Elliot Mitchell, Deputy Regional Director, Africa

Elliot Mitchell serves as the International Foundation for Electoral Systems’ (IFES) deputy regional director for Africa. With over 12 years of experience developing and managing election-related programs, Mitchell currently oversees a diverse portfolio of IFES’ work in 12 countries across the African continent. He is well-versed in all aspects of program design, implementation, evaluation and reporting with experience working with a range of donors, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Global Affairs Canada, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and the European Union.

Mitchell joined IFES in 2009, initially backstopping the organization’s $50 million, USAID-funded Afghanistan election assistance contract. From 2011-2015, he covered IFES’ East and Southern Africa portfolio, managing programs in Kenya, Lesotho, Uganda and Zimbabwe and with the African Union’s Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit. Mitchell returned to IFES in his current role in March 2020 after four years at Counterpart International, where he was the associate director covering democracy and governance programs in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Morocco and Sudan.

Elliot holds a master’s degree in democratic governance, including a research focus on African elections, from the University of Cape Town and a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Vanderbilt University.