In February 2023, the Swiss ethicist Christoph Stückelberger has been elected as Director General of the “Ecole de Formation Electorale en Afrique Centrale”, based in Kinshasa/ DR Congo. The school trains election experts.
The « Ecole de Formation Electorale en Afrique Centrale » (EFEAC. www.efeac.org ) is an initiative of 11 member countries of the CEEAC (Communauté économique des États de l’Afrique Centrale), uniting mainly francophone countries from Cameroun the Democratic Republic of Congo and also Lusophone countries such as Angola. It was founded in May 2011 in Libreville at a meeting between representatives of the electoral institutions of these 11 countries.
Christoph Stückelberger was appointed Director General of EFEAC at the beginning of 2023. He had already conducted various trainings there between 2012 and 2018. The school is based in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“I am pleased and grateful to be able to take over the leadership of this school. Elections in democracies in Africa, which are only some decades old and often with challenging infrastructures, are critical and promising at the same time. We have made a good start in April with a new Master Course for Professionals working for National Election Commissions, as lawyers, in NGO’s, religious organisations or universities. We are looking forward with confidence,” says Christoph Stückelberger. The professors of the online courses are mainly African professors with election expertise in law, political and social sciences, ethics and more. Some of their works have been published in the African Law Series of Globethics (www.globethics.net/african-law ).
After a three-year break, EFEAC is currently being reconstituted. The goal remains the training of election experts. A six-month CAS and a one-and-a-half-year postgraduate Master’s programme have been newly introduced, the first edition of which has already attracted around 40 participants.
Experts from the European Centre for Electoral Support have supported EFEAC since its inception and have been involved in designing and defining EFEAC’s mission and strategies. The ECES-EFEAC partnership is based on the synergies between the two organisations through which the electoral process can be effectively supported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in CEEAC countries as well as in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
In addition, EFEAC emphasises the regional expertise required for a school with a regional reputation, as well as knowledge of the context of the CEEAC countries.