News
BRIDGE workshops were recently conducted in Port Moresby, Mt Hagen and Madang for staff from Provincial Administrations who had previous elections experience
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The Asia Foundation (TAF)implemented the first BRIDGE Train the Facilitator(TtF) course in Afghanistan from the 15th to 26th of March 2006. Organizing and conducting the TtF country-wide was a complex and challenging task which required clear lines of communication with provinces, accountability and logistic support. Following the development and approval of the course strategy and methodology,TAF Electoral Project Team contacted the BRIDGE Project office to select facilitators to run TtF jointly with TAF Electoral Project Team. As a result of these discussions the BRIDGE facilitators included: Joanne Cheah, Lynne Puckeridge, Wael Ishmael Al-Faraj and George Baratashvili.
The first BRIDGE training workshop for election-related civil society organisations was held March 6 - 17, 2006 at SaferAfrica, 173 Beckett Street Arcadia in Pretoria, South Africa. This was aimed at building the enabling capacity of the Plataforma Electoral Angolana [This is a coalition of Angola-based civil society organisation involved in the electoral process in Angola] to play an effective role in the electoral process in Angola. To achieve this aim, the training focused on selected components of the BRIDGE modules. The training was conducted in both English and Portuguese. This ABRIDGE workshop was funded and coordinated by SaferAfrica[SaferAfrica (www.saferafrica.org) is an independent, professional, non-profit association which assists in the development of responsible and self-reliant good governance structures in the South in peace and security] based in South Africa. The training was facilitated by Theophilus Dowetin with Kenneth Mpyisi as co-facilitator.
A radio program 'Late Night Live' on the Australian Broadcasting Authority, recently aired a discussion about the forthcoming elections in the Solomon Islands. The program titled 'Clean Elections, Solomon Style' touches on how the BRIDGE course has been used in this context. You can listen to the interview by downloading it from the media section of this site or simply by clicking the following link:
http://bridge-project.info/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=96&Itemid=78
On the 6th and 7th of March 2006 Bridge Module 3: Public Outreach was undertaken in the Northern Territory of Australia. This was the first time this module has been delivered.
The module was chosen by the NT AEC office for its relevance to current operational activities and also its broad appeal to the non-electoral participants in the course.
Attendees came from the AEC’s Northern Territory Office, The Northern Territory Electoral Commission and the Northern Territory Parliament House Liaison and Information Unit. All participants came with some degree of experience in public outreach activity, although the degree of experience varied significantly.
The first BRIDGE course to reach the shores of New Zealand arrived in February 2006 where 18 participants and several facilitators from various Pacific countries came together for a week of the usual BRIDGE activities and social outings. Pacific countries represented included: New Zealand, Cook Islands, Nuie, Tonga, Samoa and Tuvalu. There was also the welcome addition of a freelance election specialist who described himself as from Haiti/France/USA (now residing in New Zealand) – who added another international dimension apart from the Pacific contingency. The course provided an opportunity for the new Version 2 Introductory Module to be trialled, and for several of the participants who were semi-accredited at the June 2005 Fiji Train the Facilitator program to become fully accredited.
Two Solomon Islanders who have been working on the Civic Education Project (CEP) have been selected to work with curriculum writers from around the world to write version 2 of the Building Resources In Democracy, Governance and Elections (BRIDGE) manuals. Audrey Manu, the CEP National Coordinator and Tina Harihiru, one of the CEP Provincial Team Coordinators for Malaita were two of the three writers who wrote the curriculum for the Civic Education Project. The third writer was Linda Puia Tamaika.
The CEP has just completed its second Phase across the country.
ABRIDGE Development
In the course of the 2005 Parliamentary Elections in Afghanistan, developing a professional Capacity Building Program for the JEMB and JEMBS staff to run follow up elections in the future became one of its key priorities for JEMB. It was recognized that the building of a strong and stable Electoral Administration capacity in this country is a very important task in order to conduct credible Elections. To sustain the Electoral Administration in developing democracies, it is significant for Electoral Administration staff to be properly trained and supported.
A BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) training course in English was held in Accra, Ghana from December 1 - 9, 2005 for newly recruited District Electoral Officers of the Electoral Commission of Ghana. The Commission is scheduled to conduct nationwide Local Government Elections in 2006.
Fiji Times Online www.fijitimes.com
THE Elections Office is focusing on building a strong team of certified electoral administrators to face the challenge of conducting a transparent and fair election.
The training program is organised by the Democracy and Electoral Studies (DSP) Program of the Institute of Governance at USP and is being run in partnership with the Elections Office and the Australian Electoral Commission.
Press Releases - Fiji Government Online (www.fiji.gov.fj)
Workshop vital to election preparation - Naivalu
The 'Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections' (BRIDGE) workshop organised for Electoral Administrators and District Commissioners from through out the country is vital and of great importance said the Commissioner Northern Misieli Naivalu.
Although users of the BRIDGE Project have found it to be an extremely useful tool (as evinced by its increasing use around the world), those facilitating Version 1 of BRIDGE for the past five years are of the view that it would be desirable to rewrite some modules and develop new ones so as to keep BRIDGE up to date and to make it even more comprehensive.
TtF returned to Melbourne in May 2005 and drew participants from a wide range of countries. This is an extract from a case study included in the AEC's 2004-2005 Annual Report:
International IDEA and the Spanish Ministry of Interior held a showcase of the Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections curriculum (BRIDGE) at the training centre of the Spanish International Cooperation Agency (AECI) in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, between September 13 and 16.
Ghana welcomed BRIDGE in August 2005 when a Train the Facilitator (TtF) course was held in Accra, the first TtF run in West Africa. This course was co-organised by IDEA and the Association of African Election Authorities (AAEA) and trained 26 participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana and the West African Network for Peace building (WANEP). These facilitators are now accredited to provide electoral management training in the region.