The Africa Liberal Network, with the support of the Liberal Democrats’ International Office and Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, recently hosted a workshop on Combating Corruption. On 1 and 2 June 2018, 16 participants from ALN member parties hand picked for their expertise in this field, attended the workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Corruption is not an unfamiliar phenomena to our member parties, and many of them struggle daily with the scourge of corruption in their countries. From corrupt presidents, to corrupt governments and institutions, it is difficult to maintain democracies that exist for the benefit of all. As liberal political parties, we have the express responsibility to combat corruption, both in our governments and in our parties. The ALN is committed to the rule of law, transparency and accountability. It is for this reason that we decided to host a workshop on combating corruption, with a particular focus on keeping our parties clean and the aim of delivering a user-friendly anti-corruption framework at its conclusion.
The workshop focused on breaking down our understanding of corruption and redefining the concept, followed by a thorough analysis of our parties’ organisational structures. Consequently, we were able to identify where the vulnerable spots in our parties are, along with an analysis of the measures we already have in place to prevent corruption and fraud. The participants took part in an engaging brainstorming session to come up with creative solutions for the previously identified problem areas, with many of them sharing best practices from their parties.
Through inputs delivered during this workshop, the ALN is proud to present its first Anti-Corruption Toolkit for Political Parties (pdf).
It is our hope that our member parties will utilise this framework to strengthen their structures, prevent corruption from happening and implement measures to detect when it does occur.
 
 
 

The Africa Liberal Youth recently had an opportunity to attend a youth workshop hosted by the Africa Liberal Network and funded by the Liberal Democrats in Johannesburg, South Africa. On the fringe of the Liberal International meeting from 26 – 29 October 2017, they learned about social media use for political organisations, fundraising for projects and got to share company with some of the world’s biggest liberal figures.
Richard Nii Amarh, the Secretary-General of ALY, wrote about their experience at this youth workshop:
 
“The Africa Liberal Youth (ALY) had the opportunity to stay in Johannesburg between 26 and 29 October 2017 to undertake a workshop on Social Media and Fundraising. In fact this was the same time the Liberal International Executive Committee was having its 199th Executive Committee meeting. This workshop was made possible through the kind funding of the International Office of the Liberal Democrats.
The purpose of this workshop was to equip the Executive Committee of ALY with the necessary skills to take full advantage of social media to achieve its purpose, while at the same time raise funds to finance its operations. All six Executive Committee members of ALY were present: Richard Nii Amarh, Secretary General; Luyolo Mphithi, Treasurer; Jawad Chafil, North Africa Coordinator; Emmanuel Osei, West Africa Coordinator; Hamisi Kapalila, East Africa Coordinator; and Lidia Rauch, Southern Africa Coordinator. These executives were also joined by Tone Bjorndal, Secretary General of IFLRY and Anders Rehnberg, vice President of IFLRY. Harriet Shone of the LibDems International Office and Zanie Ferreira of the ALN were there to supervise the two-day workshop.
  
The workshop exposed the participants to the intricacies of social media platforms, how they work optimally, how they can be improved, how to use them professionally, etc. The team had the opportunity to audit their own social media platforms based on professional standards provided by the facilitators. This audit helped them identify the strengths and weaknesses of the social media platforms and to help them review them for the better. Marike Groenewald, the facilitator, and Mabine Seabe of the Democratic Alliance should be commended for the sharing of their immense knowledge in social media communication with the participants.
The second day of the workshop gave the team an opportunity to balance the balance sheet. It was time to talk money. Participants learnt a lot from, Jonathan Moakes, chief strategist for the Democratic Alliance who had a hand in building up the DA to the admirable party it is today. Fundraising is not always a comfortable subject in politics. ALY has the advantage of not being a political party and might be luckier. Yet it has to prioritise fundraising and use social media to its advantage. Jonathan exposed us to very diverse resources and, most importantly, practical ways of raising funds to support our activities.

On the last day we had the chance to meet in order to plan how we would execute all we had learned. By ourselves, without a facilitator, only us. This gave the Executive Committee the chance to make decisions and provide timelines for these plans. The workshop was not the only thing that happened in Johannesburg. ALY executives had the chance to interact with some LI Executive committee members as well as the opportunity to attend the FNF Freedom Award. It was an amazing opportunity to meet some important Liberals and listen to the freedom situations in some Africa countries.

On the first day of our training, we had the opportunity to have some encouraging words from the President of the Africa Liberal Network, Stevens Mokgalapa. This was so refreshing as we hardly get to meeting him until such occasions. This has been a very great opportunity for ALY. As a continental organisation, with executives from diverse areas in Africa, we hardly get the chance to meet in person. The workshop along with our Executive Meeting left us with a positive feeling and a renewed energy for the ALY.
I would like to thank the funders and hosts, as well as my team for their hard work and dedication.” 
 

The Africa Liberal Network conducted its first-ever election observation mission in October 2015. The destination for the mission was the island of Zanzibar, officially part of Tanzania but still with its own electoral system and commission.
The full ALN election observation report can be viewed and downloaded here
The decision was taken by the ALN’s Executive Committee to take part in election observations in order to achieve our broader goals of increasing the Network’s presence through support of liberalism and democratic practices. This experience was invaluable to our observation team, which included two ALN Vice Presidents, Rosemary Kariuki (East Africa) and Stevens Mokgalapa (Southern Africa).
The ALN expresses its gratitude to our long-standing partners of the Friederich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. We thank FNF for their generous assistance and cooperation during the observation mission and look forward to growing our partnership.