Oita Etyang, Senior Elections Specialist, Zambia

Oita Etyang is the International Foundation for Electoral Systems’ (IFES) senior elections specialist for Zambia, where he coordinates activities between IFES and the Electoral Commission of Zambia. Etyang has over a decade of experience across sub-Saharan Africa covering the whole spectrum of conflict and fragility management. He is an expert in systemic peace building, strategic conflict analysis and conflict structural vulnerability and resilience assessments. Etyang has designed and implemented programs on conflict early warning systems, social cohesion, post-conflict reconstruction, mediation, dialogue and development of national infrastructures for peace.

Etyang has been involved in cutting-edge research whose outcomes have shaped policies and enriched academic discourse both at the national and regional levels. His research specialties include governance, development and conflict prevention, resolution and management – areas in which he has peer-reviewed numerous books, book chapters and journal articles. Etyang is the author or co-author of Understanding National Cohesion in Kenya, Conflict Prognosis: The COMESA Early Warning System in Perspective, Presidential Term Limit: A Threat to Peace and Security in Africa and China and Africa’s Peace and Security Agenda: The Burgeoning Appetite, among other publications.

Etyang holds master’s degrees in political science from the University of Nairobi and in managing peace and security in Africa from the University of Addis Ababa.