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The majority of the Commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) were newly appointed in 2021 and have little electoral experience. The Commissioners and the CENI staff will encounter unprecedented challenges in the transition, including organizing elections in large swathes of the country that are insecure; carrying out new legislation to ensure the participation of internally displaced persons (IDPs), a population that has surged to 1.7 million in just five years; and an ambitious transition agenda and timeline, which in turn create challenges for citizen and civil society engagement.

Additionally, there has been a drastic increase in disinformation circulating in the country, much of it originating from foreign influence campaigns aimed at influencing public opinion in the Sahel. Disinformation has been linked to massive protests and related violence.

Broad civic participation by an informed populace will be critical for the credibility of the transition to civilian rule. Likewise, civil society and political parties will need to be active in consensus-building around constitutional and legal reform efforts. Additionally, an anticipated significant turnover of elected representatives will need support to demonstrate the benefits of democracy in the early stages of the new civilian government.

2. Objectives and Anticipated Results

There are three objectives of the BESA activity:

Objective 1: Civil society supports increased citizen participation in reform, electoral, and governance processes.

Anticipated Results:
• Citizens receive timely, accurate information about transition-related reform and political processes, enabling them to understand their choices and participate meaningfully
• Increased participation of citizens, particularly women, youth, and internally displaced persons, in reform and political processes related to the transition to democratic governance
• Increased capacity of a range of civil society actors, defined broadly and including community-based organizations, women's and youth groups, faith-based organizations and religious leaders, traditional leaders, political parties, and independent media, among others, to support their constituencies to meaningfully participate in transition and governance processes
• Increased capacity of civil society organizations to provide oversight of transition and governance processes

Objective 2: Electoral management bodies conduct technically sound and inclusive electoral processes.

Anticipated Results:
• Improved technical capacity of the CENI and other relevant government institutions such as the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization (MATDS) to conduct inclusive, consensual and transparent political processes.
• Improved capacity of the CENI to work with relevant government institutions to provide adequate security for citizens to safely exercise their right to vote.
• Increased capacity of the CENI to contribute to governance reform processes, including constitutional review.
• CENI operates with increased independence and professionalism.
• Increased capacity of the CENI in the areas of communication with citizens and stakeholders, including countering mis-, dis-, and mal information, and coordination with civil society, political parties, and other stakeholders.

Objective 3: Post-transition governance is effective, participatory, and inclusive.

Anticipated Results:
• Newly elected officials at the national, regional, and communal levels are well-oriented to their roles and responsibilities.

Consortium For Elections & Political Process Strengthening

98.001 - USAID Foreign Assistance for Programs Overseas

U.S. Mission to Senegal [USAID - OM]

Burkina Faso

Foreign

None

Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 120% from $1,767,334 to $3,880,026.