Swaziland - Swazi Democratic Party

Since the autumn of 2012, we have cooperated with the Swazi Democratic Party (SWADEPA) in Swaziland.

SWADEPA is working to introduce multiparty democracy to one of Africa’s last absolute monarchies, where political parties cannot compete in elections.

We have been involved in a party projects with SWADEPA from 2014 to 2017 in Swaziland, where we focused on strengthening the party organization, strengthening the representation on all political levels in Swaziland, promoting equality and marginalized group’s interests in Swaziland as well as strengthening alliances both internally in the democratic movement in Swaziland and internationally.

Due to the projects positive results, and the long-term perspective in all our international partnerships, we have decided to prolong our cooperation with SWADEPA and we have initiated a follow-up project that continues to strengthen their push for a democratic transition. The Social Democratic Party therefore has a new party project in Swaziland that runs from 2018 to 2020, and has the aim to strengthen:

• The internal processes, involvement of citizens at the local level, policy development and communication
• The representation and involvement of women and youth in the party

The partnership’s overall objective is to promote human rights through the introduction of multiparty democracy in Swaziland.