Addis Ababa, 19 March 2019: In line with the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) which urges African Union Member States to “strengthen political institutions to entrench a culture of democracy and peace,” (art.12.2) and building on the Aspirations 3 and 4 of the African Union Agenda 2063, “The Africa we want”, which envision “an Africa of good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and rule of law” as well as “a peaceful and secure Africa”, the African Union Commission is scaling up its engagement with political parties in all the 55 Member States of the AU.

This is the initiative of the Department of Political Affairs of the African Union Commission. The main objective of this programme is to strengthen the capacity of Political Parties in AU Member States, in line with ACDEG. More specifically, this Progamme will entrench a culture of democracy, political pluralism, management of diversity, tolerance and peace in Africa, given the centrality of political parties towards achieving this noble African shared values.

The four main priority areas of this programme, as define in the Guidelines for Engaging with Political Parties, developed by the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) include:
(a) Strengthening interparty dialogue to address political intolerance;
(b) Promoting and strengthening inclusive politics to address marginalization of women, youth and persons with disabilities in leadership positions within political parties; and
(c) Strengthening the internal management and functioning of political parties to address a lack of intra-party democracy; and
(d) Enhancing knowledge generation on political parties to address the gap between knowledge on best practices and policy making processes.

In this regard, four (4) Regional Workshops will be conducted this year 2019 by the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) of the African Union Commission (AUC) on Political Parties Engagement Programme.

The main goal of the regional fora is to introduce the AU Political Party Program to political parties with a view to solicit their input on the key focus areas of the program. The expected outcomes are:
• Increased awareness of the AU political party program by political parties across the continent;
• Improved engagement with political parties on the key focus areas; and
• Enhanced ownership of the program by political parties on the continent.

The first regional Workshop will be organized for West African region and will take place in Accra, Ghana on 28-29 March 2019.

For more information on the Programme, please contact:
Mr Guy Cyrille Tapoko| Head, Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Department of Political Affairs|
E-mail: tapokog@africa-union.org
For media inquiries, contact:
Mr. Gamal Ahmed Karrar | Senior Communication Officer, Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: GamalK@Africa-union.org