Since 1995, Clarion Associates and its principals have been assisting governments in less developed countries to improve the performance of their national and local governments and to strengthen their institutions of democracy. This international practice has allowed us to share our knowledge of effective governmental structures and procedures with less developed countries, and has also enabled us to learn from very different approaches to urban development and administration. Our principal's work has involved both short-term and long-term assistance in designing, managing, and/or drafting: Land privatization tools and systems Market-friendly historic preservation tools Capacity building efforts for national legislatures Capacity building programs for decentralized local governments Support for national election systems Monitoring of national and local elections Following are brief descriptions of a few of our projects: Democracy & Governance Advisor, Kampala, Uganda A principal of Clarion Associates served as Democracy and Governance Advisor to USAID/Uganda from 2001-2003, and as Acting Team Leader for Democracy, Governance and Conflict from 2001-2002. As one of largest programs of U.S. assistance to sub-saharan Africa, USAID/Uganda supports a variety of initiatives to strengthen democracy and governance in Uganda. The Clarion principal designed and managed programs of capacity building for both the Parliament of Uganda focusing on improving the effectiveness of parliamentary committees, strengthening legislative drafting skills, improving oversight of the Executive branch, and strengthening advocacy skills of CSOs. In addition, we managed a program to build capacity in planning, budgeting, accountability, and improved service delivery to 22 district governments throughout the country. To promote free and fair elections, the Clarion principal also managed a program of election monitoring and assistance to NGO election monitors during the national and local elections of 2001-2002. Client: USAID Historic Preservation and Functional Zoning, Russia A principal of Clarion Associates worked with PADCO, Inc. (Planning and Development Collaborative) of Washington, D.C. to assist the cities of Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, and Irkutsk, Russia to develop market-oriented land use regulations and historic preservation systems. Key achievements included drafting legislative framework documents for adoption by the governments of Novgorod and Irkutsk. Each framework document was based on thorough research on the types and levels of information of available, the human resources available to implement the new regulatory system, and the cost of implementing the recommended changes. In addition, based on these and other case studies, the Clarion principal served as co-author of a USAID publication entitled "Land Use Regulatory System (Zoning) Historical and Cultural Preservation" (1997), which was designed as a practical guide to local government reform on these two topics to be used throughout Russia. Client: USAID Land Privatization Systems, St. Petersburg, Russia A principal of Clarion Associates assisted the historic city of St. Petersburg, to design an administrative and legal system to privatize land to the enterprises that occupied the land. Specific tasks included detailed, continuing negotiations with three different branches of the local government regarding the elimination of current counter-productive administrative structures and the coordination of efforts to implement new structures, negotiations with local government lawyers regarding opportunities for decentralization in Russian federal law, organizing a major two-day conference with leading government officials and enterprise owners, and producing draft regulations and manuals for local government ministries. Key achievements include the successful adoption of the privatization system and the privatization of over 600 parcels of land by late 1996. Client: USAID