Good morning an welcome to Global Perspectives.

I'm David Dumke.

Today we are joined by the Vice President for the Peace Programs at the Carter Center, Barbara Smith.

The Carter Center itself was started by former President Jimmy Carter in 1981, when he left office to continue his wor to create a more peaceful world.

Welcome to the show, Barbara.

>>Thank you.

>>So, Barbara, tell us a little about what you're doing.

This is a very turbulent time in world politics.

The Carte Center has a very unique role.

It's often worked with different governments, including the United States, but it's done its own project to work in areas of health, peace, etc.. Can you tell us a little about what your most pressing issues are today?

>>Thank you, David, and thank for having me here on the show.

It's great to be here, to be able to share a little bit about what the Carter Center is doing, and to talk about the legacy of President Carter.

So as you mentioned in the Carter Center wages peace, fights disease and builds hope.

But I wanted to talk a little bit firs about the genesis of the center.

So President Carter set up the center because he wanted to build he envisioned this mini Camp David, this place where people could come together to really try to address the world's most intractable problems.

So we started out small, and then we've we've grown, we have about 3,000 staff worldwide.

Many of those are health volunteers at the far reaches of, of the globe.

And really, the philosophy is really to, as you said it really is to to wage peace, but it's also to lift u those that are most vulnerable.

President Carter often talked about helping those at the end of the road to give them agency so that they would be able to then themselves work to solve those problems.

And that's also part of our approach.

It really is about working with local communities, building up local communities.

And, and, and now today, that's evolved into a number of programs in different areas.

On the health side we work to basically eradicate and eliminate neglected tropical diseases.

So one that folks may have hear about is our guinea worm work.

And where we had something like 3.5 million cases a year.

We're now down to, just 4 cases, I believe, in 2024.

And part of the story of that has been working through our peace programs to ensure that we're able to do our health work.

So that's a big part of what we do.

But also just to drill down a little bit more in terms of the peace work that we do.

It really is a holistic approach to our peace work.

So it's not just about conflict resolution and transformation per se, but it is about advancing human rights.

It is about addressing challenges to rule of law.

It is about, working to advance democracy.

So it's all of those things.

I'll stop there.

Just.

But I just wanted to kind of give you a sense and the viewers a perspective on, on the breadth and depth of the work that we're doing.

>>So the center has worked in some 85 countries.

So as I understand it, you're talking about a holistic approach.

And making sure that you're listening to the needs of the people.

How do you do that?

So it's not so it doesn't come across as Westerners coming to deliver something, but instead takin what's already there and trying to create more dialog at least.

>>Yeah, that's a great question.

So we do that in a number of ways.

One of the things tha if you've listened to President Carter speak, he talks abou is the importance of listening.

And it's something that we hear reflected back when we talk about his legac around the world, to the people with whom we've worked over decades.

The second is patience and persistence.

In the places where we work, places like Sudan and Mali.

We've been there for a long time, and we're committed.

And other nonprofits might come in and out.

But we are really dedicated to to really, staying the course, because some of these problems are they're very difficult.

They're very complicated.

And they require leadership at the local level.

And so that's the third and I would say maybe in a way the most important part, and that is it's it's working with local leaders, many and, or in fact, most of our country offices are locally led.

And then it's our local partners.

We talk about how importan for us our local partners are.

And that is it's not just the nonprofits we work with.

It's not just the, health ministers and local leaders, but it is university partnerships, journalists.

It's all of that civil society and the ecosystem that, makes up the fabric of the societie and the places in which we work.

And it is about being inclusive.

So it it is important to talk to all sides.

So that was something else that President Carter did.

He talked to everyone.

And we believe that that is an important part of our commitment.

And how we approach these these really difficult problems we're trying to solve.

>>Do you see that you've worked of course, in your own career, you've worked in government, you've worked outside of government.

And there's a difference between dialog from outside of government and in.

And then President Carter, of course, did the same.

He used this incredible record.

He had, you know, including president of the United States, governor of Georgia.

But then he applied it to listen to people.

And he talked to you, just mentioned something, making sure all parties at the table, including some of these parties, that that may have blood in their hands or different, you know, human right records of human rights abuses.

How do you justify talking t to some of these outlier groups that others won't talk to?

Governments, for example.

>>So one of the things that President Carter also talked about was that we have to, adjust to changing times bu hold to unchanging principles.

So even when we are talking to all parties and we may not agre with their approach or the thing or, you know, and we absolutely condemn violence.

Political violence has no place in our society or other societies, but we we come to the table with a belief in advancing human rights.

A strong and strict adherence to international human human rights and humanitarian law and a belief that through it is through dialog.

And those conversations, and listening to people understanding the place where they're coming from that can help you advance, the work that you're trying to do.

So it's not just, you know, that we talk to people, but it's also that we're we're listening.

We're trying to understand the the challenges, what motivates the different parties.

You know, what will bring people to the table?

And what can then ultimately advance, whether it's a peace process or just a help to resolve a local level disagreement.

So to give you an exampl of how we might do that in Mali, we've been working in central Mali on something called our Peace Through Health program.

And there we have been working in communities.

We needed to get access to be able to, to continue our, our guinea worm work.

And the parties there were in conflict.

And so what we did just to put it rather simply, is we tried to bring the groups together to find out what their local needs were around health issues, not just necessarily eradicating guinea wor because there are fewer cases in Mali now.

But what are their needs?

Do they need access to water?

Do they need access to basic medicines, and then bring those parties together around a common framework and create a health package that they can all then, agree upon and then implement as a community.

So, so that again, it's looking at what are the issues, where can we bring people together around things that really, truly matter to them, while still holding to those principles that I spoke of.

>>Now you are a nonpartizan organization and also an interfaith organization.

We're talking about conflicts here.

And of course, President Carter was known as a very a man of deep faith.

And that shaped his work both in and out of the of the White House, including obviously the Carter Center.

You're dealing a lot of times with religious groups.

So a lot of religiou justification for the conflicts.

How has that how have you used infused religion into some of the Carter Center's work?

>>So maybe I'll use this chanc to pivot a little bit and talk about some of our domestic work as well.

So, we since 202 have been working domestically here in the United States.

And we thought that that was important because we we want to approac all of our work with humility.

Right.

And we realiz that we have some of the same, similar challenges here in the United States that one faces around the world when it comes to, again political violence and conflict.

And the church plays an important role in outreach to communities.

Or the synagogue or, you know, working through imams in our Muslim community.

And so, we felt like it was important to, to engage that network.

So in Georgia, for example, we've supported something called the Faith Forward Network.

And and that is, again, thi chance to engage in fellowship, to, have a conversation about those principles.

The as you mentioned, President Carter, faith was very important to hi that we should, you know, help the poor, that we should hel those that are most vulnerable.

You know, many of those teachings for him were part of his faith.

And faith was what drove him.

You know, he wrote about this in his book about his his, faith journey.

So I encourage folks to, to to read, that book and read some of his other books where he talks about how that has influenced his journey through, how it influenced his journey throughout his life.

And then we've tried to carry that forward in terms of those important, again, principles around the work that we do.

>>You just mentioned your domestic work, and you hav a democracy resilience network that I want to ask you about, but I want to ask first about some of the other democracy work you do.

That is also obviously an important part of President Carter, which i observing elections in places.

And I mentioned the you know, the domestic workers.

You ended up observing American elections as well.

Tell us a little about the election observation process and how you measure success.

Then I'll ask you a little about the US.

>>Fair enough.

So thing so, you know, I even before I came to the Carter Center, I had had a chance to observe elections around the world.

And it's something that I think is so important is one to, bear witness to electoral processes, to build confidence in election processes.

And to, to support democracy overall.

Electoral democracy is such a foundational part of democracies around the world.

So so what do we do?

So, we, we do a numbe of things in our election work.

And, and folks may have seen pictures over the year of President Carter observing, whether it was Nepal or Palestine or Panama, some or many other places.

So at the Carter Center, we have observed, over 125 elections around the world as international observers.

But another part of the work that we do is called citizen observation.

And that's working with citizen groups t observe in their own countries.

So these are local citizen groups who, who, who, who want to play a part in their civic process.

So they're looking at a number of different things.

And it's not just about Election Day itself, it's actually about the whole process.

So they're looking at the role that the media plays, the the space for sort of those basic fundamenta freedoms like freedom of speech, freedom of assembly those kinds of things that well, and they're they'r sort of taking the temperature on how the process is going overall.

And then what typically happens afterwards, after all the cameras go away and, and people head hom from the international mission, there is a more extensive report that comes out.

So there's an initial report, often a press conference.

And then there's a report that digs deeper.

And it really is about how can we help to improve the conduct of elections in the country.

And then it's really up to the election commissions, the, the local communities, the citizen observation groups, in many ways to continue to move that process of improvin transparency and accountability around elections fo so so that's a little bit just a a snapshot I could go on, but I'll stop there.

But that sort of hopefully gives you a flavor of of of what we do, how we do it and then the why we do what we do.

>>So the governments who who ask you to observe elections, obviously they want the benefits, the legitimac that, that a democratic election affords.

But obviously there's, there's a reluctance sometimes that they don't want to lose power.

In the same time.

How doe the Carter Center manage that?

Because they sur they want your bill of approval.

Carter Center as a is a great reputation internationally, but it also has requirements.

You have these reports, you have metrics.

You measure this by.

How do you balance that?

>>And that's a great question.

And you you actually made a ver good point for me right there.

I mean you are typically invited in that's one of the, the preconditions for election observation.

Both overseas or right here at home, the election officials responsible will issue an invitation to nonprofits or others to, to observe the elections.

And then you asked about sort of how we how we balance, the, the expectations.

So, you know, a hallmark of any democrac is a peaceful transfer of power.

It's acceptance of the election results.

And we're pretty clea that those are part of election observation standards.

We have several books that we've written about electoral election observation standards.

We have those conversations.

That's important.

It doesn't always go perfectly, you know, and that's where diplomacy comes in.

You know, there are so many different actors are involved in ensuring, both the peaceful transfer of powe and a smooth election process, from administrators, observers, etc.. So I think it really takes everyone, earnestly, committed to that process for things to, to move forward in the way that they should.

And again, they don't always, but our hope is really that by doing the work that we do, that we are contributing to that, that more transparent, accountable, peaceful process of of elections and that transition.

>>So one of the memories of course, you know, for those who are following news is, you know, seeing Jimmy Carter observe the Panamanian elections, of course, that was a fraudulent one.

And he called it as such.

>>Yes.

>>At the time, I highlight that because also the Carter Center made a pretty bold decision if we're going to observ elections in the United States, how was that decision taken?

I mean, it had to be, you know, it's one thing to observe foreign elections, but doing it at home, you know, has, has, has a very different response, I would imagine, from some people.

>>Yeah.

So it was a bold step, I will agree to, to pivot to the United States.

But again, you know, so back in 2020 when we made the decision to work, to build trust and transparency in elections here in the United States, there was a conversation.

Our CEO, Paige Alexander, visited with President Carter down at his home in Plains.

And they had a conversation about about engaging here because traditionally, centers like ours don't necessarily do that.

We're focused internationally, but we felt like it was important to recognize that.

And I think it's a lesson that the entire community of organizations that work on democracy have recognize democracies need to be nurtured.

They they, they need to continue to be cultivated, even when they're strong, to prevent backsliding, to continue to make sur that institutions are healthy.

So I think for us, it was important for us.

And I think he was very supportive.

And wrote an op ed that you can look at as well about, what was happening in the States.

And so we started small.

We started focusing, as you mentioned, we, conducted, domestic, observation in Georgia.

We've expanded to a couple other states as well.

And people were actually pretty welcoming of that engagement.

We were a little bit nervous at first, but I was pleasantly surprised at how interested folks were to see the Carter Center engage.

Now it is our own backyard, you know, there was a familiarity there and a trust level.

You know, a lot of this is built around trust.

Trust is such an important ingredient.

It's in everything that we do.

And so, you know we started with with that piece, we also looked at, principles around elections.

I mentioned that there ar these international standards.

How could we apply those and promote those at home?

I already talked about the fact that there is this, the importanc of a peaceful transfer of power.

But we also, you know, candidates should commit to, nonviolence.

They should commit to, code of conduct, if you will, about how we engage with each other constructively, even when we disagree.

We should do it in a constructive way.

So and that that compromise is part of part of political engagement in the US.

So I think those are some of the things we were thinking about when we, when we moved our, our work forward and as you alluded to, we also had set up th something called the Democracy Resilience Networks.

We again started small.

Those have now grown.

We're operating in six states.

So it was very much important for those to be locally led.

So we've worked with local partners again, just as in our international work working with local partners is such a critical part of our engagement here in the States.

So again, we're not there's we're not exceptional in that way.

What work overseas has tended to work here as well in terms of the citizen engagement, in terms of building trust and in terms of the the way that we partner with local organizations.

>>That that's very, very, very interesting.

You you're such a wide mandate, though.

You're working in other areas too.

And, and under the peace programs, you also have have women's program programs aimed toward more women.

You have, human rights, promotion, in addition to democracy promotion.

Some of the how do you balance all tha in this, this, this with 3,000 staff still, that's pretty small to take on the world.

>>Yeah.

Well you know, it's it's a call for, a lot of us, it really is a calling.

It's a mission that we think is important.

So I feel lucky every day when I walk through the doors of the Carter Center, tha I get to do the work that I do.

And these pieces that you just mentioned, human rights, democracy, our rule of law programing, our conflict resolution, it's all intertwined.

It's all, related to each other.

You can't have, peace without human rights.

You need inclusion of women to have effective and sustainable peace.

You need the rule of law, for democracies to to function.

So all of these pieces are really important elements to advancing our overall peace work.

And I just wanted to take take a moment to, to mention the importance of the work that we do around, working with women.

And, you know, President Carte wrote a book, A Call to Action, about the importance of, making that commitment to engaging women in peace processes in particular.

But we apply that to all of the work we do, and we look at, elevating women, ensuring that women have their own agency, ensurin that they are properly equipped with the information that they need to succeed.

So that's an important part of our programs, but is just, just one element of of the broad range of programs that we implement around the world.

>>So I think it's it' not exactly a profound statement to sa that the world is going through a very much change in term of global order and global norms and a lot of things.

And we've seen that manifest in a number of ways, including the elimination of, USAID and some of the foreign assistance programs which you worked for USAID in the past.

Carter Center can never replace that.

But has there been added pressure on the Carter Center and other organizations working in this space to deliver some of those services that are now lacking and desperately needed in some corners of the world?

>>That's a great question, and it is a tough time.

I don't want to sugarcoat it.

It is.

It's a really hard time.

The the people that wor in this sector feel the absence and the loss of USAID acutely and most critically, it's the partners, overseas the nonprofit who were working on, defending human rights, who are working on advancing rule of la in countries around the world.

Whether you're talking about Colombia or Liberia, you know, it doesn't matter.

This is being felt around the world, this loss.

Having said that what I have seen is a doubling down of in the community of our commitments.

And so I was pleasantl I've been pleasantly surprised.

And it's been uplifting to see that I recently had a chance to talk to a human right defenders from around the world at an event I was at, and it was so inspiring to hear of their commitment.

So even in the face of what's been a loss of funding support, that commitment is still very much there.

And we have an obligation, I feel like, to to continue to support those groups, those individuals who are who are fighting fo these basic fundamental rights that they they they should enjoy, whether it's civil and political rights, whether we're talking about economic and social rights, these, these, important things, that principles that, that we should all be supporting.

So, again, my, I, I hope I can speak for my team when I say that there was a momentary pause, but I think we are all, re-energize and continue, to continue our commitment to move the work forward.

>>We just have a minute left, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention, President Carter and the first lady as well, who, you know, President Carter died less than a year ago, and Rosalyn Carter died not long before him.

They were obviously legendary figures, big, big figures.

They're they're, you know winner Nobel Peace Prize, etc.. The accomplishments have racked up, how much is that legacy determinant in your work and will that legacy do you see that legacy continuing?

>>So the short answer to that question, since we just have a minut is absolutely 100% yes, we are.

We are committed to continuing that legacy, to advancing that legacy.

Their absence is is felt.

It's been really har on the team, with his passing.

But we have a sense of a renewed commitment to the work that we do to, you know, advancing peace around the world.

You mentioned his is Nobel Peace Prize.

I recommend, sinc we're a little bit out of time, but I recommend that, folk take a look at the words in the, the, the, the resolution that he had and the determination and the commitment.

I hope that we can all take something from that.

So it's not just about us at the Carter Center.

I think it's about all of us as individuals and citizens and a community a community of of of democracies and peopl that are committed to this work that can all come together to honor President Carter's legacy in the in the years and the decades to come.

>>Barbara Smith, thank you so much for joining us and thank you for the great work the Carter Center does.

>>Thank you.

>>And thank you for joining us.

We'll see you again next week on another episode of Global Perspectives.