai becoming Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. In 2011, Trippi helped elect Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.In 2016, Trippi founded Vanguard Africa, to provide advice and technical support to pro-democracy and anti-corruption candidates. Among other races, as part of the international campaign team, Trippi helped oust Gambia’s dictator, Yahya Jammeh.In addition to his political work, Trippi has consulted with a number of leading non-profits and corporations including the Humane Society of the United States, the American Cancer Society, Best Friends Animal Society, Monster.com, Toyota, DaimlerChrysler, SES Americom, Corning, LabCorp, IBM, Lionsgate Films, BestBuy, and Wave Systems.Trippi is a CNN Contributor and the Author of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.www.aclu.orgxprize.org/bloghttps://tnrcampaigns.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Pedro Pizano and Jeffrey Smith, with the McCain Institute and Vanguard Africa respectively, discuss the reputation laundering that musicians, actors and athletes facilitate when they agree to perform for dictators and kleptocrats. They also describe how these same artists can use their platforms for good instead and show support for the citizens living under brutal regimes.

There are a lot of pundits out there declaring democracy promotion to be dead on arrival in the Trump era. But there's still an important community of activists fighting for the cause against the odds.   "Democracy matters and democratic leadership matters, even in the face of a fast-moving crisis like the coronavirus," says Jeffrey Smith, the founder and president of Vanguard Africa, a nonprofit which has worked closely with a number of successful, visionary leaders.   In this latest episode of Departures, host Robert Amsterdam speaks with Smith about the trend of global democratic backsliding in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their work together to support opposition figures such as Bobi Wine in Uganda and Tundu Lissu in Tanzania in their respective struggles against authoritarian regimes.   For Smith, promoting democracy is critical because holding dictators to account within the international community has become increasingly difficult. "To be very blunt, modern authoritarians have learned to play this so-called 'reform game,' where they absorb massive amounts of external aid while avoiding genuine reform... and this often sets a country back for generations."

Shaka Ssali discusses the arrest, detention and release of Bobi Wine and the legacy of the late Kofi Annan with Stephane Dujarric, UN Spokesperson, Mildred Tuhaise, a Senior Reporter at NBS TV, Jeffrey Smith, Executive Director of Vanguard Africa, and Daniel Kawuma, Chairman of the Uganda Diaspora Investment Company, USA.

Once known as "the worst dictatorship you’ve never heard of," the Gambia peacefully removed its autocratic ruler in late 2016. A little more than a year later, what is happening in this small African country? This fourteenth episode of Global features Gambian Minister of Trade Dr. Isatou Touray, Jeffrey Smith of Vanguard Africa and IRI Program Officer Roger Mitchell.

This week’s guest is Jeffrey Smith, executive director of Vanguard Africa, a startup nonprofit that provides campaign advice and public relations support to pro-democracy leaders in Africa. Smith aims to bring the international spotlight to Gambia, which is recovering from a more than two-decades-long dictatorship. Political and civil rights were nonexistent during the presidency of Yahya Jammeh, a former military officer who ruled the country from 1994 to 2016 . Vanguard Africa partnered with Gambia’s presidential candidates in 2016 to campaign against Jammeh, who lost the election. Despite this accomplishment, Smith says Vanguard Africa’s work in Gambia is unfinished; a country cannot transition from dictatorship to democracy overnight. The nonprofit is now focused on holding the new government accountable. To aide with the transition, CIPE has partnered with the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry to establish a national business council for the private sector.

My guest today Jeffrey Smith helps topple dictators for a living. His organization, Vanguard Africa, is very new but they already have one success under their belt--the peaceful transition of power from The Gambia's longtime ruler. He now has his sites set on Africa's second longest ruling leader, Paul Biya of Cameroon. We kick off with a discussion of the situation in Cameroon and have great digressions about the Zimbabwe, some deficiencies of the NGO community in DC and, of course, the Gambia.    Jeff discusses how and why he came to focus on issues of democracy and human rights in Africa and how he found inspiration from the hero of an anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.      Leave a review on iTunes!    You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.    Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.  #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea. #6: Better Know Vladimir Putin #7: How to Get a Job at the United Nations   #8: How to Pick the Right International Relations Graduate School   

The Gambia is a tiny country in western Africa. It's a narrow sliver on the ocean, surrounded by Senegal. It has a population of under 2 million, and according to my guest today, Jeffrey Smith, it is the worst dictatorship you have never heard of.  Smith is a human rights researcher, now a consultant to human rights activists in Africa through his firm Vanguard Africa. In this conversation he describes the politics of repression in Gambia and how the deteriorating situation there is having profound regional, and even global consequences. Indeed, I was surprised to learn that The Gambia as small as it is, is actually a major source of refugees crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.  We also discuss a foiled coup plot that was planned in the United States by Gambian-Americans.    The Gambia is obviously not much in international headlines so I was glad to be able to shine a spotlight on this really under covered story. Even if you have barely heard of the Gambia or if you follow African politics closely, I think you will appreciate this conversation.