Australian High Commissioner to Pretoria Anne Harrap addresses participants at the opening ceremony of the BRIDGE 5-Day Professional Development Course in Pretoria South Africa 2-6 February 2009
Photo ©: Rushdi Nackerdien/IDEA

Twenty-two senior election administrators from the Election Management Bodies of Botswana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe took part in a five-day BRIDGE professional development training course in Pretoria, South Africa from 2–6 February 2009. The course covered technical issues of election administration such as strategic planning, leadership, stakeholder relations, electoral dispute resolution and the electoral cycle. The course was conducted by International IDEA in partnership with the African Union (AU).

BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) is widely recognised as the leading training curriculum for election administration. BRIDGE has been run across the globe: in Europe, Asia/Pacific, the Middle East, Latin America and in 14 countries in Africa.

The Pretoria course was the first in a series of electoral training activities to be held as part of the partnership between International IDEA and the African Union which is outlined in the Joint Activity Plan developed by the two organizations. The Plan is an ambitious five-year programme of activities designed to support democracy in the continent and is centred on the African Charter for Democracy, Elections and Governance which was adopted by the African Union in 2007.

Participants at the BRIDGE 5-Day Professional Development Course in Pretoria South Africa 2-6 February 2009
Photo ©: Rushdi Nackerdien/IDEA

“Elections are the largest and most extensive logistical exercise conducted during peacetime involving almost the entire adult population of a state or nation” says Margot Gould, International IDEA’s BRIDGE Project Manager for Africa and the Middle East.

“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 and its partners have developed the BRIDGE training curriculum specifically to meet the needs of election administrators. It is important to recognise the enormity of the task faced by election administrators and we hope that training opportunities provided by a quality curriculum such as BRIDGE will help Election Management Bodies to develop the professionalism of their greatest resource – their personnel,” Ms Gould said.

The course was opened by the Australian High Commissioner, Anne Harrap, and the Head of the African Union Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit (DEAU), Shumbaba Karume.

The five-day course funded by a grant from the Australian Government through its aid organ AusAID is part of a two-year programme to support the professional development of election administrators in Africa.