EISA has evolved from an election NGO servicing Southern Africa into a more diversified organisation working throughout the continent with national, regional, Pan-African and global partners. The Institute’s work now covers not only elections but also other Democracy & Governance fields like political party development, conflict management, legislative strengthening, the African Peer Review Mechanism and local governance and decentralisation. Outside the southern African region, EISA has current and past field offices in countries like Burundi, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Sudan, a reflection of its broader geographical mandate. The EISA Board of Directors met recently and decided to change the name of the Institute in line with its new geographical and programmatic scope of work. The new name is Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa (EISA)

EISA brings to the ACE Electoral Network an African perspective to the field of elections and governance.

Our Work

EISA offers a number of services including:

Election related Conflict Management

EISA regards the management, prevention and resolution of conflict around elections crucial to the successful outcome of an election. EISA has designed a unique programme model to manage elections through the establishment of Election Conflict Management Panels;

Training programmes

This offers a range of educational programmes including voter education, democracy and human rights education, electoral observation and electoral staff training capacity building programmes, political party poll watching, course design programmes and citizen participation. These programmes use an interactive and participatory approach drawing on the learner's knowledge and experience.

Knowledge and information

EISA contributes to the existing knowledge base on democracy, elections and governance in Africa through research, publications, policy dialogue, networking, and information resources in support of current developments towards institutionalisation of democracy. EISA has published over 200 publications, journals, occasional papers, reports and surveys. EISA staff give presentations and papers in the SADC region, African continent and globally.

EISA has an extensive library and an Information, Computer and Technology department. The EISA website has the most comprehensive and updated material including information on elections, comparative information on various aspects of electoral systems, up to date election calendar and carefully selected links to online resources.

Online Democracy Encyclopedia

The Democracy Encyclopedia empowers workers in the field of electoral reform and democratic governance, from electoral authorities to civil society workers and from academics to political party activists. It does so by providing essential, accurate and timeous information.

EISA has two programmatic areas, namely Elections and Political Processes and Governance Institutions and Processes.

Democratic Institutions

Elections and political processes

The department’s approach is centered on the notion that democracy must be nurtured from within societies. Activities are conducted through networks of global, regional, national and local organisations. This not only ensures ownership but also encourages positive peer learning, support and experience sharing.

A key component of EPP activity is to assist election stakeholders such as election management bodies, civil society organisations and political parties, to play their rightful roles in the electoral process in an effective manner. To this end, EPP conducts training and other capacity development activities. It coordinates the deployment of election observation missions that are designed to collect information and experiences which in turn inform our strategic interventions.

Election services

A brief summary of the programmes are outlined below:

• Technical support to Electoral Management Bodies – this includes a wide region of support such as assistance with voter registration, formulating electoral legislation and orientation for newly appointed electoral commissions;
• Strengthening civil society participation in the electoral process – EISA provides support in facilitating domestic election observation networks by providing support in developing training material, report writing, training co-ordinating and deploying observers;
• Electoral reform and review –EISA works with all stakeholders to review and interrogate recent elections, identify weaknesses and strengths and develop strategies for improvement. Such reviews have been held in several SADC countries such as Mauritius and Zambia. EISA also supports stakeholders in electoral reforms to improve on the electoral process;
• Principles for Election Management, Monitoring and Observation EISA, in partnership with the Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC countries and the civil society-based Electoral Support Network (SADC ESN) developed and adopted at a conference in Johannesburg in November 2003, the Principles for Election Management, Monitoring and Observation (PEMMO) in the SADC region, signed by representatives from CSOs and electoral authorities in the SADC region.–It is used throughout the SADC region by the ECF and domestic election observation networks; Support to continental and regional institutions;
• Parallel Votes Tabulation: EISA has used successfully this statistics-based techniques in successive national and local elections in Mozambique to assess independently the accuracy of the election results released by the election management body.

Balloting and electoral services

One of EISA’s key work areas is the conduct of elections for corporate and civil society sectors. This work is carried out by EISA’s Balloting and Electoral Services department.

Electoral Services enhances the credibility and legitimacy of organisational elections by providing independent and impartial electoral administration, management and consultancy services. Our broad objective is to promote a culture of democracy and build the confidence of organisations and their beneficiaries in democratic electoral practices, as an essential component of good governance, within themselves and society in general.

Our services are offered to a variety of organisations and statutory bodies including business, labour, government, civic associations, tertiary institutions, community based organizations, quasi-state bodies and political parties.

Governance Institutions and Processes

Governance Institutions and Processes includes the following programmes:

APRM

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is an innovative and challenging initiative in the field of African governance. As part of its efforts to enhance democratic and accountable governance in Africa, EISA has been engaging in national APRM processes since 2004 in Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique and Malawi.

Political party development

EISA provides technical support to political parties in the SADC region between elections. This is informed by the principle that sustainable democracy is dependent upon, inter alia, well-functioning political parties. EISA addresses the following key or thematic areas in political parties in order for them to achieve efficacy in the region and beyond: gender representation in political parties; internal organisational arrangements; management and functioning of parties; leadership qualities within political parties; conflict and conflict management; public outreach programmes and inter-party relations.

Local governance

After several years of supporting and encouraging communities to participate in elections, EISA recognised a need to engage local commununities between elections. EISA believes that for democracy to become a reality rather than a theory, it is important for citizens to be able to engage with the structures that support it and the leaders who have been elected to represent the interests of their constituents.

Legislative Support programme

The programme that aims to strengthen selected parliaments in Africa and encourage interaction between parliaments and civil society for improved participatory democracy.
 

 Contact Information

Head Office, South Africa

Phone: +27 11 381 6000/1/2/3/4/5/6/7
Fax: +27 11 482 6163
Physical address
14 Park Road, Richmond, Johannesburg.
Postal address
PO Box 740 • Auckland Park 2006 • South Africa
Website:
www.eisa.org.za