ON March 18 2015, the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Sub-committee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organisations held a hearing on US Election Support in Africa.
Presentations were made by five key institutions that have influence on US foreign policy on matters to do with Africa.
Eric J. Robinson, the senior programme officer — East, Horn and southern Africa for National Endowment for Democracy (NED) informed that committee that NED began funding civil society organisations working on elections in Africa 27 years ago, when it made the first grant to an organisation called GERDDES to monitor the historic elections in Benin in 1990.
Since then, NED has supported hundreds of groups engaged in a broad range of activities that have contributed to election processes.
In 2014, NED made nearly 250 grants to Africa, averaging US$40 000 each, to mostly indigenous civil society organisations.
He gave accounts of some of the projects NED has undertaken on the continent.
Coming to Zimbabwe, Robinson said: “In Zimbabwe, NED supported many groups successfully advocating for peaceful elections two years ago (2013).”
In his statement to the committee, Patrick Merloe, senior associate and director of electoral programmes at the National Democratic Institute (NDI), revealed that his organisation has worked in 43 African countries since the late 1980s on a wide variety of programmes to help strengthen democratic development, including achieving peaceful, credible elections.
NDI has partnered with political parties, parliaments, civil society groups and democratic reformers in Government in more than 100 African elections.
According to Merloe, NDI was responsible for facilitating the running of the Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) system that led to the 2008 presidential elections.
“The PVT for Zimbabwe’s 2008 first round election played the extraordinary role of demonstrating that President Robert Mugabe came in second and that a run-off was required.”
USAID was represented by the assistant to the administrator for Africa, Eric Postel.
USAID is well known in Zimbabwe for its ‘humanitarian’ aid work. However, one of its core businesses had always been interference in political systems in order to further US interests in the countries it operates.
Postel informed the committee that: “Consistent with the President’s (Barack Obama) vision, USAID promotes better governance as an integral part of our development agenda.
“But the real story isn’t one of our technical assistance or support for elections. The real story lies in the committed African men and women who are working every day to strengthen their nations’ democratic institutions and processes.”
In his presentation to the committee, Gretchen Birkle, International Republican Institute’s regional director for Africa, explained his organisation’s mission is to encourage ‘democracy’ in places where it is absent, help ‘democracy’ become more effective where it is in danger and share best practices where ‘democracy’ is flourishing.
Specifically, in sub-Saharan African, IRI focuses on six core components:
l bolstering the capacity of multi-party political systems,
l promoting ‘democratic’ governance,
l ‘empowering’ marginalised groups,
l legislative institution building,
l supporting civil society initiatives and
l ‘strengthening’ electoral processes.
At the time, Birkle revealed that the IRI was working in Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
International Foundation for Electoral Systems chief executive officer William R. Sweeney Jr testified that since 1987, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) had worked in over 145 countries to support citizens’ right to participate in free, fair, transparent and accountable elections.
It has active programmes in Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe that empower the individuals and institutions who make democracy work at every turn of the electoral cycle.
IFES provides technical assistance to strengthen local capacity and electoral inclusiveness in societies that aspire to realise their full democratic potential.
These hearings are of importance because they help to interpret US foreign policy towards Africa and other developing nations.
The size of the war chest designated to fight for ‘democracy’ in each country is based on such presentations.
When these hearings were held in 2015, close to 30 countries were to hold elections within the space of two years and as such, the key policy makers needed to be apprised on who to support, who to prioritise and most importantly who to fund.
As of 2015, there has been an appreciation at Capitol Hill that a key element that would influence the outcome of elections in Africa is the huge youth demographic on the continent.
According to the 2014 United Nations African Economic Outlook report, Africa has the youngest population in the world, with two thirds of its one billion population under the age of 25 and half of the population under the age of 19.
Young people bear a disproportionate burden of the high unemployment rates that many African nations are experiencing.
According to the World Bank, youth account for 60 percent of all African unemployed and these statistics fail to encompass those who are under-employed in the informal sector.
Because of the realisation that there was a new market that could be exploited to further US interests on the continent, focus was shifted from opposition political parties to the youth. The term, ‘generation democracy’ best describes the targeted group.
As a result, funding for programmes such as the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, which began in 2014, and is the flagship programme of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) have gained traction.
In 2017, the Fellowship will provide up to 1 000 outstanding young leaders from sub-Saharan Africa with the opportunity to hone their skills at a US college or university with support for professional development after they return home.
Upon returning to their home countries, Fellows continue to build the skills they have developed during their time in the US through support from US embassies, four Regional Leadership Centres, the YALI Network and customised programming from USAID, the Department of State and affiliated partners.
Through these experiences, select Mandela Washington Fellows have access to ongoing professional development opportunities, mentoring, networking and training as well as support for their ideas, businesses and organisations.
Last week, the Council on Foreign Relations released a Contingency Planning Memorandum Update titled ‘The Day After in Zimbabwe’.
The update revises Contingency Planning Memorandum 33 of March 2015 by George Ward titled ‘Political Instability in Zimbabwe’.
The update crafts the Zimbabwean issue as a threat to regional stability, and thus seeking to direct the Trump administration not to look at Zimbabwe in isolation, but to see the bigger picture – that of a small problem that could fester into a greater challenge.
As part of its recommendations to the US Government, the update says outside of expanding contacts with a variety of first-and-second-tier ZANU-PF and Government figures and with influential business leaders to make it clear that adhesion to the rule of law would see a relaxation of sanctions and improved relations, the Trump administration must focus on the youth.
In a possible indication that there is no hope for the opposition, traditional opposition champions such as CFR, who have always maintained that empowering the opposition is the best way forward, are now placing their trust in the youth.
Ward presents that while the US should continue to reach out to the opposition to encourage developing an effective coalition, emphasis should be on efforts to influence the successor generation through programmes such as the Young African Leaders Initiative.   
This leaves one to wonder: Has Morgan Tsvangirai’s replacement already been found, and is being secretly groomed through YALI?