The African Union Commission’s Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security (AUC-PAPS) is a central pillar of the African Union’s institutional framework, mandated to advance peace, security, democratic governance, and constitutional order across the continent.
Within this mandate, AUC-PAPS plays a key role in supporting Member States in strengthening democratic institutions, promoting credible and inclusive electoral processes, and preventing and mitigating conflict. Its work spans electoral assistance and observation, governance and human rights, as well as post-conflict reconstruction and transitional justice, contributing to a comprehensive approach to peacebuilding and democratic consolidation.
AUC-PAPS leads the implementation of continental normative frameworks, including the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, fostering shared standards and supporting their integration into national systems through civic education and institutional capacity development. It works in close collaboration with Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Regional Mechanisms (RMs), Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs), and international partners to promote harmonised approaches, peer learning, and coordinated electoral support across Africa.
Anchored in the principles of African ownership and collective responsibility, AUC-PAPS facilitates dialogue, knowledge exchange, and policy development at both continental and regional levels. Through its activities, it contributes to strengthening institutional resilience, reinforcing democratic legitimacy, and advancing long-term stability and peace across African Union Member States.
This cooperation is further strengthened through the formal partnership established between AUC-PAPS and ECES, including the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in May 2021. The MoU provides a structured framework for technical cooperation and joint action, notably covering support to electoral processes, capacity development of Electoral Management Bodies, peer learning and exchange of comparative experiences, development of operational methodologies and tools, as well as collaboration on conflict prevention, governance, and transitional justice initiatives across the continent. The Department is led by Bankole Adeoye, a seasoned Nigerian diplomat with over three decades of experience in multilateral diplomacy, conflict prevention, and governance.
Prior to his election to the African Union Commission, he served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), where he played a central role in advancing Agenda 2063 and strengthening partnerships between the AU, the United Nations, and regional economic communities. His career reflects a sustained commitment to African-led solutions, preventive diplomacy, and the promotion of democratic governance, positioning him as a key figure in shaping the continent’s peace and security architecture.
Associated Partner
The Association of African Election Authorities (AAEA) was conceived from an effort at promoting and institutionalizing professionalism of African election authorities through regional exchanges and networking. The Association grew out of a Colloquium of African Election Authorities that was held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, in November 1994. At the close of the meeting, participants set up a Working Group to explore the feasibility of forming an association of African election administrators and election-related NGOs.
The working group developed a draft charter and discussed it at a meeting in Cape Town in 1995, and in Windhoek in 1996. An inaugural conference of the AAEA was held from January 14th to 16th, 1997 in Kampala, Uganda. The conference was attended by election administrators and leaders of non-governmental organizations from sub-Saharan Africa, as well as international election specialists.
Participants revised and approved the Charter, marking the formal establishment of the Association. Participants in the Kampala meeting selected Dr. Amare Tekle of Eritrea as the AAEA’s Interim Executive Secretary. An Interim Executive Secretariat was established in Asmara, Eritrea, in 1997. The inaugural meeting of the AAEA General Assembly was held from August 13th to 15th, 1998 in Accra, Ghana. It was attended by election authorities and NGO leaders from sub-Saharan Africa. The following are founding members of the AAEA: Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Gabon, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Togo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
After the General Assembly held in Ghana in March 2025 the AAEA elected a new President of the Assembly of the Association of African Election Authorities (AAEA) and a new Executive committee. The presidency is held by the Electoral Commission of Ghana, the work of the Assembly is further supported by an Executive Committee composed of representatives of the Electoral Commissions from Benin, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Libya. This governance structure ensures regional balance and collective ownership, while providing strategic direction and oversight for the activities of the Association across the continent.
The AAEA Peer Learning Missions are a valuable tool and opportunity to share good practices, confront experiences from different contexts in other countries and learning by exchange with peers. AAEA plays a strong role as a platform in this regard. The strength of such missions is its ability to reinforce collaboration between institutions from different countries and to provide input for the exchange of ideas. The purpose of the Peer Learning Missions is to learn, foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and capacity building between Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) to enhance their effectiveness, credibility, and efficiency in managing electoral processes.
ECES is an independent, non partisan neutral and not for profit Foundation headquartered in Brussels with a global remit. ECES was established at the end of 2010 by the initiative of Fabio Bargiacchi, till today serving as its Executive Director. ECES has implemented activities already in more than 50 countries, mainly, but not only, in Africa and Middle East, and primarily with funding from the EU and EU Member states.
ECES promotes electoral and democratic strengthening through the provision of advisory services, operational support via innovative project and financial management methodologies. In our activities we mainsteam capacity and leadership development using peer exchanges and comparative experiences to promote dialogue and the prevention and mitigation of electoral conflicts. ECES has crafted and copyrighted its strategy called "A European Response to Electoral Cycle Support - EURECS", which is implemented via other specific methodologies and tools that makes a total of 22 copyrights. EURECS is an innovative delivery mechanism to implement electoral and democracy assistance activities that are consistent primarily with European values and EU policies targeting the facilitation of cooperation on electoral matters between the EU, the EU member states and their partner countries.
ECES has obtained the Tcertification and ISO 9001 certifications for our financial transparency and for our quality management system. We implement our activities via a truly international, multicultural and multilingual personnel. With individuals with at least 60 different nationalities who can work in at least 30 languages we are as diverse as the electoral stakeholders we cooperate with worldwide. This native insight and our innovator spirit make us better electoral assistance implementor and helped us foster strong relationships also because we can communicate and work in many languages and therefore understand many cultures. ECES implemented, with other partners, on behalf of the EU the European Resource for Mediation Support (ERMES) project, a strategic tool for the EU’s role in mediation and dialogue, to which ECES provided the key expertise. The office of the project was situated within our HQ.
ECES is also a proud member of both the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO) network and the Team Europe Democracy (TED) Initiative, reflecting its commitment to contributing to broader European and international efforts in the fields of peacebuilding, conflict prevention, democratic governance, and democratic resilience. EPLO is the leading independent European platform bringing together more than 50 civil society organizations, NGO networks, and think tanks working on peacebuilding, mediation, dialogue facilitation, and crisis prevention, while the TED Initiative represents a global European Union framework aimed at strengthening cooperation and synergies among EU institutions, EU Member States, implementing partners, not-for-profit foundations such as ECES, civil society organizations, academia, and other democracy-support actors worldwide. Within these frameworks, ECES contributes its operational expertise in electoral assistance, peer learning, capacity development, and democratic governance support developed through activities implemented across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and other partner regions.