The Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (former Electoral Institute of Southern Africa), or EISA, is an organization founded in 1996 in Johannesburg to "promote credible elections, participatory democracy, human rights culture and the strengthening of governance institutions for the consolidation of democracy in Africa."
According to their website programme areas that they participate in include:
Democracy, conflict management and electoral education
Elections and political processes
Balloting and electoral services
Governance (political parties, APRM, institutions of governance and local governance)
Online Democracy Encyclopedia
Research and information (including a specialised library and in house publications)
EISA lists the following organizations as donors:
Belgian Government
Canadian High Commission (CIDA)
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Conferences, Workshops and Cultural Initiatives (EU-CWCI)
Department for International Development (DIFD)
European Union (EU)
Finish Embassy, Pretoria
German Development Cooperation (GTZ)
InWEnt (Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung gGmbH/Capacity Building International, Germany)
Irish Embassy
Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF)
New Zealand Embassy
Royal Danish Embassy
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD)
Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR)
Norwegian Institute for Human Rights (NIHR)
Open Society Foundation South Africa (OSF-SA)
Open Society Initiative (OSI)
Open Society Institute for West Africa (OSIWA)
Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)
USAID RCSA
In 2004 EISA deployed an observation mission to Malawi for the presidential and legislative elections.
EISA works with the African Union Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit (DEAU). Support in 2008 was done in conjunction with the Carter Center and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).
When Kader Asmal, a member of the ANC, accused the Parliament of South Africa of wasting money by not monitoring chapter nine institutions such as the South African Human Rights Commission and the Commission for Gender Equality, EISA hosted the conference.
