Improving quality and credibility through professional election observation and monitoring

UNDP recently supported efforts to improve the quality and credibility of elections in Africa through professional election observation and monitoring. Working in conjunction withthe African Union (AU) and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), UNDP sponsored a three-day training in July 2011 of 50 election observers who weredrawn mainly from the Central African region (Burundi, Cameron, the CentralAfrican Republic, Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, andGabon). Other participants came from RECs such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the East Africa Community (EAC) and the Common Marketfor Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The training programme forms part of UNDP support to promoting credible and transparent elections in Africa and supporting institutional strengthening, with particular focus on strengthening the regional institutions’ capacity to undertake effective electoral support and election observation. In 2009 UNDP and the AUsigned a cooperation agreement titled ‘Consolidating Participatory andDemocratic Governance in Africa’ which covers, among other things, support tothe AU and the RECs on strengthening democratic processes and institutions.

The July 2011 workshop took place in Libreville, Gabon and was jointly sponsored by GPECS – throughboth the Johannesburg and Dakar regional windows – and the Regional GovernanceProgramme. The workshop’s total cost was about US$191,000. 

Although the AU has overthe last two years conducted similar trainings across the content, includingSouthern, Eastern and West Africa, this was the first time this training thattook place in the Central African region and also the first where UNDP rendered this type of support to the AU and the RECs.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Bakary Dosso, the officer-in-charge of UNDP Gabon, pointed outthat UNDP support to the AU and RECs’ institutional strengthening is in synchwith the UNDP mandate and strategic vision of strengthening democratic institutions and processes to foster inclusive and participatory democracy and governance.

Ambassador Emile Ognimba,the AU’s director for political affairs, stressed in remarks that election observation remains the backbone of participatory democracy and that unless citizens had confidence that elections were free and fair and that those who managed them did so without fear and favour, democracy and good governance will remain a distant mirage for the majority of Africans who regard democracy asthe key avenue for peace, human development and security.

The workshop contributed to the number of observers who are trained and qualified in undertaking election observation based on the AU methodology. Ognimba added that more than 500 people have already undergone this training across the continent and the AU will endeavour to train another 50 observers in North Africa in the near future. This means that by the end of 2011 all five AU regions would have participated in this intensive three-day training covering a broad spectrum ofissues in the electoral field in general and in election observation and monitoring in particular.

The training facilitators were drawn from UNDP, African Union Commission and the Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa (EISA). The modular-based training covered aspects such the theories, practices and concepts of election observation; introduction to the history of election observation and key actors at the global and regional levels; standards forelection observation; and election observation and the AU, including the AU’selection observer code of conduct.

Participants were given certificates at the end of the three-day training and they will be enrolled onthe AU roster of election observers.

Quotes:

Working with UNDP, the AU will be able to produce a critical mass ofAfrican citizens thoroughly equipped to assess elections on the continent thereby enhancing democratic consolidation.

‒ Ambassador Emile Ognimba, AU director for political affairs

The training workshop was an important step for me personally, and forthe African Union as an institution, to equip ourselves with the skills and knowledge we need on how to observe and monitor elections on the continent. The training will go a long way go a long way to increase the professional and skills capacity of AU observers to undertake credible and effective election observation across Africa.

‒ Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, chairperson of the Burundi Electoral Commission