The 7th Annual African Union (AU) Continental Forum of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) kicked off today Monday, 16th November, 2022 in Maputo, Mozambique.
The forum was jointly organised by the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security (DPAPS) of the African Union Commission in collaboration with the Association of African Electoral Authorities (AAEA).
The purpose of the forum, which is made up of convening chairpersons and other senior officials of EMBs from the AU Member States, is to chart innovative policy pathways and actionable measures for safeguarding the management of credible, peaceful and democratic electoral processes on the African Continent.
The forum was declared open by H.E Adriano Afonso Maleiane, Prime Minister of the Republic of Mozambique
.Nigeria representative from Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, the Board Chairman, The Electoral Institute (TEI), Prof. Abdullahi Zuru will deliver a Paper on Building Resilience of Election Management Bodies to Safeguarding Democracy in Africa: The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Nigeria Experience will highlight some of the things INEC is doing to build resilience, namely:
"The Institutionalisation of Electoral Risk Management, Real and Potential Electoral Threats and Risks Towards the 2023 General Election, Mitigation of Risks and Threats to the 2023 General Election, Introduction of Technology into Elections Operations to Improve Election Administration, and Lessons Learned from Conducting Elections during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
"Fighting Election-Related Misinformation, Disinformation, Incitement and Fake News Surrounding Elections, Improving the Electoral Laws, Maintaining Non-Partisanship and Professionalism. Training and Retraining/ Building Capacity for Staff of the Commission, Challenges to Building Resilience: Political Party Actions, Challenges to Building Resilience: Insecurity and/or terrorism and banditry in some parts of Nigeria, Challenges to Building Resilience: Compromising Role of Some Adhoc Staff During Elections, and Challenge of the Potential Threat Posed by Cyber Insecurity on the Electronic Transmission of Results and other Election Technologies, Challenge of Inadequate and Scarce Resources", he said.
The different sessions at the forum focus on the following themes/issues like, Diagnosing the Challenges of EMBs Resilience in Africa at which the various external and internal multi-faceted threats presently confronting EMBs in the increasingly complex political, socio-cultural, economic, technological, ecological and security context of the continent of Africa, will be deliberated upon.
The Session 3 focusing on Confronting the Problem of High Turnover of EMB Leadership in Africa at which, the problem of high rate of turnover of EMB officials will be analysed with a view to explore remedial responses in a bid to safeguard of EMBs.
In Session 4, the focus is on Promoting Gender in EMB Leadership: Experiences of Women Chairpersons of EMBs in Africa
The session is motivated by the observation that the place of women leaders in EMBs in Africa has received limited policy and research attention in democracy building on the continent.
This session therefore explores the lived experiences of women chairpersons of EMBs in a bid to harness lessons towards developing engendered resilience in overcoming socio-cultural, institutional, legal and political barriers in managing elections that meet international and continental norms and standards.
Fuurthermore, the Session 5 is Exploring Strategies for Sustainable Funding of EMBs and Cost-effective Election Management seeks to deliberate on how EMBs can adaptively secure sustainable funding to manage elections as resources continue to shrink.
The session recognises that the continent of Africa is reeling from double tragedy of COVID-19 pandemic and the negative effects of Ukraine-Russia war which have resulted in shrinking economies. In addition, the session debates on how EMBs can develop cost-effective election management strategies in order to mitigate the increasing cost of elections.
Session 6 focuses on Sustainable Risk-Mitigation Strategies for Addressing Ecological Impact on Election Management.
In recognising that elections in Africa have been organized during pandemics such as COVID-19 and Ebola as well as natural disasters such as floods in a number of contexts, the session seeks to develop capacities to confront future ecological risks in organizing elections that meet international and continental standards. The session will also explore lessons from case studies to harness strategies for building resilience of EMBs in against ecological risks to election management.
In addition, Session 7 with the theme Addressing Electoral Security and Cyber-Security Threats to Electoral Integrity in Africa will explore Violent extremism as well as cyber-attacks which transcend national borders as they have become emerging challenges to electoral security. This is with a view to devising concerted long-term strategies for securing electoral processes in Africa.
The session 8: The theme for the last session is Let’s Talk Elections 2023: Exploring Challenges and Strategies for Fostering Resilience in Election Management.
The forum recognised that at least 14 elections are scheduled to take place in the year 2023 on the continent of Africa. Currently, some of the EMBs planning for elections in 2023, including INEC Nigeria are confronted with resilience challenges which could impact on their operational and institutional capacity to effectively manage the elections that meet international and continental normative standards.
This session will therefore highlight some of the issues ahead in selected countries, including Nigeria, with a view to harnessing strategies for enhancing EMB resilience. The session will offer opportunities to demonstrate African resilience in election management for the 2023 elections.
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