Africa

Where democracy is unable to deliver economic prosperity to the people the nexus between poverty and democracy will continue to be crucial for Africa’s future – a fact made all the more salient since Africa is the only region in the world where the Millennium Development Goals are unlikely to be achieved.

Africa contains different levels of democratic and socio-economic development. Yet the general trend is towards electoral democracy in the majority of countries. A number of significant transitional elections have been held in recent times including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Burundi, and Sierra Leone. The wave of third and fourth generation elections – especially in Southern Africa – indicates a continuing movement towards the consolidation of democratic dispensation. Despite these positive developments credibility of the outcomes and resource mobilization still challenge electoral processes.

At the same time progress has been made in resolving long-term conflicts in particular the signing of Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan and the ongoing transition processes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Yet serious conflicts remain, not least in the Darfur Region of Sudan and the boarder regions of Chad, in Somalia, and in certain areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ivory Coast.

Minimal progress has been made with the rate of female representation in African legislatures. In 2007, the number of women in politics stood at 17.3 per cent with only five countries achieving more than 30 per cent representation, and 16 countries with less than 10 per cent. Political parties in Africa are often weak, fragmented, ethno-sectarian, undemocratic and poorly resourced. For these reasons, they are also held in low regard despite their integral role in democratic politics.

International IDEA’s work in Africa is focused on improving the quality of the region’s democratic processes through reform, research and policy activities carried out in partnership with national, regional and international actors.

Regional highlights include:

Knowledge resources

• Publications. International IDEA has produced a range of publications on Africa covering topics such as political parties, electoral reform, women’s political participation and the assessment of democracy at the national and local levels. See list of publications
• Databases and Networks. International IDEA’s global databases and networks contain comparative information on a wide variety of topics such as elections, political parties, quotas for women and voter turnout.
• Political Parties Research. International IDEA has conducted extensive research and comparative analysis of 75 political parties in 27 African countries. The reform agenda deriving from this research and dialogue process is contained in separate reports on three sub-regions (Southern Africa, West Africa and East Africa) as well as in a continent wide report.
• Traditional Justice Mechanisms in Africa Research. The International IDEA project ‘Reconciliation and Traditional Justice: Learning From African Experiences’ examines the role played by local/traditional justice mechanisms (TJMs) in addressing the legacy of large scale, violent conflict in African countries. The project comprises six country specific case studies: Sierra Leone, Liberia, Uganda, Mozambique, Burundi and Rwanda.

Policy development

• Policy Paper on Political Party Development in Africa. International IDEA is developing a policy paper “Towards an effective institutional framework for political party development in Africa: Some Policy Considerations” outlining a new institutional framework for political party support which endeavours to put key pan-African institutions at the centre of such efforts.

Assistance to democratic reform

• Sudan. International IDEA is engaged in supporting the peace process in Sudan through its work in building the capacity of political parties. International IDEA is running a series of targeted training seminars for political party representatives on key topics such as elections, the media, internal democracy, policy platform development and gender.
• African Union Partnership. International IDEA and the African Union Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Accra, Ghana, on 30 June 2007. The MoU aims to cement the current collaborative relationship between the two organizations, which over the last two years have seen IDEA supporting the AU work in areas such as the development of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections, and Governance, and also the setting up of two programmes within the AU Commission: the electoral assistance programme, and the electoral assistance fund. International IDEA and the AU have also collaborated in areas such as the land and governance, gender, and in political party strengthening.
• Assessing the State of Democracy. In Africa, International IDEA is implementing its State of Democracy methodology in Kenya to facilitate frank and open evaluation of democratic performance with a view to developing policy oriented reform agendas.
• Electoral training. International IDEA works to increase the professionalism and competency of election administrators in Africa through the provision of BRIDGE capacity-building training programmes, a curriculum specifically developed to meet the professional development needs of election administrators.
• Democracy and gender. Women are under-represented in political decision making throughout the world, and Africa is certainly not an exception. International IDEA promotes debate on electoral and political party reform as well as proven strategies for increasing the number and effectiveness of women in politics.