EISA's Governance Institutions and Political Processes programme was formed in in January 2017 through the merger of the APRM and Political Parties units.

Political parties support

The overall goal of EISA's political parties support programme is to contribute to an open, inclusive and democratic political system. These interventions are located in three thematic areas:

• Applied research, information and data gathering to identity the needs of, and key challenges, facing political parties as well as to inform subsequent EISA programme interventions and materials development for capacity building.
• Capacity building and training support to political parties, especially with regard to the participation of women and youth.
• Academic research, analysis and publishing; as well as hosts public events, to engage in public debate and shape the policy and academic discourse on democratisation, democratic governance, democratic political systems and political parties specifically.

Conducted throughout the organisation, including EISA's Field Offices, focus ares are:

• capacity building;
• coalition building analysis; and
• publications;

Benchmarks for enhanced political party performance

The Benchmarks for enhanced political party performance for democratic governance in Africa, adopted during the 5th Annual EISA continental symposium held in November 2010 with governing and opposition political parties from 15 countries across the African continent, was further refined in 2011 through a consultative process involving political parties from a further six countries across the African continent. Consultations with the parties ensured an inclusive process that lent a greater sense of credibility and legitimacy as well as ownership of the benchmarks by the political parties themselves.

Donors

Political party work is funded by an array of donors through the budgets of the various field offices, and are acknowledged there. In addition mention should be made of the following donor funding support:

• Embassy of Finland Pretoria funds work in Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa.
• Sweden (through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)) funds work in Mozambique.

Past activities

African Peer Review Mechanism support (2004-2006): From 2004 EISA's APRM unit engaged in national APRM processes in partnership with several local CSOs across the continent including Uganda, Tanzania, Mauritius, Ethiopia, Zambia, Kenya, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique and Malawi, before 'passing the baton' to country partner organisations in 2016.

Parliamentary support pilot programme (2007-2008): EISA' pilot programme, which ran from 2007-2008 in the DRC, Madagascar and Kenya, aimed at strengthening the parliaments and encourage interaction between parliaments and civil society for improved participatory democracy.