Current Research Projects

1. Democratic Consolidation
2. Consolidating Democratic Governance in the SADC Region
3. Electoral System Reforms in SADC: in Search of Accountability, Representation and Political Stability
4. Gender and Governance

1 Democratic Consolidation

This project seeks to undertake a primary investigation into the experience of the multi-party electoral process in selected countries in Southern Africa. Since the early 1990's, regular elections have taken place in the SADC region. EISA and its networks have been engaged in a variety of related programme activities, ranging from civic education and conflict management training to election observation.

This project is therefore designed to evaluate and assess the impact of this support and the overall effects of the elections on the political environment and the democratic consolidation process in the SADC.

The products of this project, EISA Research Reports 1 to 14, can be downloaded here OR ordered in hard copy from EISA Publications.

2 Consolidating Democratic Governance in the SADC Region

In order to deepen and broaden the conceptual thrust of the democracy consolidation project, EISA has developed a programme with the theme Consolidating Democratic Governance in the SADC Region. This programme will provide an objective and independent analysis of the state of democracy in each of the SADC countries across 10 distinct, but cross-cutting, governance indicators. With a specific focus on parliament, these include:

• economic governance
• corruption
• parliament
• national budgeting
• political parties
• the judiciary
• elections
• local government
• civil society
• conflict management

By applying indicators that measure the legitimisation and institutionalisation of democratic practises over time, and combining these measurements with the articulation and application of democratic values by political leadership, the Institute will construct a basic foundation for examining democratic good governance and the human rights culture.

Electoral System Reforms in SADC: in Search of Accountability, Representation and Political Stability

This project seeks to strive toward a better understanding of electoral systems and lobby for appropriate reform measures in the SADC region, through regional and national dialogue, in order to strengthen democratic governance.

The project covers all 14 SADC countries, involving a regional conference in which role-players share ideas on prospects for electoral system reforms, in-country workshops to generate public debate and discussion on the topic at a national level.

These activities are intended to facilitate the production of both a regional book and country reports containing information and recommendations for the benefit of electoral commissions, election-related CSO's, political parties, researchers and governments.

Gender and Governance

EISA is currently developing a project on Gender and Governance. This project will:

• evaluate political parties and how they deal with the issue of women's representation internally
• examine the constitution and legal framework
• evaluate other societal structures, such as the patriarchal system
• conduct a gender analyasis of election results and hte role of women as elected representatives

As part of this regional study, EISA is conducting two pilot projects, in Zimbabwe and Lesotho, on gender equility in the electoral process.

Past research projects

• Electoral Profiles
• Conflict and Electoral Processes
• Local Government in South Africa (2000)
• Gender and Elections (South African Context)
• Youth and Electoral participation (South Africa)
• Hate Speech and Elections in South Africa
• Media and Elections (1999)
• Electoral System Reforms (1998)