Addis Ababa, 20 November 2015: The African Union Commission in partnership with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) is organising a three-day global conference on electoral risk management in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 1-3 December 2015.

The Electoral Risk Management Conference brings together over 100 participants from electoral management bodies (EMBs) in Africa, global and regional electoral assistance providers, and conflict and peacebuilding organisations across the world.

The overall objective of the Conference is to help facilitate exchange of best electoral risk management practices and promote the concept as a new standard for conducting democratic elections.

Specific objectives include:

• Improved understanding of electoral risks and electoral risk management concepts.
• Systematization of good electoral risk management practices that can be shared with a wider community of electoral management bodies, democracy assistance providers, and development agencies.
• Facilitating conceptual discussions relating to broadening of the Electoral Risk Management (ERM) Tool’s scope and functionalities; and
• Crystallizing incentives for ERM Tool users to engage in peer exchange.

It should be noted that despite rich democratic traditions in some societies, and the determination of new democracies to conduct flawless electoral processes, democracy practitioners agree that there are no perfectly organized elections. This is due to the complexities involved in ensuring that all eligible citizens can participate in elections as voters and candidates, and that the process yields genuine results. Challenges relate to legal, political, operational, technical, security, and other aspects of electoral processes.

In view of the negative consequences of election-related violence in Africa, the African Union Commission and International IDEA agreed through a joint project launched in 2013 to introduce the Electoral Risk Management Tool to several African countries including: Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania-Zanzibar and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as part of the two organizations’ joint effort to enhance capacity of election management bodies in these countries to address challenges relating to electoral violence and general analysis and management of electoral processes.

For more information, please contact the programme officer of the Electoral Risk Management:
Mr. Idrissa Kamara
Department of Political Affairs
Africna Union Commission
Email: kamarai@africa-union.org
Mobile phone no.: +251912628629.