Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA)

The Electoral Commissions Forum of the Southern African Development Community (ECF SADC) is an independent organisation in which each country of the SADC region is represented by its electoral management body.

The ECF SADC members include the electoral management bodies (EMBs) of all 15 SADC countries, except Madagascar which is yet to join. ECF SADC was established July 1998 and is registered in Botswana as a non-profit organisation.

It has three main organs responsible for executing its mandate. These are; the Conference, which is the supreme policy-making body; the Executive Committee that implements the Conference decisions; and the Secretariat, which manages the Forum programmes.

In 2003, ECF SADC worked together with EISA to develop the PEMMO, which has been used as the framework for electoral management, monitoring and observation, for the ECF SADC and other civil society organisations, since then.

The ECF SADC has also developed and adopted guidelines that assist in the reforms aimed at promoting, and protecting, the independence of EMBs.

The guidelines state that all activities of EMBs must be based on the principles of independence of action, impartiality, integrity, transparency, financial integrity, accountability, professionalism, service-mindedness, equality of access and sustainability.

The Secretariat shall mobilise expertise from member commissions to be able to fulfil this role. Member commissions are committed to this arrangement of peer exchange of expertise.