Effective Electoral Assistance - Moving from Event-based Support to Process Support - Conference report and conclusions

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The Ottawa Conference on Effective Electoral Assistance, held from 2 to 4 May 2006, brought together many electoral stakeholders to share thoughts and experiences on electoral assistance. Participants included representatives from donor agencies engaged in the provision or funding of electoral assistance, from EMBs and other organizations in countries that are or have been recipients of electoral assistance and funding, from organizations which have been actively engaged in the provision and implementation of donor-funded electoral assistance, and from others, including national and international electoral observers and individual experts in electoral technical assistance worldwide.

I. FOREWORD
II. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
III. OBJECTIVES
IV. THE OTTAWA CONFERENCE ON EFFECTIVE ELECTORAL ASSISTANCE

• 1. Agenda
• 2. Facing electoral realities
• 3. Embracing technology
• 4. Institution strengthening and capacity development
• 5. Linking elections to democratic governance
• 6. Sustainability: from an event-driven process to electoral cycle support

V. SUMMARY OF CONFERENCE CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
VI. THE WAY AHEAD

ANNEX I: List Of Participants
ANNEX II: Participants’ Evaluation
ANNEX III: Further Reading

Donor support for elections has traditionally been event-driven. Ample resources have often been available for a first transitional election, but much less for subsequent elections. The time has now come to ask questions about whether this money is well spent. Are democracies more sustainable today as a result of electoral assistance? Have donors, implementing agencies and recipients agreed on principles and standards?

Getting elections right means strengthening institutions as cornerstones in democratic governance. Both donors and development partners need to look beyond election day and see the whole electoral cycle, linking electoral assistance to development and democratization. Donors need to understand recipients better. Recipients need to understand donors better. Observers need to know what is needed to ensure that the recommendations in their reports are useful and that the reports do not just gather dust once published. Implementers have to understand all of this in order to deliver effective assistance.

The Ottawa Conference on Effective Electoral Assistance, generously made possible by the support of CIDA, was a first milestone in this important discussion. It has launched a dialogue towards common guidelines for electoral assistance, and called for the development both of effective situation analysis tools for donors and of effective training courses in electoral assistance. The conference has encouraged IDEA to continue its effort to place effectiveness, sustainability and the developmental approach to electoral assistance firmly on the donor policy agenda.

Vidar Helgesen
Secretary-General
International IDEA

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