Tomsie Dlamini

Tomsie has been involved in democracy, governance and election-related programmes informed by her professional background in Public Development Management and worked with the Swaziland Council of Churches in the area of income generating programmes for women in rural parts of the country and also with refugees based in the Southern part of Swaziland, Ndzevane. Destiny took her to work with United States Peace Corps – promoting development programmes in under-privileged communities. Elections and democracy development programmes became the next phase of her life, in the main working with political parties, capacity building in democracy, governance and elections coupled with rendering technical assistance internationally. He exposure to electoral processes while with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa for ten years offered her hands on experience on electoral operations with special focus on political party initiatives and capacity building programmes. Entering the field of local government demanded her skills in public development and governance to play a major role in advocating for the interests of municipalities at all levels of government. This entailed, among other responsibilities, review of policies and promoting programmes for a transformational local government sector. The process of transforming the sector involved designing suitable models that would support the strategic direction of reforms. She was further involved in regular reviews of the operations of local government monitoring progress and evaluating its success on its transformational path. She has rendered technical support in the development of civic education materials development on constitutional reforms in Kenya, with a key focus on the devolution process. She is a BRIDGE accrediting facilitator. She has rendered technical support to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) in developing elections training strategy for 2011 general elections. She is an independent consultant in democracy governance and elections based in South Africa. Overview of professional highlights Policy/legislative development and analysis, strategic planning, advisory role to political leadership, legislative bodies and state departments; directing programmes on deepening participatory democracy; development and implementation of efficiency plans, development and evaluation of capacity building programmes; research skills, electoral management and administration; capacity building and development of capacity building materials.

Thematic Areas of Expertise