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September 15^th marked the annual celebration of the International Day of Democracy, an opportunity to reflect on the importance of upholding civil liberties and the rule of law, ensuring accountable institutions, and promoting human rights. A central pillar of building more accountable institutions and strengthening democratic processes is election observation.

The importance of election observation has become even greater as we are witnessing a weakening of democratic systems globally, coupled with an inclination of non-consolidated democracies to diverge into more authoritarian systems. In parts of southern Africa, countries like Mozambique and Zimbabwe have experienced a series of challenges in consolidating their democratic and electoral processes.

The Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index 2023, which measures the strength of democratic institutions, highlights that Mozambique’s performance in the rankings has fallen over the last 20 years and is now below the average for the whole African continent. The score declined from 5.5 in 2008 to 3.5 in 2023, ranking Mozambique 113^thin the world. In 2022, Freedom House considered Mozambique a partly free country, with an overall score of 44 out of 100.

The European Union (EU) has been funding election observation missions (EOMs) for more than 20 years. EOMs advance EU’s foreign policy goals of supporting democracy, human rights, and the rule of law around the world.

Cowater International was recently awarded the implementation of a full-fledged European Union Election Observation Mission in Mozambique, which is currently under way. Each EOM is implemented following an interest expressed by the electoral institutions of the receiving country. Once the invitation is sent to the EU, the body assesses the feasibility of a mission and decides whether to respond positively to the invitation.

The objective of EOMs is to provide a balanced assessment of the electoral process in order to contribute to the conduct of transparent and fair elections. The duration of the field mission will vary between 3-5 months, depending on the number of election rounds and involves around 140 international members, including Members of the European Parliament.

Cowater is providing a wide range of services to enable the success of the observation mission in Mozambique, ensuring the timely and coordinated provision of administrative, financial, operational, IT and security services. We are managing the mobilization of all international mission members. We have established and equipped a fully functional office space in Maputo for a core team of 11 experts, and are supporting 16 teams of two long-term observers, 38 teams of two short-term observers and a delegation of Members of the European Parliament across every district of Mozambique. Cowater is also ensuring the safety of mission members through constant interactions with local security institutions and regular security analyses.

Cowater International is fully supporting the interaction of the mission with national institutions, such as the National Election Commission, political parties and civil society organizations by providing suitable visibility and communication platforms (website, social media accounts) and ensuring the needed IT infrastructure to allow the core team analysts and the Chief Observer to receive, process and analyze information coming from the observers deployed in the field.

The EOM will produce a preliminary report that will be shared in a press conference with national and international stakeholders shortly after election day. The report will provide a first assessment of the electoral process and will cover all the relevant aspects, including the overall political context, organizational details of electoral preparations, the legal framework for elections, and the actual electoral campaign, including presence on social media platforms. Cowater International will also support a follow-up visit to Mozambique, approximately two months after the end of the current mission. The visit will be an opportunity to distribute a final analytical report on the elections, supported by references to election standards, national and international legal instruments and information collected during the EOM. The final report will include a set of recommendations on how to improve future electoral processes and will be directed at all national stakeholders, including the Electoral Commission, the Government, the Parliament, political parties and civil society organisations. This document will also guide future technical support actions to be financed by the European Union.

Cowater International has previously managed several EU-funded EOMs. The delivery of election observation missions in politically sensitive contexts, such as the one in Mozambique, has been extremely valuable in providing us with strong technical and operational expertise in efficiently managing fast-paced and activity-intensive programs. We are honoured to deploy this expertise in other country contexts and contribute to building stronger democratic processes and more accountable institutions.

Long-term observers deployment press conference, EOM Mozambique