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Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDEF co-convened an event at the International Peace Institute in New York on 16 September to mark the International Day of Democracy. The invitation-only event, ¡°Democratization at the Sharp End¡± brought together leading Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ officials from the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ¡¯s work in the field, including Edmond Mulet, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations and former Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Haiti; Margaret Vogt, outgoing Special Representative of Secretary-General in the Central African Republic; and Sanaka Samarasinha, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Resident Coordinator in Belarus. They were joined by Michael Doyle, Chair of the Advisory Board of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Democracy Fund, and Harriette Williams Bright, Advocacy Officer of the NGO and Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDEF grantee Femmes Africa Solidarit¨¦. The discussion, organized by IPI and the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Working Group on Democracy, focused on challenges and opportunities of integrating support for democratization processes in the day-to-day work of peacekeepers, special political missions, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ resident coordinators and their colleagues ¨C all of whom must find ways to deliver on the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ¡¯s normative foundations of democratization by contributing to it in practice in the field. The panelists agreed on the need to understand that democracy cannot be imposed from outside; that democracy means far more than holding elections; and that issues of legitimacy, security and accountability are fundamental to the scope for democratization.