ACCORDING to Lindsay Lloyd, former IRI director in Slovakia, and the NDI official web site, the biggest funders for IRI and NDI programmes are the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
The NED, though non-governmental, is funded primarily through annual government appropriations and is subject to congressional oversight.
The NED, in turn, acts as a grant-making foundation, distributing funds to private organizations for the purpose of promoting democracy abroad.
One of the six goals of the NED, which was set up during the Reagan administration, is "encouraging democratic development consistent with the interests of both the US and the groups receiving assistance".
The NED's creation was soon followed by the establishment of the Center for International Private Enterprise, the NDI, and the IRI, which joined the Free Trade Union Institute as the four affiliated institutions of the NED.
USAID "is an independent federal government agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State," according to the official web site of the agency.
"US foreign assistance has always had the twofold purpose of furthering America's foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets while improving the lives of the citizens of the developing world," the USAID web site states.
- Lukáš Fila
