Introduction In his interview at the Ciné Droit Libre festival, Théophile Obenga, one of Africa’s leading intellectuals and a key…
Where We Work.
Cote d’Ivoire
Where We Work.
Cote d’Ivoire
Through its regional office in West Africa, based in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, EISA is able to build local networks, deliver context, demand driven interventions that are specific to the needs and nuances of the sub-region and provide appropriate and timely support to this effect.
The first challenge is the democratic decay
Exacerbated in recent years by numerous coups d’états (Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea Conakry), a compression of political space and fundamental freedoms, and an absence of countervailing power.
The second challenge is related to the ongoing political transitions
In the several countries in the region which requires technical support to a wide range of institutional, political and electoral stakeholders to avoid stagnation that could lead to violence.
Finally, these two sub-regions are increasingly becoming a battleground between the West and Russia, with Wagner presence in CAR, Mali and Burkina Faso.
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Publications
Our Team
Mathias Hounkpe
Head of Elections and Poitical Processes
Dr. Mathias Hounkpe, a citizen of the Republic of Benin, has been the Head of the Elections and Political Processes (EPP) Department at EISA (Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa) since June 15, 2025. Previously, he was the Country Director of IFES (International Foundation for Electoral Systems) in Gabon from November 30, 2024, to March 31, 2025, and in Mali from January 2022 to October 2024. He was the Manager of the political governance and democratic consolidation program at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) from April 2013 to December 2020 after heading OSIWA’s Office in Guinea from July 2010 to March 2013.
Dr. Hounkpe has more than two decades of experience promoting elections and good governance in West Africa, including extensive experience with electoral processes as a program implementation manager, researcher, observer, opinion leader, and educator.
In the early 2000s, Mr. Hounkpe was an IFES consultant in Benin, and later, in the early 2010s, he led IFES programming in Chad. He traveled to Mali as an ECOWAS election expert in 2013 and assisted Malian election management bodies with the technical organization of that year's presidential election.
Since 2015, Dr. Hounkpe has been teaching courses on topics such as elections and power sharing, good governance, and unconstitutional changes of power at the West Africa Peacekeeping Training School, based in Mali.
Dr. Hounkpe is also one of the authors of the book Election Management Bodies in West Africa: A Comparative Study of the Contribution of Electoral Commissions to Strengthening Democracy.
Dr. Hounkpe holds a Master of Philosophy from Yale University in the United States, where he focused on "the design of accountability mechanisms in new democracies," and a doctorate in mathematical physics from the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin, where he focused on "scattering theory."
Alpha Bah
Senior Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officer
Alpha Amadou Bah is a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist of projects and programs with 29 years of experience acquired in various national and international organizations. He is the Senior Program Officer for Monitoring Evaluation and Learning of EISA since April 2024. Before joining EISA, Alpha was the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist of the UNDP-Central African Republic at program level from May 2017 to December 2023. Before the Central African Republic, Alpha held the same position with PND-Madagascar for 8 years (October 2008 to March 2017). In these two positions, he carried out support missions to three UNDP Offices in crisis context (Burundi, Chad and Niger). Alpha also worked for UNAIDS-Guinea from September 2007 to October 2008 as National monitoring and evaluation advisor; for UNDP-Togo as International UNV Specialist, project coordinator. In Guinea, as national staff, he has worked for four major projects financed by USAID and implemented by international NGOs in the Republic of Guinea (FICA, MSH-PRISM, IFES- Guinea and FHI-REVE) in which he was in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation. Alpha holds a degree in Statistical Engineering obtained in 1991 from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Statistique et d'Economie Appliquée (ENSEA) in Abidjan; a Diploma in Demographic Studies (DED) obtained in 1993 at the Institute of Training and Demographic Research (IFORD) in Yaoundé, a Master in Project Management obtained in 2007 at the African Institute of Administration and Commercial Studies (IAEC) in Lomé; finally, an end-of-cycle diploma from the Center for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies (CEDS-Madagascar) in 2014.
Nils Dallo
Finance and Administrations Officer
Samira Ble Gnagale N'guessan
Programme Officer
Wahida Oum Samate
Programme Officer: Gender and Inclusion