UNDP South Africa and the Independent Electoral Commission have since 2015 partnered on a project to strengthen the capacity of the institution, and more recently, to ensure that the commission explores innovative ways in its electoral management processes. The project (herein referred to as U Count: Support to the Elections Commission of SA) will utilise all opportunities to build the capacity to strengthen South Africa’s role as a continent leader in elections management.

With regards to domestic observation, the project directly speaks to the South African Government’s Active Citizenry policy through strengthening the domestic observer sector, and the project will seek ways to support the sector that enrich the sector’s ability to both encourage citizen participation in the electoral process, as well as build a strengthened coalition of domestic observers that can encourage the IEC to ever-improve its performance.

One of the objectives of the programme is to grow and strengthen the domestic electoral observation sector, through the use of innovation in the electoral process. 

This call is for a service provider to develop a domestic election observer on-line platform, modelled on tried and tested experiences in countries such as India and Romania.