The African Union (AU) is the continental organization that brings together the 55 Member States of the African continent. Established in 2002 in Durban, South Africa, it succeeded the Organization of African Unity (1963–2002), shifting the continental agenda from the era of decolonization towards cooperation, integration, and shared development.
Guided by its vision of "an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens", the AU works to strengthen unity and solidarity among African States, accelerate political and socio-economic integration, and promote peace, security, democratic principles, good governance, and the effective participation of women. Its long-term framework for these goals is Agenda 2063, the continent's strategy for inclusive and sustainable development.
Within the African Union Commission's Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security (AUC-PAPS), the Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit (DEAU) leads the implementation of the AU's electoral assistance, supporting the capacity, credibility, and transparency of elections across Africa. To deliver this mandate, the DEAU works with internationally recognised technical partners.
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 21 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 ERMES project, called the European Resource for Mediation Support, which was a strategic tool for the EU’s role in mediation and dialogue. ECES provided the key expertise, and the office of the project was situated within our HQ.
In this context, ECES is also a proud member of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office network, the biggest and leading civil society European platform of 50 independent organisations and think tanks from 17 European countries committed to peacebuilding and the prevention of conflict. Since 2024, ECES has been a member of the Team Europe Democracy Initiative (TED) Network. The initiative will establish and strengthen networks among EU institutions, EU member states, think tanks, academia, civil society organisations and other like-minded organisations in democracy support, human rights and other related areas.
Associated Partner
The Association of African Election Authorities (AAEA) is a continental, non-political, and independent body that brings together Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) from across Africa. Formally institutionalised through its Charter, adopted in Accra in July 2015, and working in close relationship with the African Union, the AAEA promotes the professionalism, credibility, and integrity of electoral processes on the continent.
The Association serves as a peer-to-peer platform — independent from national governments — for cooperation, technical assistance, and the exchange of experience among African electoral authorities. It connects the knowledge and resources of EMBs across the continent, strengthens the independence of election officials, and amplifies the voice of African electoral authorities in regional and global discussions on elections and democratic governance, in line with the principles of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG).