Dianna James is an independent consultant on democratic accountability, human rights and gender. She was most recently assigned to the Iraq policy desk at the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the Department of State, Ms. James spent 12 years with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including The Asia Foundation, the International Rescue Committee and Women’s Campaign International designing programs to promote democratic development and human rights in Afghanistan, Bangladesh Cambodia, Colombia, Kenya and the United States. In addition to working on three elections in Cambodia and Afghanistan, she brings experience training police and government officials on democracy, human rights and gender; designing and implementing programs to support the democratic participation and human rights of poor and marginalized populations; and increased government accountability to citizens. Ms. James has a Master of Arts in Gender and International Development with a focus on governance from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom.
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) offers communities around the world an opportunity to make government more accountable, and help citizens combat corruption, regardless of their gender. Even in countries where women and men enjoy “equality” in the public sphere, they are often affected by corruption in surprisingly different ways. Funds directed toward women, are more