Elections & Youth: Entry points for electoral management bodies - Roundtable
The Electoral Commissions Forum of Southern African Development Community Countries (ECF-SADC), in partnership with International IDEA and in cooperation with Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa hosted a three-day roundtable on Elections & Youth: Entry points for electoral management bodies (EMBs) from 24-26 November at IEC South Africa head offices in Centurion, Pretoria. The workshop was attended by civil society organizations and more than 30 participants from the following EMBs from SADC: Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, RSA, Zanzibar, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Swaziland; and other regions: Madagascar, Kenya, Cape Verde and Bhutan).
The objective of the roundtable was to explore entry points for EMB engagement to increase youth participation and facilitate exchange on how EMBs can work to promote youth participation throughout the electoral cycle.
The discussions were enriched by short presentations from some of the invited presenters from EMBs, current and former youthful Member of Parliament and civil society organizations who shared best experiences on how to encourage youth to participate in electoral process, challenges and barriers faced by youth to be actively engaged in the electoral cycle.
A full report of the event will be available in February 2016. For more information, visit www.ecfsadc.org.
The Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC Countries is an independent organization in which each country in SADC country is represented by its EMB.
The ECF-SADC Members include EMBs from the 14 SADC countries: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zanzibar and Tanzania.
