Steve McDonald, Wilson Center
Africa Program
Former Director
Project on Leadership and Building State Capacity
Washington, District of Columbia
steve.mcdonald@wilsoncenter.org
Office:
(202) 691-4046
Expert In
Bio/Research
As a Foreign Service Officer from 1970-80, McDonald served as Political Officer in the U.S. Embassies in Uganda and South Africa and as the Desk Officer for Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe. He also was support staff for negotiated settlements in Rhodesia/Zimba...
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Bio/Research
As a Foreign Service Officer from 1970-80, McDonald served as Political Officer in the U.S. Embassies in Uganda and South Africa and as the Desk Officer for Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe. He also was support staff for negotiated settlements in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and Namibia in the late-1970s and did conflict resolution work in Northern Ireland and Burundi.
From 1982 – 1985, as Executive Director of US – South Africa Leader Development Program, McDonald designed and conducted educational exchange programs with institutions like Johns Hopkins School of International Advanced Studies and Harvard's Niemann Fellowship.
McDonald worked with both the National Endowment for Democracy, as a consultant from 1985-1992, and with the African-American Institute, from 1992-97, in implementing democratization activities. He has personally led missions of elections observers to Ethiopia, Benin, Gabon, Sierra Leone, and Madagascar. He has worked on assessment teams to design civic education, monitoring and training for elections officials for elections in South Africa and Uganda and has done assessments of human rights situation in Nigeria. He initiated and organized a series of regional conferences, with USAID, Department of Defense, World Bank and United Nations funding, on the role of the military in democratization in Africa. McDonald also oversaw the African Regional Electoral Assistance Fund which engaged in training of elections officials, civic voters education, observation and monitoring of elections throughout Africa, to include 34 separate country activities in partnership with the National Democratic Institute of International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, and the Carter Center at Emory University.
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From 1982 – 1985, as Executive Director of US – South Africa Leader Development Program, McDonald designed and conducted educational exchange programs with institutions like Johns Hopkins School of International Advanced Studies and Harvard's Niemann Fellowship.
McDonald worked with both the National Endowment for Democracy, as a consultant from 1985-1992, and with the African-American Institute, from 1992-97, in implementing democratization activities. He has personally led missions of elections observers to Ethiopia, Benin, Gabon, Sierra Leone, and Madagascar. He has worked on assessment teams to design civic education, monitoring and training for elections officials for elections in South Africa and Uganda and has done assessments of human rights situation in Nigeria. He initiated and organized a series of regional conferences, with USAID, Department of Defense, World Bank and United Nations funding, on the role of the military in democratization in Africa. McDonald also oversaw the African Regional Electoral Assistance Fund which engaged in training of elections officials, civic voters education, observation and monitoring of elections throughout Africa, to include 34 separate country activities in partnership with the National Democratic Institute of International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, and the Carter Center at Emory University.
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