Africa Regional Conference on Financing of Electoral Processes: an Investment for Inclusive and Sustainable Democracy

The "Africa Regional Conference on Financing of Electoral Processes: An Investment for Inclusive and Sustainable Democracy" is  a joint initiative of International IDEA and the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to be held in Windhoek, Namibia for the period 7-8 June 2018. As the current Chair of International IDEA, Namibia has adopted the theme on “Inclusive Democracy for Sustainable Development” to inform the initiatives that Namibia will lead in supporting the mandate of the Institute within the framework of its 2018-2022 Strategy.

For the 62 per cent of the world’s population that now live within a democratic nation, availing resources for electoral processes should be considered as the public investment that is necessary to ensure popular control over public decision-making and decision makers—citizens exercising their power through the ballot box. Furthermore, the investment also guarantees political equality among the citizens who exercise that control—one person, one vote.

While it is widely acknowledged that elections are only one of the many key interdependent elements of the electoral processes and ultimately for democracy building, the financial and human resources required for electoral processes continues to increase. This has prompted the deliberations on creating an understanding on how elections are an outcome of the financing/investments in the interlinked electoral components/processes and the cost is what occurs if there are no sustainable investments into electoral processes. An objective of the conference is to influence a conceptual shift and understanding of the discourse on elections as a cost - to an investment  that is required to enhance electoral democracy by effectively managing the interlinked electoral processes as building blocks for elections.  

The Conference is convened as a platform for collation of information, experiential and knowledge sharing/exchange among EMBs in Africa. It will explore the several interlinked aspects of electoral processes that influence democracy building and how it is a cost  for any country’s democratic and sustainable development to not invest in these electoral components.