EISA 2023-2025 (ADS V)

The Embassy took in mid2023 a new decision for the fifth phase for EISA, EISA 20232025 (ADS V). This is a continuation on earlier support and Sida has had a long experience working with EISA over the years. The main support has come from the regional strategy for Africa, but past funding from has also come from bilateral strategies such as Somalia, Mozambique and Kenya (no one of these are active today). EISA is an important organisation in Africa with its unique role as the only African based NGO that provides support and advice on electoral processes on a continental scope. EISA provides training, advice and seconded experts for issues related to electoral processes, and have contributed to building capacity in the African Union (AU) as well as various of the regional economic communities (RECs). EISA support includes a palette of support from preassessment missions before elections, observation mission during elections and also evaluation and followup. It also is the host of a Journal of African Elections that is part of Sida's funding. As mentioned the ADS Project is in its fifth iteration and builds on earlier results and lessons learned over the previous four phases of the project. One of the key impacts of the ADS programme is the strong partnerships established between EISA and the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities and national election authorities. These partnerships are valuable to EISAs work in supporting democratic elections and governance in Africa, allowing EISA to encourage and support improvements and innovations to the work of these partners during election observation missions (EOMs), governance and security assessments and electoral reforms. EISA has built these partnerships through consistent and valuable support to the AU and RECs, introducing new methods and approaches to their work based on EISAs innovation and experience. When it comes to activities and results from 2023 EISA reports the following on goal achievement in its outcomes: Outcome area 1: Promotion and advancement of democratic processes and institutions in Africa The activities under this outcome are largely on track. Outcome area 2: Delivery of credible and trustworthy electoral processes and systems The activities under this outcome are partially behind schedule with many of the activities not taking place due to either the late signing of the ADS V agreement or the activities being postponed to the year 2024 or 2025. The methodology of the social cohesion and early warning tool was adapted in 2023 with the exercise to begin in the first quarter of 2024. Outcome area 3: Representative institutions are inclusive and representative and responsive The majority of the activities are partially behind due to the late start of activities in 2023 (waiting for Sida decision and funding). The activities are slated to be done in 2024. Outcome area 4: Political institutions offer choices based the aspirations of the electorate The approach to conducting activities under this outcome depended largely on the establishment of EISA offices in the countries where the outputs are to be produced. Both the Tanzania and Chad offices were only established in 2023 and thus the majority of the activities have been moved to 2024 and 2025. Outcome area 5: EISA is leading African expert organization in democracy and elections in Africa The activities under this outcome are largely on track. The EISA symposium has been moved to 2024 while the MANCO strategic retreat took place in December 2023. In collaboration with various REC:s and other organisations EISA has performed may important activities during 2023. For the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS): Technical support to Elections Observation Mission in DRC. No Technical expert was hired but ECCAS has received technical support through the EISA Elections and Political Processes Department staff based in Abidjan. The EISA Regional Representative is expected to be in Libreville by quarter 3 in 2024. One consultative meeting took place in DRC for ECCAS and included the Commissioner in charge of political affairs, peace and security and his staff. The meeting covered possible areas for expanded activities and areas of support. ECCAS expressed their willingness to work on setting an Elections Management Bodies Forum, to train more observers and adopt and launch documents validated under the previous project (ADS IV). Considering the prevailing political context, the ECCAS Commission has deployed two high level political missions in DRC using funds from another project and unfortunately these reports were therefore not shared. An election was held in Gabon on the 26th of August 2023. No international election observation mission was invited, including AU, EU and ECCAS. The team was ready to be deployed but without invitations this was not possible. Ali Bongo was declared the winner of the election on the 30th of August which precipitated a political coup détat. For East African Commission (EAC) East and Southern Africa Regional Governance Forum and Democracy Day Roundtable EISA Executive Director and EPP programme officer met Mr. David Onen, political affairs officer at the EAC, met on the sidelines of the democracy day celebrations for a bilateral consultative meeting on partnership updates and implementation of activities consultation. The 2023 East and Southern Africa Regional Governance Forum and Democracy Day Roundtable was hosted by International IDEA and the UNDP in Lusaka, Zambia. Mr. Onen highlighted the internal capacity challenges, particularly in terms of human resources, which are further compounded by policy restrictions making it impossible to operationalise the EMB forum in line with practices from other regions. EISA continues to support the EAC to overcome these challenges and implement its activities. Support to EAC Election Observation Mission to the DRC. As part of its support to EAC Election Observer Missions (EOMs), EISA received a request to support the EAC election observer mission in the DRC for the December 2023 Presidential election. EPP deployed a technical team to support the EAC EOM. However, while already in the country, the EAC did not receive accreditation from the Electoral Commission (CENI) nor an official invitation from the government to deploy observers to these elections, despite DRC being a member of the EAC. As a result, deployment of the mission was abandoned three days before the election when it became clear that the accreditation would not be granted. This denial was because of political tensions that exist between the DRC and Rwanda, which is also a member of the EAC. The highly contested election which was marred by massive irregularities and fraud was won by President Felix Tshisekedi with more than 70% of the vote. He was sworn in for a second five year term. For the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Annual ECONEC symposium The annual ECONEC symposium was held in Abidjan on 2123 November and was themed Institutionalising Lesson Learning Processes for Improved Electoral Administration. The symposium was aimed at empowering EMBs to undertake effective lessons learned processes by supporting EMBs in taking actions to promote effective stakeholder engagement and participation in lessons learned processes. Participants also engaged in discussions around technical support for EMBs and the need for EMBs to understand their own internal needs which would in turn assist donors to target assistance to them. The need for identifying regional needs in terms of electoral assistance was also discussed. EPP also held bilateral conversations with Mr. Serigne Mamadou Ka, Acting Head of the Electoral Assistance Division of the ECOWAS on implementation of 2024 activities and highlighted the harmonisation project envisaged. Further clarity will be provided by ECOWAS once they convene their departmental meeting in December 2023. ECONEC postelection followup mission to Ghana EISA supported the ECONEC Postelection followup mission to Ghana on 0915 August 2023. The mission was deployed to assess the level of implementation of ECOWAS and African Union EOM (AUEOM) recommendations and identify possible areas of support required for the full implementation of those recommendations. Complementarily, the mission conducted a technical assessment of the legal and operational aspects of the electoral process to identify the capacity needs of the EMB as it prepares for the 2024 electoral cycle. With less than two years to the 2024 election, the timing for the deployment of the follow up mission was apt since there is still sufficient time to identify and implement any support activities that may be necessary for ensuring that the 2024 electoral cycle is even better organized than the 2020 cycle. For Southern African Development Community (SADC) Eswatini, SADC election observer missions (SEOMs) EISA deployed technical support staff to conduct an incountry refresher briefings to SADC election observer missions (SEOMs) deployed to: the 29 September general elections in Eswatini on 18 to 23 September 2023, the 16 November presidential elections in Madagascar, on 05 to 12 November 2023, and the 20 December Presidential elections in DRC on 09 to 12 December 2023. The election in Madagascar was marred by irregularities after which incumbent president Andry Rajoelina declared president. The opposition in Madagascar claimed that the election was being conducted under unfair conditions and boycotted the election. As a result, there was very low turnout in which the president garnered almost 60% of the total vote. In Eswatini, fiftyone men and eight women were elected to parliament in Africas last absolute monarch. In addition to the 59 elected members of parliament, the king will appoint 10 more to the House of Assembly at his discretion, which will include five women. SADC principles and guidelines of election observation The aim of these refresher trainings is to provide training on election observation methodology and in country context before deployment. In line with SADC principles and guidelines of election observation, the overall objective of the incountry briefings is to ensure that the participants receive technical capacity and readiness for deployment to conduct election observation. A total of 140 observers were trained at these trainings. EISA has performed gender audit training activities in various countries: By the end of ADS IV, EISA had successfully engaged political parties on the value of gender audits in Botswana, Zambia, Senegal and Madagascar. Engaging with the key leadership of over 40 political parties through consultative meetings and workshops as a gateway into the structures, policies and procedures of political parties. EISA has learned that because gender audits require sensitive political information from political parties, it is important to factor in more time to receive the necessary buyin from the leadership. A further lesson learned under ADS IV was that political parties require technical and logistical support (many political parties remain underresourced) in completing the audits and action plans. The methodology for this activity was changed for ADS V to prioritise political party support in countries where EISA has offices (in so far as possible) and is thus able to develop and maintain resilient relationships with political parties. The gender audits and action plan activities will be run by the staff in this office in 2024/5 with support from EISA Head Office staff who have implemented the activity elsewhere. EISA will also appoint senior staff (at Head and Regional office) in the first two quarters of 2024 who will be able to drive these activities at a more senior level. During 2023 EISA participated in different international events for institutional profiling and lessons learning and sharing: For building an agenda for accessing data for researching online disinformation in African elections 2024 EISA participated in workshop by Research ICT Africa (RIA) that was a hands on and creative sharing of insights and ideas to produce concrete outlines of research proposals that could be subsequently elaborated, supported and practically implemented in 2024. EISA hosted representatives from the National Endowment for Democracy at the EISA Office in Johannesburg. The purpose of the meeting was advocate for hosting the NED annual forum in South Africa with EISA as a supporting partner. IEC meeting in Cape Town Principles and Guidelines for Use of Digital and Social Media in Elections in Africa EISA Executive Director, Baidessou Soukolgue, attended the ECFSADC Annual General Conference, Anniversary and Symposium AND EISA was awarded a prize for its contribution to the ECFSADC work and the deepening of democracy across the subregion. The 2023 Implementation and Convening Committee Meetings of the endorsers of the Declaration of Principles (DoP) for International Elections Observation and the Code of Conduct for International Election Observers was hosted by the African Union and held in Addis Ababa Ethiopia from 1417 November. The meeting is held annually to allow for the endorsers of the DoP to finetune their observation methodology to address the concerns raised against them and come up with innovations that will help promote transparency and credibility of electoral process in a manner that contribute to the implementation of the DoP and its code of conduct. EISA was tasked with moderating the Experiences of Heads of mission and chief observers session where they discussed ways and means of further reforming their roles with a view to fundamental optimization of EOMs to induce more democratic consolidation and transparency of electoral processes, inclusive, viable and sincere in Member States. Discussions also revolved around how better to focus technical assistance to facilitate heads of mission to achieve their mandates with a view to consolidating the transparency of electoral processes and how to conduct themselves during the electoral processes without giving the impression of interfering in the internal affairs of host States. The EISA Executive Director, Baidessou Soukolgue participated in the 8th Annual Continental Forum of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) on 12 November 2023 in Cotonou, Benin. The EMBs Forum convened under the overall theme: Strategic Communication: Building a Sustainable EMBsStakeholder Relationship. The meeting was attended by the AUC Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security, EMBs of the AU Member States and members of the Association of African Electoral Authorities, Regional Economic Communities networks of EMBs, International Organisations involved in electoral assistance, Civil Society Organisations and academia working in the elections field and other key democratic governance actors. The forum was meant to prepare EMBs for effective communication and improved public relations in 2024 and beyond and to be able to strategically manage and respond to priorities for credible elections in a manner that improves their image and relationships with all electoral stakeholders, particularly citizens. At this occasion, the Association of African Electoral Authorities (AAEA) has adopted the Guidelines on the use of social medias in the electoral processes.

The programme goal of the intervention is "credible electoral and democratic poitical processes in Africa, with greater citizen inclusion ad participation, at the regional, subregional and national level". Five outcomes (or objectives) are identified below this overall goal: (1) promotion and advancement of democratic processes and institutions in Africa, (2) delivery of credible and trustworthy electoral processes and systems, (3) representative institutions are inclusive and representative and responsive, (4) political institutions offer choices based [sic] the aspirations of the electorate, and (5) EISA is leading African expert organization in democracy and elections in Africa