Pushing for democracy – capacity building in eSwatini
The Social Democratic Party partners with the opposition party SWADEPA in exchanging knowledge for democratic change.
The Danish Social Democratic Party cooperates with the Swazi Democratic Party (SWADEPA) in eSwatini. SWADEPA has grown out of a long history of opposition and has a longstanding background in the labour movement. SWADEPA is geographically represented throughout most of eSwatini in 32 branches and rooted within most levels of society, attracting support from the politically aware urban workers and middle class, as well as, from more traditional and conservative parts of the rural population. SWADEPA is also a party with strong representation of both youth and women.
Danish partner: The Social Democratic Party
Local partners: Swazi Democratic Party (SWADEPA)
Project start: 2012 - 2023
The overall objective of the partnership is to strengthen SWADEPA as a strong force pushing for democracy in Swaziland. The focus is on strengthening SWADEPA’s party organisation and ability to involve, educate and mobilise citizens at the local level, communicate and build support for its mission through alliances at home and abroad, thereby continuing to build pressure for democratic change.
The partnership works on capacity building by training leaders, assisting in creating a capacity building program of the PR and Research team within SWADEPA. At the same time the partnership facilitates seminars and strategy meetings for parties in the democracy movement. Furthermore, there is a focus on strengthening the youth wing, thereby improving the future sustainability of the party organisation. This is done by Capacity building of the Youth League, including preparation for a youth congress and greater local outreach.
I remember learning how to do door-to-door campaigns - something we had never tried before”
At large, the partnership has contributed to SWADEPA having grown from being a pre-party formation to a significant player in the Swazi democracy movement. SWADEPA has pushed for a change in legislation, so that large gatherings were allowed. In 2019 SWADEPA successfully tested the act by hosting a march for multiparty democracy without interference from the police. This affected the perception of the people and attitude of the police towards public protesting. As such, it proved a way to demonstrate peacefully for change without becoming a victim of police violence. SWADEPA has also played a key role in bringing the Swazi political parties to the same table and working closer together through the joint party platform Political Party Assembly.
