When the BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) curriculum was designed back in 1999, IDEA, the Australian Electoral Commission and the United Nations Election Assistance Division probably didn’t foresee its success: 1,500 people in 14 countries have studied BRIDGE, a capacity-development course for election administration professionals. Today, it exists in seven languages and covers topics such as electoral systems, public outreach, voter registration, vote counting, and electoral observers.
“BRIDGE is the most comprehensive professional development course available in election administration”, said Virginia Beramendi-Heine, assistant programme officer in IDEA’s Electoral Processes team. “It has gone a long way since its creation in 1999”. BRIDGE has now set a professional standard.”
The latest developments include a BRIDGE showcase organized by IDEA and the Spanish Ministry of Interior in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 13-16 Sept. Participants gained first-hand experience of the BRIDGE methodology and assessed the usefulness of the curriculum in a Latin American context. A working group was established to adapt BRIDGE so that it can be implemented in the Latin American region.
In Georgia, an 18-month BRIDGE project that IDEA ran with the Central Election Commission of Georgia (CEC) ended in October 2005, with thirty people taking part in a two week “Train the Facilitators” course (training for trainers) in Tbilisi. The project helped CEC devise professional development and capacity-building strategies for electoral administrators, prepare tools based on BRIDGE curriculum, and create highly qualified experts to train electoral management bodies (EMB) personnel. BRIDGE manuals were printed in Georgian.
IDEA held its first West Africa BRIDGE “Train the Facilitators” course (training for trainers), in Accra, Ghana, 9-18 Aug. The course increased the capacities of the participating electoral management bodies to administer free, fair and transparent elections as well as develop the administrative capacities of their staff.
Among the 26 participants were senior staff members from the electoral commissions of Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Gambia and Sierra Leone and election specialists from the Ghana Center for Democratic Development and the West African Network for Peace Building. One participant said afterward, “I am now equipped not only with a lot of knowledge about elections but also how to act as a facilitator to give positive criticisms and feedback”.
The Association of African Elections Authorities and the United Nations Development Programme’s Ghana office co-hosted the event with IDEA. The course inspired the Ghanaian Electoral Commission to offer its district electoral officers a BRIDGE professional development course.
Contact: Virginia Beramendi-Heine, assistant programme officer for electoral processes or visit the BRIDGE Web site: www.bridge-project.org
Discuss
Tell a friend
