Updated BRIDGE statistics for January 2012
The BRIDGE statistics have been updated for January 2012 and cover all workshops and accreditations to the end of 2011. It’s a great tool for facilitators and implementers who want some fast facts about BRIDGE at hand, and interesting reading for those new to BRIDGE. It’s helpful for introducing BRIDGE to a workshop audience unfamiliar with the program as well.
You can always find this information on the BRIDGE Statistics page, found under the ‘About’ tab – https://www.bridge-project.org/about-bridge/statistics.
Summary
| Number of BRIDGE workshops to date: | 485 |
| Number of TtF workshops: | 77 |
| Number of countries that have hosted a BRIDGE workshop: | 72 |
| Approximate number of participants attending a BRIDGE workshop: | 9700 |
| Number of BRIDGE facilitators: | 1635 |
| Number of nationalities represented amongst BRIDGE facilitators: | 129 |
| Number of Expert facilitators: | 21 |
| Number of Accrediting facilitators: | 42 |
| Number of Workshop facilitators: | 370 |
| Number of Semi-Accredited facilitators: | 1202 |
| Number of female facilitators: | 682 |
| Number of male facilitators: | 953 |
Top five most popular modules:
- Introduction to Electoral Systems
- Voter Registration
- Electoral Systems
- Gender and Elections
- Voter Information
BRIDGE has been partially translated into the following languages: Arabic, Dari & Pashto (Persian), French, Georgian, Indonesian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tetum. Version 1 materials were also translated into Armenian.
BRIDGE workshops and events
2011 was a huge year for BRIDGE – there were more than double the number of workshops run in 2011 compared to 2010 and every week there was a BRIDGE workshop being run somewhere in the world.
BRIDGE is still strong in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and after a quiet period looks like ramping up again in Oceania. There has been new interest in Europe, particularly in the east. While there has always been interest in the Americas, actual BRIDGE activity is infrequent.
By country, the most active BRIDGE nations tend to be those which have a broader BRIDGE program in place, such as Afghanistan, Indonesia and East Timor. Australia tops the list with the AEC using BRIDGE as an internal professional development tool and also hosting regional Pacific workshops.
The Introduction module continued to be the most popular focus for BRIDGE workshops, although there has been steady interest in modules such as Registration, Systems, Gender, Information and Planning. An interesting growth has been in highly customised workshops that cover material from a variety of modules. This is a positive development as facilitators grow more confident in adapting the BRIDGE curriculum to suit their audiences, and is indeed how BRIDGE is designed to be used.
BRIDGE Facilitators
There has been steady growth in the ranks of BRIDGE facilitators with 1635 now listed on the BRIDGE facilitator database.
There was solid growth in the ranks of fully accredited facilitators in 2011, with over 100 new Workshop facilitators accredited, nine new Accrediting facilitators and six new Expert. Nearly 500 new semi-accredited facilitators joined the BRIDGE community as well through 21 TtF workshops.
A positive area has been the growth in the essential Accrediting Facilitator category, with 42 around the world. Accrediting facilitators are vital to the development of facilitators in national and regional programs and in mentoring less experienced facilitators as they deliver BRIDGE.
While there are more male facilitators than female, in general there is an effort to maintain a gender balance in TtF workshops and in facilitation teams and the imbalance is minor. There are also BRIDGE programs such as in the GEPG in the Pacific that are specifically focused on women.
Africa has the most BRIDGE facilitators and this is reflected in the number of BRIDGE workshops being run in the region. Asia and Oceania also have significant cohorts of BRIDGE facilitators which reflects the broader regional and national programs being run there. There is also a large number of European facilitators which is a reflection of European-based organisations such as IDEA training their international staff, and of growing interest in Eastern Europe. There are 129 different nationalities represented amongst BRIDGE facilitators.
The following map shows the geographic spread of facilitators by nationality.
