Project profile — Supporting Elections for Ethiopia’s Democracy Strengthening (SEEDS)

This project supports the conducting credible, inclusive and peaceful elections in Ethiopia in 2021. It is Canada’s contribution to the multi-laterally funded United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) electoral assistance project. The project supports the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) in the planning and delivery of the 2021 general elections. The project focuses on the belief that technically capable, independent, and trusted institutions make for the conduct of credible, inclusive and peaceful elections. Project activities include: (1) strengthening the NEBE as a cohesive institution through professional development, training, and supporting gender-sensitive reform and procedure drafting; (2) introducing and strengthening the NEBE’s various systems, procedures, standards, tools, and protocols; (3) building staff capacities related to electoral processes; (4) building NEBE capacities for transparent and timely communication with the electorate; and (5) building NEBE capacities for detecting and resolving election-related disputes. The project’s strategic approach is to support the NEBE in ensuring inclusive participation of all groups, including women, youth, and ethnic groups from all regions.

The expected outcome of this project includes enhanced capacity of NEBE to perform its electoral monitoring and oversight functions more effectively and inclusively as a result of institutional and individual capacity building delivered through this initiative.

Results achieved at the end of the project (April 2023) includes: (1) the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) completed the comprehensive lessons learned review of the Sixth General Elections. The review received contributions from over 400 electoral stakeholders, including all NEBE levels, political parties, observer groups, civil society, federal and regional government officials, the judiciary, security forces, and international partner organizations; (2) improved NEBE’s capacity to prevent electoral violence through monitoring, early warning, and response system; (3) provided NEBE’s information and communications technology (ICT) staff training and technical advice on election management systems; and (4) strengthened NEBE’s efforts to promote gender and inclusion in electoral processes by producing a video documentary on women in elections and research on violence against women in elections.