The Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that has evolved from an election-focused NGO working in the Southern Africa sub-region, into a more diversified organisation working on broader governance issues throughout the African continent. The Institute works with national, regional, Pan-African and global partners. Its work extends beyond electoral support to include other democracy and governance fields such as political party support, legislative strengthening and civil society engagement of the African Peer Review Mechanism and other political processes such as constitution-making processes. EISA has current and past field offices in Burundi, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This reflects its broader geographic mandate and coverage.

Since the establishment of EISA in 1996, the Institute has supported and/or observed over 100 electoral and political processes in Africa. EISA therefore brings to the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network an African perspective on elections and democracy.

EISA envisions an African continent where democratic governance, human rights and citizen participation are upheld in a peaceful environment. The Institute strives for excellence in the promotion of credible elections, participatory democracy, a human rights culture, and the strengthening of governance institutions for the consolidation of democracy in Africa.

Our Work

·       Training programmes

 EISA offers a range of training programmes that use an interactive and participatory approach drawing on the learner's knowledge and experience. The thematic areas covered in its training programmes include: voter and civic education, citizen participation, democracy and human rights education, election observation, and election management and operations, political party poll watching, political party strengthening, women’s political participation and representation, gender and youth budgeting and political party capacity building  and course design programmes.

 ·       Knowledge and information

EISA contributes to the existing knowledge base on democracy, elections and governance in Africa through research, publications, policy dialogues and networking to highlight current developments towards the institutionalisation of democracy. EISA has over 200 publications including journals, occasional papers, election observation mission reports and surveys. EISA staff also participate in international conferences and events to further disseminate knowledge on democracy and elections in Africa.

EISA has an extensive library and its website provides comprehensive and updated materials including information on elections, comparative information on electoral systems in Africa, a comprehensive election calendar and other selected links to online resources.

The African Democracy Encyclopedia provides comparative information on electoral issues in Africa. The online democracy encyclopedia consists of country profiles, election archives, comparative data and gender based research conducted by EISA. http://eisa.org.za/wep/wepindex.htm

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

 ·      Elections and Political Processes (EPP)

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, and national organisations. This not only ensures ownership but also encourages positive peer learning, support and experience sharing.

A key component of EPP’s interventions is to assist election stakeholders such as election management bodies, regional and sub-regional bodies, civil society organisations and political parties, to play their roles in the electoral process in an effective manner. To this end, EISA has Memoranda of Understanding with institutions like the African Union, and Regional Economic Communities through which it provides technical assistance in the area of election assessment to these institutions. EPP conducts training and other election related capacity development activities, it also coordinates the deployment of EISA election observation missions and the development of election assessment methodology.

EPP has contributed significantly to the enhancement of election observation methodology through the use of cost-effective ICTs. EISA uses a data collection and analysis system called Popola which enables observes to collect data on smart devices with the android operating system and transmit information in real time. To date, the system has been used in over 20 elections in Africa over the past three years. Popola has also been used to improve the capacity of citizen observers to conduct Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT).

Electoral support:

 •     Support to continental and regional institutions: EISA provides technical assistance to the African Union and Regional Economic Communities (REC) in the area of election assessment.

•     Technical support to Electoral Management Bodies – this includes technical assistance such as assistance with voter registration, formulating electoral legislation and orientation for newly appointed electoral personnel and commissioners; election conflict management training;

•     Strengthening civil society participation in the electoral process – EISA provides support to citizen election observation networks in developing election observation methodology, report writing, training, coordinating and deploying observers;

•     Electoral reform and review – EISA works with all stakeholders to review recent elections, identify weaknesses and strengths and develop strategies for improvement. Such reviews have been held in selected countries such as Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia. EISA also supports stakeholders in electoral reform processes to provide comparative knowledge to inform choices made for improvement of electoral processes;

•     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;

•     Election Assessment: EISA has deployed over 100 election assessment missions in form of pre-election assessment missions, technical assessment missions and election observation missions.

•     Parallel Vote Tabulation: EISA has used successfully used this statistics-based methodology in successive national and local elections in Mozambique, to independently assess the accuracy of the election results released by the election management body.

Election-related conflict management:

 EISA considers the management, prevention and resolution of conflict around elections as crucial to the peaceful conduct of an election. EISA has designed a unique programme to manage election-related conflict through the establishment of Election Conflict Management Panels. EISA also trains EMBs and election stakeholders in election conflict management skills.

 Balloting and Electoral Services (BES):

EISA’s Balloting and Electoral Services conducts elections for corporate and civil society sectors. 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.  BES has introduced up to date voting technology including e-voting, SMS voting and online voting.

 •    Governance Institutions and Processes

 Governance Institutions and Processes includes the following programmes:

African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM)

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is an innovative and challenging initiative in the field of governance in Africa. As part of its efforts to enhance democratic and accountable governance in Africa, EISA has been engaging in national APRM processes since 2004 in  9 countries , namely, Ethiopia, Kenya,  Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius,  Mozambique,  Tanzania, South Africa and Uganda.

  Political Party Strengthening

EISA provides technical support to political parties 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. EISA’s political parties programme has developed innovative training material including training on gender and youth budgeting.

Legislative Support

This programme aims to strengthen selected parliaments in Africa and encourage interaction between parliaments and civil society for improved participatory democracy.  It also provides skills to newly elected representatives and parliamentary clerks to carry out their responsibility competently and effectively.

Contact Information

Head Office, South Africa

Phone: +27 11 381 6000/1/2/3/4/5/6/7

Fax: +27 11 482 6163C

Email: [email protected]
Physical address
14 Park Road, Richmond, Johannesburg.
Postal address
PO Box 740 Auckland Park 2006, South Africa
Website: www.eisa.org.za