{"id":1619,"date":"2024-07-20T18:35:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-20T18:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/?p=1619"},"modified":"2026-03-04T22:33:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T22:33:33","slug":"ahead-africa-launch-event-at-the-au-ecosocc-20th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/ahead-africa-launch-event-at-the-au-ecosocc-20th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"AHEAD Africa launch at the AU-ECOSOCC 20th anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On July 20, 2024, on the sidelines of the African Union\u2019s Economic, Social, and Cultural Council (AU-ECOSOCC) 20th anniversary, AHEAD Africa partners the West Africa Election Observers Network (WAEON)<\/a>, its secretariat – the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana)<\/a> \u2014 and the European Partnership for Democracy<\/a>, co-hosted an event to launch the AHEAD Africa project<\/strong><\/span> under the theme “<\/em>Advancing Electoral Integrity in Africa through Citizen Engagement<\/em><\/strong>.”<\/em><\/span>

With 2024 dubbed the year \u201cDemocracy is on Trial in Africa<\/a>\u201d due to the 19 elections scheduled across various countries, AHEAD Africa used this occasion to explore how empowering civil society, including citizen observers, can strengthen electoral systems and processes. These discussions particularly highlighted Ghana<\/a>, both as the event\u2019s host and in anticipation of its upcoming general elections on December 7, 2024.

The event underscored the pressing need to build resilient institutions with strong citizen engagement as the backbone of electoral integrity, especially as Ghana\u2019s 2024 elections draw near. Anna Lixi, Head of Operations on Governance and Civil Society at the European Union Delegation to Ghana, announced that the EU will send an Election Expert Mission, shifting from traditional observation to a more hands-on, technical support approach, while AU-ECOSOCC and European Partnership for Democracy representatives emphasised how citizen observers act as the \u201cguardians\u201d of electoral reforms, ensuring they endure beyond election day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology and youth engagement become key topics of discussion, with Ghana\u2019s PRVT system offering a \u201creal-time pulse\u201d on electoral processes, while Senegal\u2019s recent election experience showcased how technology can be a powerful mobiliser, especially for energising young voters across vast networks. Ultimately, the event highlighted how these innovations are reshaping citizen participation, building momentum for more transparent and inclusive elections across Africa, and Ghana in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additional resources<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch event recording and video interview<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Follow our activities during Ghana’s 2024 elections<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The role of civil society in protecting electoral integrity ahead of Ghana’s 2024 elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"blog","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[57],"grantees":[],"partner":[51,9,10],"region":[40,52],"class_list":["post-1619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-press-brief","partner-cdd-ghana","partner-european-partnership-for-democracy","partner-waeon","region-ghana","region-west-africa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1619"}],"version-history":[{"count":73,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12434,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions\/12434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1619"},{"taxonomy":"grantees","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/grantees?post=1619"},{"taxonomy":"partner","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partner?post=1619"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=1619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}