Democracy needs nurturing. Democracy does not end after an election. The fight for freedom, dignity, justice, development and peace is a dynamic process. According to the words of Dr. Wilhelm Hofmeister, founder of the Konrad Adenauer School for Young Politicians (KASYP), “The performance and prospects of democracy depend on people. Democracy needs the participation and engagement of many people in our society.”

Since 2010, the KASYP programme has trained close to 300 young political leaders in the region representing at least 16 Asian countries. As the alumni list continues to grow, so as the challenge to sustain the gains from developing accountable and responsible young political leaders. Now more than ever, it is crucial to create opportunities, mechanisms, and structures for those who remain engaged and have shown strong commitment to politics and democracy.

Upon the initiative from KASYP alumni batch 03, led by YB Lee Chean Chung and YB Kumaresan Aramugam of Malaysia, an annual KASYP alumni meeting was established with the aim to continue the engagement among these young politicians. These meetings are summarized below:
- KASYP Alumni Meeting 2014 - “Regional Integration, Good Governance and Democracy in Asia”, 27-30 November 2022, Penang Malaysia
- KASYP Alumni Meeting 2015 - “Devolving Power in Asia: Experiences in Good Governance”, 29-31 October 2015, Davao City, Philippines
- KASYP Alumni Meeting 2016 - “Guardians of Democracy in Asia”, 30 May - 2 June 2016, Siem Reap Cambodia.

From tackling various topics, the alumni meeting shifted focus to an important global topic, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With the support from the Regional Programme Political Dialogue Asia, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KASPDA), under the leadership of Dr. Beatrice Gorwantschy and with assistance from Ms. Dilpreet Kaur, the KASYP-Leaders’ Caucus was established in order to make the alumni engagement more strategic by zeroing on Agenda 2030. Since then, three meetings were conducted, as shown below, to discuss how young leaders can help their respective communities achieve some of the SDGs.
- KASYP-Leaders’ Caucus 2017 “For Sustainable Development Goals | #KASYP4SDGs”, 2-4 February 2017, Siem Reap, Cambodia and 4-5 August 2017, Bangkok, Thailand
- KASYP-Leaders’ Caucus 2018 “For Sustainable Development Goals | #KASYP4SDGs”, 3-4 December 2018, Bangkok, Thailand.

After ten years of training young politicians and six alumni meetings, it was time to institutionalize these alumni engagements through an official network of individuals and organizations whose aim is to advance and consolidate democracy in the region. Thus, on August 10, 2019 during the KASYP Grand Alumni Meeting, 16 alumni were elected as country representatives by their respective national chapters to work on this project. Led by Rey Padit, a KASYP alumnus himself and programme manager for KASYP, with the support of Mr. Christian Echle, director of KASPDA, crafted the first constitution and bylaws of the new network and officially launched the Asian Democratic Leaders’ Alliance (ADLA), on December 12, 2020, a year after.

ADLA is the right step forward in ensuring the sustainability of democracy in the region through sharing the responsibility of nurturing democratic values and principles among young political leaders, organizations, and groups.