UMass Boston

Public Participation and Dialogue for More Responsive Governance

Supporting Civic Engagement in the Electoral Processes in Africa

Project director: Nkasi Wodu (Center Fellow)

Funder: The Bureau of African Affairs' Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (AF/PDPA) of the U.S. Department of State.

Implementers: Centre for Peace, Democracy, and Development, University of Massachusetts, Boston; NexTier SPD, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).

Target Countries: Angola, DRC, Gabon, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Zimbabwe

Objectives

• To strengthen civil society's capacity to engage in advocacy and oversight before, during, and after the upcoming electoral process in 10 African countries with forthcoming elections in 2023 and 2024.
• To improve government transparency and integrity in local election processes, increase citizen participation in democratic processes, and address the demand for democratic reform.

The Project: With the support of the U.S. State Department, the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD), Nextier, and UMASS Boston's Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development (CPDD) reached over 50 activists in 10 African countries holding elections in the 2022-24 period to join a self-help African Democracy Network (DemNet). 

The project provides support to CSO activists in the following ways.

1. Providing additional skills in election reform through a series of online consultations and capacity-building sessions
2. Offering an opportunity to network with other activists from other African countries at a major conference held in Nairobi in January 2023;
3. Launch of an Africa-wide Democracy Network (DemNet) of like-minded reformists working to improve election quality across the contin
4. The CDD-NexTier-CPDD team continued to assist DemNet partners through online meetings, coaching, troubleshooting, and helping them implement their strategies for improving elections in their countries.

DemNet has two primary objectives:

• To strengthen civil society's capacity to engage in advocacy and oversight before, during, and after the upcoming electoral process in 10 African countries with forthcoming elections in 2023 and 2024.
• To improve government transparency and integrity in election processes, increase citizen participation in democratic processes, and address the demand for democratic reform through the ballot box.

Since its establishment in January 2023, DemNet has achieved the following results:

• It established a multi-country civil society collaboration and learning platform in electoral transparency and civic participation through a network of civil society actors in 10 African countries: Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe, to promote civic participation and advocacy for electoral integrity and electoral reforms.
• It mentored 50 civil society organizations in the ten target countries to develop action plans to promote accountability of political and governmental actors and deepen civic engagement. Through targeted small grants, DemNet provided funding to the network in each of the 10 African countries to implement programs to promote accountability and improve civil society before, during, and after the elections in the target countries.
• Through targeted workshops, DemNet built the capacity of Civil society organizations from the ten countries engaged in local grassroots mobilization campaigns and advocacy campaigns to promote civic participation and democratic reforms.
• In countries like South Sudan, Kenya, DR Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, DemNet led campaigns for voter awareness penetration in rural communities, mainly focusing on youth and women. These actions increased participation in the electoral process for youth and women in those communities.
• However, beyond being at the frontlines of promoting civic participation, DemNet fostered cross-country collaboration and learning among its members. DemNet provided a platform for members to share the challenges they faced in their respective countries and facilitated online sessions to brainstorm on these challenges and provide solutions. Significantly, DemNet offered a platform for members to share best practices and strategies to improve government transparency and integrity in local election processes, increase citizen participation in democratic processes, address the growing impact of disinformation in the electoral process, and address other practical challenges to developing strategies to channel buoyant demands for democratic reform.

So far, DemNet members have implemented or are implementing projects (through the small grant mechanism) to curb voter apathy in Angola, advocate for the electoral management body to institutionalize continued voter registration of young persons in Nigeria, engage in grassroots mobilization in Liberia, improve youth participation in Madagascar, and reduce electoral violence in Sierra Leone's densely populated urban communities to mention a few.