Panama

ADF Programs in Panama

In 1988, ADF provided technical assistance, training and subgrants to National Civic Crusade of Panama (Civic Crusade), a nonpartisan national coalition of organizations representing business, labor, the professions, civic groups, women, youth and rural residents organized to maintain an alternative to the repressive government of General Noriega, which had effectively destroyed Panama’s multiparty political system.

The Civic Crusade’s voter education campaign stimulated the informed mass participation of Panamanian voters in the May 1994 election, which helped the return of Panama ’s democratic government. Voters learned how to register and where to cast their ballots. The Civic Crusade’s use of the mass media and election literature was enormously effective among women, young people, and the poor, who tend in general to participate less often in elections.