Page 15 - OSISA Annual Report 2015-2018

Zambian general elections 2016
Strategy on crisis countries
To respond strategically, effectively and in a timely fashion to crises, we conducted several consultations and meetings on the development of strategies across geography and themes in many countries, including Angola, DRC (see above), Zimbabwe and Mozambique. We convened a working group on Zimbabwe to develop an OSISA strategy for the country and conducted consultations with various stakeholders to help inform this strategy.
Provided essential support to the Zambian electoral process
The Democracy and Governance Cluster supported Zambian partners to establish and manage the Election Situation Room (ESR) for the 11 August 2016 general elections in Zambia. OSISA also provided significant support towards the 2016 Zambia electoral process through support for increased citizen awareness on elections and effective stakeholder monitoring of the entire electoral cycle.
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Three grants were approved and implemented towards the establishment of the Zambia Elections Information Centre (ZEIC) and support for the Kusankha elections project (MISA Zambia) and Triple V Tour (Young Women in Action).
The Triple V grant contributed to the mobilisation and registration of over 1.4 million first-time voters and helped promote peaceful participation in an agitated electoral process. Through the ESR’s contribution, Zambia successfully conducted largely peaceful elections that were adjudged to be free and fairdespite some tensions. The ZEIC grant helped create a user-friendly, accessible, vibrant, reliable and robust platform for the entire electoral process.
Despite the overall success, the ESR, ZEIC, and Triple V grants generated much-needed feedback (some of which was crucially negative). This feedback provided lessons for OSISA from our partners and highlighted the areas that require significant improvement to provide support and engage with our partners to support elections in the future. An evaluation of our support was conducted and was expected to be shared with the Executive Director in early 2017.
OPEN SOCIETY INITIATIVE FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA – 2016 REPORT
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