In 2018, SIVIO Institute established the zimcitizenswatch.org Platform, which was a tracking tool to assess the fulfilment of promises made to citizens by the elected Government of Zimbabwe. This platform grew as additional countries were included and became known as the African Citizens Watch platform. The platform was expanded in 2024 to include the newly elected governments of South Africa and Botswana.
We are excited to release country insights on the performance of 5 (five) African governments, namely Botswana, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, reflecting on the performance of these governments in terms of their fulfilment of election promises to citizens in 2024. The portfolio of insights captures the progress of these governments as reported on our accountability tracker – the African Citizens Watch platform. This platform identifies election promises and translates them into measurable activities of each government using publicly verified data sources. This is an important milestone for us because it is the first in a series of annual country briefs which will be produced by our regional team in these countries.
Our insights include the following:
- The Botswana Report was written by Mokaloba Mokaloba, and it tracks the performance of the Government of Botswana in their first 100 days in office from the 7th of November 2024 to the 12th of February 2025.
- Our Malawi Report tracks the performance of the Government of Malawi, where policy action is slow and inflation is high and rising.
- The South Africa Report was written by Yolokazi Mfuto, and it tracks the performance of the Government of South Africa since they came into office on the 14th of June 2024. This report highlights the challenges faced by the country in governing within a GNU framework amidst contentions related to land, security and taxation.
- Our Zambia Report was written by Alliance for Accountability Advocates Zambia, and focuses on the strides made by the Government of Zambia. The report details the challenges this government faced in navigating inflation, huge national debt and energy shortfalls in 2024.
- Finally, our Zimbabwe Report was written by Matron Muchena and focuses on the challenges faced by the Government of Zimbabwe as they attempted to navigate economic development, political tensions, and social welfare needs in the face of an El Nino-induced drought.
You can access the African Citizens Watch Platform here for more insights.