The Electoral Support Network of Southern Africa (ESN – SA) is a regional network of fifteen non-governmental organisations working in the area of elections in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The ESN-SA (formally known as Southern African Development Community –Election Support Network (SADC-ESN) was established in January 1998 at a launching conference held in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. It is a regional network of organisations working in the field of democracy and elections organised into country chapters. In its early formation the ESN-SA focused mainly on domestic election observation and thereafter on regional election observation; building capacity of network members to design and develop voter and civic curricula and internal capacity building. In 2013, ESN-SA observed the Zimbabwe Harmonised Elections as well as the first round of the Malagasy Presidential Election.

The Network provides opportunities for sharing lessons learnt, peer exchange, encourages exchange of best practices at the regional level and provides opportunities for members to participate in various workshops and conferences including workshops on election observation, electoral reforms, and gender equity in the democratic process. ESN-SA is currently being hosted by one of its member organisations, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), which is the current Secretariat. Hence, all the Network’s activities are coordinated from the said organisation based in Zimbabwe. ESN-SA is a member and sits in the Steering Committee of the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM), which is pivotal in ensuring international best practice and monitoring in the conduct of domestic election observation.