IDEA trains election administrators from East and Southern Africa

BRIDGE Implementation Workshop, Pretoria November 2007

Twenty-five election administrators from East and Southern Africa took part in a 3-day “Implementation Workshop” in Pretoria, South Africa from 5-7 November 2007. The aim of the workshop was to train individuals and organizations in the project management skills required to implement BRIDGE training courses in their own organizations.

The training was organized by International IDEA in partnership with the Electoral Commission of South Africa as part of an ongoing two-year BRIDGE programme funded by a grant from the Australian Government through AusAID. The programme targets nine Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) from eight countries in East and Southern Africa (Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda and Zambia) as well as three national NGOs from the region, namely the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), the Institute for Education in Democracy (IED) and the Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (ZESN).

Much of the workshop focused on very practical skills such as preparing budgets and writing funding proposals as several countries participating in the programme are now planning to run BRIDGE within the next 12 months. In fact Malawi and Kenya had BRIDGE workshops scheduled for dates before the end of 2007. Malawi is rolling out registration and public outreach training to all its staff and Kenya is conducting observer training ahead of the December 2007 elections.

Many of the participants have remarked on very concrete instances where the BRIDGE courses have impacted positively not only on their own individual development but also on the organizations they work for. From improved elections administration to increased enthusiasm within the EMB executive management, participants are able to talk positively about the impact their attendance of BRIDGE courses has had in the last two years. With many BRIDGE activities being planned for the next few years, it can expected to see BRIDGE becoming a common part of the elections vocabulary of Southern and East Africa.