Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty
Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty
Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty
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International Idea<br />
campaign expenditure, it was not possible to elicit sufficient and accurate <strong>in</strong><strong>for</strong>mation<br />
either because the leaders do not have full knowledge or because they were reluctant<br />
to speak about them.<br />
The work began with pre-test<strong>in</strong>g of the questionnaire <strong>in</strong> Ghana and Lesotho <strong>in</strong><br />
May 2004. Afterwards, a three-day workshop on the methodology to be adopted <strong>for</strong><br />
this programme and to discuss <strong>in</strong> detail the questionnaire on parties’ organizational<br />
structures and function<strong>in</strong>g was held <strong>in</strong> Pretoria, South <strong>Africa</strong>, <strong>in</strong> July 2004 <strong>for</strong><br />
the researchers <strong>in</strong> Southern <strong>Africa</strong>. A similar methodology workshop was held <strong>in</strong><br />
Ouagadougou later <strong>in</strong> July 2004 <strong>for</strong> the West <strong>Africa</strong> researchers and <strong>in</strong> April 2005<br />
<strong>for</strong> the researchers <strong>in</strong> East <strong>Africa</strong>.<br />
The database on parties that will be developed as part of this research will be of<br />
help to those who would like to take a closer look at the work<strong>in</strong>g of political parties<br />
around the world.<br />
Based on the two questionnaires relat<strong>in</strong>g to the country context and the external<br />
regulations and environment, as well as the <strong>in</strong>terviews with party leaders, separate<br />
Country Reports were prepared <strong>for</strong> several of the countries. As a sequel to the research<br />
phase, national and regional dialogue workshops where held between political parties,<br />
researchers, civil society and <strong>in</strong>ternational actors to validate the research f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs<br />
and discuss agendas <strong>for</strong> further research, debate and re<strong>for</strong>m. Such regional dialogue<br />
workshops were held <strong>in</strong> South <strong>Africa</strong> December 2004, and Mauritius April 2005,<br />
<strong>for</strong> Southern <strong>Africa</strong>, <strong>in</strong> Burk<strong>in</strong>a Faso June 2005, <strong>for</strong> West <strong>Africa</strong>, and <strong>in</strong> Kenya <strong>in</strong><br />
December 2005, <strong>for</strong> East <strong>Africa</strong>. In addition, national dialogue workshops have been<br />
conducted <strong>in</strong> Burk<strong>in</strong>a Faso November 2004, Mali November 2005, Ghana February<br />
2005, Nigeria <strong>in</strong> January 2006 and Senegal January 2005. The dialogues provided<br />
an opportunity <strong>for</strong> the party leaders to tell others the difficulties and challenges they<br />
face and <strong>for</strong> the public and <strong>in</strong>tellectuals to tell the party leaders how they view parties<br />
and how they th<strong>in</strong>k the problems <strong>in</strong> the party doma<strong>in</strong> could be tackled.<br />
The <strong>in</strong><strong>for</strong>mation gathered from political parties dur<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>in</strong>terviews with the<br />
leaders and the discussions at the dialogue workshops are the major source <strong>for</strong> the<br />
preparation of this report. This report is the second <strong>in</strong> a series of regional reports<br />
that IDEA will be publish<strong>in</strong>g. When all the regional reports come out, we hope to<br />
arrive at some mean<strong>in</strong>gful conclusions on the state of political parties <strong>in</strong> different<br />
parts of the world, the problems and challenges they face <strong>in</strong> the 21st century and the<br />
measures to address them.<br />
Methodology