OEC Mauritius hosted the Electoral Commissions Forum of the Southern African Development Community countries (ECF-SADC) from April 6tth to 10th 2026.

The ECF-SADC is an independent organization of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) of SADC member States. Amongst other objectives, the Forum is aimed at fostering independent and impartial EMBs, promoting democratic culture and supporting development of electoral laws aligned with regional and international standards.

The event in Mauritius was the Executive Committee  meeting (EXCO ) on 9th April 2026, which is responsible for  amongst other functions implements the policy decisions mandated by the Annual General Conference, ensuring the organization’s strategic goals are met across the region , consideration of and making of recommendations to the Conference on any matter that will facilitate a more effective and efficient functioning of the Forum, ensuring the proper accounting and control of the funds of the Forum. The Executive Committee is made up of seven (7) member commissions and is attended by Chairpersons, Commissioners, CEOs and other designated senior Officials of EMBs.

As part of decision-making process, a meeting of the Executive Committee was preceded by the CEOs meeting on 7^th April 2026, convened by Heads of Secretariats of all member commissions, for the purpose of providing subject-matter expertise and recommendations in preparation for the Executive Committee meeting. Alongside the CEOs agenda, the meeting provided a platform to deliberate on a newly implemented project funded by European Union through GIZ -on Election Management Bodies and the domestication of the SADC Model Law on elections. The ECF-SADC has commissioned a consultancy to assess status of uptake and domestication of the SADC model in each member country so that interventions with EMBs will be driven by evidence of needs of capacity. Given the Existing Memorandum of Understanding between the ECF-SADC and SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF), both the Consultant on the project and SADC PF Director on Parliamentary Business and Programmes  engaged with CEOs at a strategic level to deliberate on the project and related deliverables.