LocationsEvaluating UNDP's Electoral Support
A decade of electoral support
Over the past ten years, more than 800 presidential and parliamentary elections were held.
But in nearly all regions, political interference and shrinking civic space increasingly undermined electoral credibility. Global average voter turnout fell from 65% in 2008 to 56% in 2023.
In 2024, one billion eligible voters lived in countries where the quality of elections had significantly declined over the previous five years.
Against this turbulent backdrop, the IEO examined whether and how UNDP’s electoral support remained relevant, effective and resilient.
What the evaluation found
In an era defined by deep skepticism, UNDP remained a neutral, stabilizing actor in electoral support.
Investing $1.19 billion across more than 80 countries, UNDP helped nations navigate the logistics of modern voting. From strengthening policy frameworks to improving voter registrations and dispute resolution, UNDP was often the only actor capable of operating in areas constrained by severe political and security risks.
UNDP SUPPORTED OVER 80 COUNTRIES, WITH Africa accountING for the largest share of expenditure
Electoral support failed to take root when it focused on the mechanics of the vote while ignoring the political realities undermining it.
In the decade under review (2015-2025), UNDP's strategy matured. It shifted from managing single election cycles towards developing long-term institutional resilience. This approach focused on strengthening Election Management Bodies (or EMBs), legal frameworks and technical capacities designed to endure.
While this strategy improved administrative and operational capacity, the durability of these gains was ultimately tied to broader political and institutional conditions. Technical progress was inherently limited by the environment in which UNDP operated.
UNDP support to EMB capacities, 2015–2025 by electoral activity area
UNDP support enabled the continuity of core electoral functions in volatile contexts.
Electoral assistance often took place against a backdrop of political transition, fragility, or recent conflict. UNDP’s support mitigated the risk of disruption during periods of political instability.
Operating within the UN electoral assistance framework, UNDP successfully responded to national requests, delivering the operational support countries needed to plan, conduct, and review elections under highly difficult conditions.
Most expenditure was concentrated in countries where conflict or fragility made electoral processes more precarious
In 2022, UNDP established a measurable moonshot target for electoral participation, aiming to enable 800 million people to participate in elections by 2025. By 2025, support had reached 911.3 million voters across 78 elections in 51 countries. The annual trajectory reflected a significant scale-up: approximately 110 million registered voters were supported in 2022, rising to 328.4 million in 2023 and further to 377.1 million in 2024.
Inclusion was a cornerstone of UNDP's electoral support, but progress remained incremental.
The evaluation revealed significant strides in empowering women, youth, persons with disabilities and Indigenous populations to participate actively as voters, candidates and officials.
Through legislative reforms, targeted advocacy and capacity building, UNDP contributed to tangible increases in women's political representation. The organization also tackled violence against women in elections, working alongside UN Women and other partners to support context-adapted prevention and response measures.
However, progress remained incremental, battling deep-seated socio-cultural barriers and inconsistent enforcement. Efforts to introduce gender quotas encountered persistent resistance, especially in Africa and the Arab States, and legislation was rejected or delayed in several countries.
UNDP support contributed to significant increases in women’s representation across several countries through legal reforms, quotas and capacity building. In Sierra Leone, a 30% quota and leadership training increased women’s parliamentary representation from 12% to the national target of 30%. In Benin, a multipronged approach combining legal reform, institutional engagement and grassroots empowerment increased representation from 8 to 27%. In Tanzania, incorporating gender provisions into electoral laws increased representation to 37%. In Malawi, training, campaign support and interparty gender initiatives reduced nomination fees by 50% and increased the number of women MPs by 5%, with two women becoming party Secretaries-General.
UNDP's electoral interventions were sometimes implemented in isolation from complementary governance programmes.
Due to the time-sensitive nature of elections, technical advisors often operated separately from broader governance teams. This separation meant that opportunities to leverage UNDP's wider peacebuilding and governance work were not consistently realized.
UNDP's focus on isolated technical solutions meant it often fell short of tackling deeper political challenges. Issues such as unresolved constitutional disputes, politically influenced security forces, and weak public administration repeatedly undermined electoral credibility and the ability of EMBs to operate with integrity.
The findings underscored the importance of embedding electoral support within broader state-building, peace and security efforts to reinforce the conditions necessary for credible elections.
Although global demand for support in cybersecurity and data protection increased, UNDP’s engagement in this area remained limited, despite its broader work on digital public infrastructure.
The past decade saw the rapid digitization of democracy, from biometric voter registration to electronic results transmission. While this technology drove efficiency, it also opened the door to new threats: cyberattacks, data breaches and the weaponization of misinformation.
UNDP’s experience indicated that electoral institutions were adopting technology faster than they were building the defences required to protect citizen data and combat organized digital manipulation. In several countries, ad hoc cybersecurity measures and gaps in technical expertise risked compromising electoral data.
The evaluation highlighted the need for a gradual shift towards domestic financing and stronger national procurement systems to sustain electoral capacity across cycles.
Elections are expensive logistical operations. To streamline global resources and ensure effective delivery, UNDP often managed large multi-donor basket funds, totalling over $800 million between 2015 and 2025. Donors valued UNDP's fiduciary assurance and impartiality, especially in high-risk environments, where funds enabled complex procurement and crisis response.
However, the reliance of EMBs on external funding created vulnerabilities. The lack of predictable domestic funding hindered long-term capacity and limited the sustainability of technical gains from one election cycle to the next.
