In 2024, Africa will have 20 countries going into elections to vote for parliaments and or presidents. The global phenomena is that over 45% of eligible voters do not participate. These elections will have an impact on the future of the continent. The panelists will interrogate what this means and the trends in different countries that are headed for elections.

Panelists:

• Dr Delta Ndou: Senior campaigns consultant;
• Catherine Vitaliano: ALC Fellow and expert on South Sudan;
• Shannon Leslie Arnold: ALC Fellow and social scientist and political analyst on Southern Africa;
• Chair: Munyaradzi Mapfumo: African Leadership Centre, Nairobi.  

This event will be held online. A Zoom link will be emailed to participants on registering.

This event is part of Africa Week 2024 organised by the African Leadership Centre at King's. Learn more about Africa Week 2024.

About the speakers

Dr Delta Ndou

Delta is a communications and campaigns specialist who has devised and implemented communications strategies for three winning African Heads of State political campaigns in the last four years. In 2023, she was part of a technical team that piloted the use of AI in a Presidential political campaign in Africa. She has considerable academic and practitioner-based knowledge of many of Africa’s complex political and information ecosystems that have given rise to information disorders such as election-related disinformation and technology-facilitated violence against women. Delta has also consulted for UN Women as a tech, gender, and elections analyst in Africa, while interrogating the impact of technology in administering elections on the continent.

Shannon Leslie Arnold

Shannon is a social scientist and political analyst. She is currently working as an analyst on Southern Africa for the International Crisis Group, focusing on elections and foreign policy. She is an African Women Peace and Security Fellow with the African Leadership Centre. She recently completed an MSc Global Leadership and Peacebuilding at King’s. She graduated top in her class and received the academic prize for the best dissertation in her department. In addition, she has a MPhil in African Studies with distinction from the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State, South Africa. She has a background as an activist focused on issues related to gender-based violence in South Africa.

Catherine Charles M Vitaliano

Catherine holds a bachelor’s degree in public and private law (LLB) from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) and a master’s degree in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding from King's College London. She currently serves as a Programme Officer at SSuDEMOP. She is also a Research Fellow on Peace, Security, and Development at the Africa Leadership Centre. She has served as technical support to the Civil Society Representative on Public Finance Management Oversight Committee (PFM-OC), offering her expertise to women leaders.