New Commissioners Orientation
Background
The Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC countries (ECF-SADC), is an independent organization in which each country in the SADC region is represented by its electoral management body. The ECF-SADC members includes 15 Electoral Management Bodies of 14 SADC countries- namely; Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe.
The Forum has been in place since July 1998 and it has played an important role in ensuring that the management of elections in the SADC countries is improved and in building the capacity of election management bodies to fulfill their roles. The Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC Countries was launched in Cape Town in July 1998.
The ECF-SADC is governed by a Constitution to perform the following mandate amongst others:
- To strengthen co-operation amongst Electoral Commissions in the SADC region;
- To promote conditions conducive to free, fair, credible and transparent elections in the SADC region
The Forum recognises the responsibility placed on Electoral Management Bodies to ensure that the environment in which elections take place is conducive to the conduct of credible elections.
Structure
The Constitution provides for an annual membership fee and a structure that includes the Conference, the Executive Committee and the Secretariat.
The Conference is the policy-making body of the Forum. The Executive committee implements the decisions of the Conference and oversees the work of the Secretariat which ensures that the mandate of the Forum is executed by way of managing programmes.
ECF-SADC Secretariat is based in Gaborone, Botswana.
Programmers and Projects
Since its inception, the Forum has embarked on a broad range of projects and programmes which include regional workshops, the annual general conference, seminars and training programmes.
Many of the programmes were groundbreaking such as the formulation and adoption of the Principles of Election Management, Monitoring and Observation, commonly referred to as PEMMO, the design and implementation of a Conflict Management Programme ( in partnership with EISA), deployment of Peer review and Observer Missions, development of Guidelines and Principles on the Independence of EMBs in the SADC region and other capacity-building projects and activities.
