News
September 26, 2006
Based on a request form the Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC) to implement a BRIDGE program in Bangladesh, a BRIDGE TtF Program was held in Dhaka city from 11 – 21 September 2006, organized by the BEC - Electoral Training Institute and jointly funded by the Australian High Commission (AHC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Bangladesh.
August 14, 2006
The fifteenth BRIDGE Train the Facilitator course was held in Suva, Fiji from 17-28 July 2006, organised by the University of the South Pacific (USP) and the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). The course was run under the auspices of PIANZEA, and funded by AusAID's Pacific Governance Support Program, with the aim of training a solid group of regional BRIDGE facilitators to support the growth of BRIDGE in the Pacific in the next five years.
July 22, 2006
Electoral officers have been encouraged to interact more with people they hold training discussions with as part of a new mode of learning.The Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections trainers course (BRIDGE) is a participatory project that allows everyone to be part of the training, said Elections Officer Ilisapeci Natau.
July 3, 2006
From 10 to 21 June 2006, a Professional Development Course (PDC) was conducted for 35 upper and middle managers of the Supreme Commission of Elections and Referendums (SCER) secretariat at the Taj Sheba Hotel, Republic of Yemen. IFES and UNDP agreed to form a joint project in collaboration with the SCER Training Unit to develop the PDC based on harmonized elements of both BRIDGE and the IFES Basic Electoral Administrators Training (BEAT).
June 12, 2006
ABRIDGE Module 1 on EMB was conducted in the District of Lhoong, Aceh Besar Regent of Nangroe Aceh Darrusalam (NAD) for Phase 1 on June 10, 2006. The one day training was facilitated by AIPRD/Logica (Local Governance and Infrastructure for Communities in Aceh) - an AusAID funded project and conducted by an accredited BRIDGE facilitator contracted under LGSP (Local Governance Support Program), a AUSAID funded project.
May 17, 2006
One of the recommendations of the 2005 BRIDGE Expert Advisory Group (EAG) meeting in Melbourne was to update BRIDGE to Version 2 by the end of 2006. The BRIDGE Project Office in Melbourne is coordinating this goal. BRIDGE Version 2 is being further internationalised by commissioning expert writers from as many cultural and language backgrounds as possible. We have writers from every continent and region (the Americas, Africa, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Australia and New Zealand) – and this group will expand in the second ‘batch’ of writing contracts for the second half of 2006.
May 11, 2006
During March 2006, logistics and integrity management training was conducted in Nanggroe Aceh Darrusalam (NAD) for KIP (Independent Electoral Commission) for Local Elections (Pilkada) in Indonesia. This training used BRIDGE. LGSP-USAID ran a marathon training programme in the 2nd and 3rd week of March at Cakradonya Hotel in Banda Aceh. The programme was funded by JICA and managed by Forum LSM, while supervised and facilitated by LGSP-USAID and KIP.
May 10, 2006
The first half of 2006 has been busy for the BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) Project, not only overseas, but also in Australia, with courses being run for AEC staff all over the country. BRIDGE first headed up to Darwin in February where Yvonne Goudie and Bianca McCulloch facilitated Module 3: Public Outreach, the first time that this module has been run. Chosen for its relevance to operational activities, and the general appeal of the module itself, it was a great success combining brainstorming, domestic and international case studies, and as always in BRIDGE, the varied experiences and contributions of the participants. Bianca completed her accreditation as a BRIDGE facilitator at this module, and is already a great asset to the BRIDGE Project.
May 4, 2006
The third Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand Electoral Administrators (PIANZEA) Network BRIDGE Advisory Group Meeting was held in the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji between 27-28 April 2006. The meeting followed on those held in Canberra in March 2004 and in Honiara in May 2005, and was funded by AusAID under the Pacific Governance Support Program.
April 23, 2006
BRIDGE workshops were recently conducted in Port Moresby, Mt Hagen and Madang for staff from Provincial Administrations who had previous elections experience .
April 20, 2006
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.
April 20, 2006
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.
March 23, 2006
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
March 22, 2006
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.
March 14, 2006
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.
March 14, 2006
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.
February 11, 2006
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.
February 10, 2006
Ghana District Officers Group 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.
February 9, 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.
February 9, 2006
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.
January 16, 2006
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.
January 3, 2006
Facilitators of the Yemen Course The first SCER Professional Development Course (PDC) was conducted for 35 upper and middle managers of the SCER secretariat at the Taj Sheba Hotel, Sana, Republic of Yemen, 19-30 November 2005. The facilitation team were Ross Attrill (Australia - Co-ordinator), Nicolas Garrigue (France - International expert), Alexandra Hovelaque (France International expert), Emad Yousef (Jordan International expert), Sami Ahmed Al-Othari (SCER General Manager, Training and Development Centre) and Bushra Ahmed Al-Shari (UNDP Yemen).
December 14, 2005
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:
December 14, 2005
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.
November 25, 2005
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.