Independent Electoral Commission trains African election professionals
20 November 2006
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA)
and the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), with funding from the
Australian Government, are training 22 election administrators from 13
countries in East and Southern Africa [1], in Pretoria, South Africa from 20
November to 1 December 2006.
The training is a "train the trainer" course and will enhance the training
skills of the participating election professionals in the area of election
administration. The course is based on a capacity-building curriculum known as
"the BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections)
project" (http://www.bridge-project.org),
specially designed to improve the skills, knowledge and confidence of election
administrators. BRIDGE was developed by IDEA, the United Nations and the
Australian Electoral Commission in 2001 and is widely recognised as the most
comprehensive training curriculum of its kind in the world. BRIDGE has been run
in 23 countries across the globe, including eight in Africa with more that 2
000 participants.
The BRIDGE "train the trainer" course aims at ensuring sustainability in
professional development training in the field of elections by transferring the
necessary training skills to the national electoral commissions so that they
can utilise BRIDGE for their own national training programmes.
"Elections are the largest and most extensive logistical exercise conducted
during peacetime involving almost the entire adult population of a state or
nation" says Dr Abdalla Hamdok, IDEA Regional Director of Africa and Middle
East Programme. "Despite the complexity of the task there is no formal
university level degree or diploma available for the study of election
administration. This is why IDEA has developed the BRIDGE training curriculum
specifically to meet the needs of election administrators. There can only be
true sustainability in election processes when Election Management Bodies
invest in their greatest resource, their personnel."
The 10-day course, which begins on Monday, 20 November, is funded by a grant
from the Australian Government through its aid organ AusAID and is part of a
two year programme to support the professional development of election
administrators in East and Southern Africa.
[1] Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi,
Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and
Zanzibar)
Enquiries:
Rushdi Nackerdien
Tel: 082 650 8637
Issued by: Independent Electoral Commission
20 November 2006
