Where We Work.
South Africa
Where We Work.
South Africa
EISA was established in 1996 in Johannesburg South Africa as an independent, non-profit, and non-governmental organisation whose focus is citizen participation in elections, democracy, human rights, and governance in Africa.
When EISA was founded, it was known as the Electoral Institute of South Africa. The organisation’s purpose was to support the democratic transition through free and fair elections in post-Apartheid South Africa. This included support to conflict monitoring, mediation, and mitigation strategies around elections. These early experiences have been highly beneficial in allowing EISA to continue this work in many other post-conflict and transitional spaces.
Over the years EISA’s capability expanded beyond elections support to include broader democracy and good governance strengthening.
It also extended its coverage to encompass the whole of Africa. Today the EISA Johannesburg office provides strategic, programmatic, operational, financial, and administrative support to all of the organisation’s field offices and projects.
South and East African sub-regional focus
The EISA Office in Johannesburg has a long history of supporting civil society, political parties and governmental and inter-governmental institutions towards stronger democratic processes and systems in the Southern and East Africa regions.
Strengthening accountability:
Support to political parties, particularly those in opposition as well as civil society groups in these contexts remains essential to ensuring that peaceful transitions of power lead to consolidated democratic systems.
Promote credible elections:
EISA’s Election Observation Missions bring representatives of civil society organisations, election management bodies, political parties, academic institutions, and the media from African countries together to observe elections.
Support to regional and sub-regional bodies:
EISA support to Regional Economic Communities aims at improving their election observation to promote credible democratic elections on the continent, as laid down by international and regional election benchmarks for the conduct and monitoring of elections. This includes technical support to international election observation missions, pre-election assessment and the modernization of REC methodologies on election observation, technical support to regional EMBs’ forum and peer learning and support mission.
Enhancing inclusive political processes
EISA continues to support political parties and legislatures to be more mindful of gender-specific barriers to the participation of women through its work on gender-inclusive policies and structures within political parties, and gender-supportive legislation for female candidates and contestants at all levels of the electoral process.
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