Michael Wodzicki

"Blind faith? Citizen engagement in democracy assistance" - Executive Summary - literature review: Public sector reform and democracy assistance - top line data from Indonesia - Michael's work featured in The Canberra Times (September 22, 2008), The Jakarta Post (September 19, 2008), and Embassy Magazine (September 4, 2008)

Bio

Michael is currently the Coordinator of the Democratic Development Programme at Rights & Democracy, an organization created by an act of Canada's parliament with the mandate to promote human rights and democratic development in developing countries. In this capacity, he coordinates the work of a 10 person team that implements democratic development projects in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. Previously, Michael worked in the democratization unit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission to Serbia & Montenegro, where he managed a programme that sought to open Serbia's parliament to the public (2004). This included activities such as Serbia's first ever "Open Parliament Days" and the production of a video aired on national television on the role of parliament and parliamentarians. He also spent three years (2001 - 2004) working as a Policy Advisor for Canada's Secretary of State to Africa & Latin America, and subsequently Asia-Pacific. Michael has travelled around the world and speaks French, English, and Polish.

Michael has a Bachelor of Arts with first class honours in political science from McGill University (1999) and a Master's of Science with distinction in nationalism studies from the University of Edinburgh (2000).

Issue of Investigation

As a 2007 recipient of the Gordon Global Fellowship, Michael explored public understandings of democratic development, both amongst stakeholders in Canada and in countries receiving Canadian development aid. He focused on determining the nature of public support for promoting democracy abroad as a means towards improving how Canada attempts to build democracy in other countries.