African Citizens Watch (www.africancitizenswatch.org) is a flagship initiative by the SIVIO Institute, designed to monitor how African governments deliver on their election campaign promises and major policy commitments made while in office. As a pan-African think tank, SIVIO Institute is dedicated to placing citizens at the heart of socio-economic and policy transformation across the continent. The initiative began in Zimbabwe with the launch of Zim Citizens Watch (www.zimcitizenswatch.org) and has since grown to include Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa—following the May 2024 elections that led to the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU).
Spotlight on South Africa
Since July 2024, South Africa Citizens Watch has been tracking the performance of the GNU against 121 pledges drawn from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s inaugural GNU address to Parliament (18 July 2024) and the Medium-Term Development Plan (2024–2029). An initial assessment of the GNU’s performance was published in February 2025, and a comprehensive one-year performance report is currently underway and will be published later in the year.
Collaboration with ACT Ubumbano
Since the beginning of the year, SIVIO Institute has been working with ACT Ubumbano on refining the South Africa Citizens Watch tracker as a collective dashboard for data collection to support civil society organisations that are part of their Accountability Project. Stay tuned for more updates and details on the tracker’s features in upcoming newsletters.
Explore the Platform and Get Involved
Curious about what actions the South African government has taken so far? Visit the platform here: https://africancitizenswatch.org/south-africa.
Beyond tracking government progress, the platform needs you to get involved. You can submit information about actions taken by the government in your area that relate to its promises and share your story about how those actions have impacted your community. Be sure to explore the Submit an Action and Share Your Story features! You can share your story through the platform, and once the team has verified the claim, it will be published under the Citizens‘ Stories page of the website.
